The shako was the soldier's identity. Adopted across most European armies in the years after Waterloo from the original Hungarian hussar pattern, the tall black cylindrical cap with brass front plate, cords, and regimental pompom had spread to the Mexican Army by the late 1820s as the standard infantry headgear. The Mexican shako carried the brass eagle of the Republic and the green-white-red cockade of the national colors; cords in regimental shades and a tall pompom rose above the crown. Functionally it gave the soldier an extra few inches of apparent height to intimidate an enemy at distance, served as identification at battlefield range, and provided some marginal protection against a saber blow. Symbolically it was simply what made the man a soldier — bare-headed in uniform, he was an embarrassed civilian; with the shako on, he was the army. The Mexican soldado who lost his shako in close action would risk his life to pick it up, both because regulations demanded it and because no man wanted to stand on a parade ground later trying to explain to his sergeant why he had come back from the assault hatless.

This King & Country figure shows a Mexican line infantryman in the act of retrieving his shako from the ground — body bent low, weight on the left leg, the right hand reaching down to pick up the black cylinder with its brass eagle, yellow band, and tri-color pompom lying at his feet where it had been knocked or shot from his head. The musket is gripped in the left hand at the trail; the eyes stay forward on the enemy line even as he stoops. He wears the standard Mexican infantry order — dark blue coatee with red collar and cuffs, white cross-belts supporting cartridge box and bayonet scabbard, white trousers patched at the knee from the long march from San Luis Potosí, huarache sandals, and the yellow canvas haversack at the hip. He is the direct companion piece to the S.A.A. Soldier Advancing Firing figure whose shako has also been shot off — same moment of the assault, different beat in the chaos of the wall fight — running with the S.A.A. Soldier Running Forward of his column under the command of General Santa Anna directing the attack.

Model: RTA132 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set