Early in the Civil War, both sides wore gray. Many Northern state militias had drawn gray uniforms in the 1850s as the standard American military color — cheaper to dye than indigo blue and historically associated with European light infantry — and several Federal regiments arrived at First Bull Run in gray jackets that Confederate troops could not distinguish from their own. Friendly fire incidents resulted. Within months, the Federal government required all Northern state militias to switch to blue, and the Confederacy formally adopted gray. The eight-button New York State shell jacket this figure wears — short, with stand-up collar and sky-blue piping — is one of the surviving early-war state designs that remained in service after the color question was resolved.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Union corporal in the New York State eight-button shell jacket standing firing — body angled, rifle musket leveled, bayonet fixed. The jacket is the distinctive 1861 New York issue: dark blue, eight buttons down the front, stand-up collar, shoulder straps, single belt keeper loop on the left, piped in sky blue. He wears the dark forage cap with brass insignia, the light blue trousers, the cartridge box on his belt. The corporal's two-stripe chevrons identify him as a junior NCO. Pair this figure with Union Infantry Casualty in State Jacket for matched state-jacket figures across active and casualty poses; with Col. Henry A. Morrow as the regimental commander; or with Union Infantry Sergeant at Rest as the NCO of the formation.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31411. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.