The Minié ball was what killed and wounded most Civil War soldiers. The .58 caliber conical bullet — invented by French Captain Claude-Étienne Minié in 1849 and adopted by the U.S. Army in 1855 — had a hollow base that expanded under powder gas to grip the rifling of a rifle-musket barrel. This gave the bullet spin, range, and accuracy unprecedented in infantry weapons. It also gave it terrible terminal performance at the close ranges Civil War combat was actually fought at: the soft lead bullet flattened on impact with bone, fragmented inside the body, and inflicted catastrophic soft-tissue and skeletal damage. A Minié-ball wound to the torso or skull was usually fatal. A wound to a limb almost always resulted in amputation — surgeons could not save the bone. The figure of a soldier falling backward from a single hit captures what veterans described again and again: the man was alive, then the bullet struck, then the man went down.

This W. Britain figure depicts an Iron Brigade soldier at the instant of being struck — body arched backward, rifle musket still gripped in both hands across his chest, Hardee hat tipping off his head from the recoil. He wears the regulation brigade kit: dark blue nine-button frock coat, light blue kersey trousers, the tall black Hardee hat with brass eagle, the cartridge box on his hip. The mouth is open. The pose is the kind of close-observed casualty sculpting that makes diorama scenes feel authentic rather than staged — the falling figure is what made every Civil War firing line known to itself as a place where the man next to you might disappear between volleys. Pair this figure with Iron Brigade Charging No.2 for a contrasting moment in the same engagement; with Col. Henry A. Morrow of the 24th Michigan, the brigade's regimental commander wounded at Gettysburg; or with Color Sergeant Abel Peck, the brigade's color sergeant killed on Day 1 of the same battle.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31409. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.