The bayonet on this Confederate's musket is fixed, which means the order has been given to expect a charge. In normal march or even an exchange of volleys, the bayonet stayed in its scabbard — fixing it too early risked cutting comrades in the press, snagging on brush, or fouling the man behind in the rear rank. The command "fix bayonets!" was unmistakable, a signal that the enemy was inside a hundred yards and closing. Hand-to-hand fighting at the point was actually rare in the Civil War — most regiments that delivered a cold-steel charge found the defenders broke and ran before contact. But the threat of it was the point.

Seen from behind, the soldier's kit reads like an inventory of a Richmond Depot–supplied infantryman: shell jacket cut from gray jean cloth, sky-blue trousers drawn from captured Federal stores, full haversack slung over his right shoulder, cartridge box and bayonet scabbard on his belt, canteen at his hip, forage cap pulled low. Use him as the rear-rank partner in a defending-line diorama with Confederate Infantry in Frock Coat figures in the front rank, or fall him in behind the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia Flag at Rest with the Confederate Infantry Officer Marching commanding the right of the line.

W. Britain 31349 Confederate Wearing Shell Jacket Defending, No.2. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal, single figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.