Civil War regiments fought in line of battle two ranks deep, with companies of approximately one hundred men each commanded by a captain. The captain's job was unlike the colonel's. The colonel commanded the regiment as a whole — picked positions, ordered maneuvers, watched the flanks. The captain stood with his company, walked the line behind the front rank during a firefight, kept the men loading and firing in cadence, replaced fallen file closers, dragged wounded men out of the way, and when an enemy assault got close enough that ranks dissolved into individual combat, drew his revolver and shot whoever came over the line first. He was a primary target. Every Confederate musket leveled at a Union company sighted first at the officer, because killing the officer broke the company's command. Through the long afternoon of July 1, 1863, in Herbst Woods on McPherson's Ridge, the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry stood in line of battle against Pettigrew's North Carolinians at close range. By the time the brigade was finally pushed back through Gettysburg town that evening, the regiment had lost eighty percent of its strength. Captain Richard S. Dillon of Company A — by tradition the regiment's right-flank company, formed of the senior company in the line — was wounded four times during the fight and refused evacuation. He was carried off the field at the end of the day, still alive, still in command of whatever was left of his company.

The W. Britain figure depicts Dillon in the dark blue captain's frock coat with the shoulder bars marking captain's rank, the regulation officer's belt with the cast U.S.-pattern buckle, the Model 1850 staff and field officer's sword scabbarded at his left hip, and the forage cap with what appears to be the red letter A of his Company A on the crown. In his right hand he holds a Colt Army Model 1860 revolver — the standard sidearm for Union officers, six shots of .44 caliber, capable of being reloaded only by replacing the cylinder — raised at the ready position. This was the weapon a company captain reached for when the line broke down into close combat in the trees of Herbst Woods, where Pettigrew's North Carolinians and the 24th Michigan fought at thirty yards for hours. The beard is the campaign beard of an officer who had been in the field for nearly a year. Pair this figure with Col. Henry A. Morrow, his regimental commander, who fought the same battle at the regimental level and was also wounded that afternoon; with Color Sergeant Abel Peck of the same regiment, killed early in the same fight while carrying the regimental flag; or with Brig. Gen. John Buford, whose dismounted cavalry held the ground through the morning so the Iron Brigade could be brought up behind them.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31232. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.