The Irish Brigade was raised explicitly as an Irish-American formation. Brigadier General Thomas Francis Meagher — an Irish nationalist who had been transported to Tasmania by the British government in 1848, escaped to New York, and become a prominent Irish-American attorney — organized the brigade in the autumn of 1861 with the open goal of giving Irish immigrants a chance to fight for the Union and to train Irishmen who might later turn the same training toward Irish independence. The brigade's three original New York regiments — the 63rd, 69th, and 88th — were joined in 1862 by the 28th Massachusetts and the 116th Pennsylvania, both also Irish-American. Each regiment carried the regulation U.S. national colors and a distinctive green Irish flag with a gold harp embroidered at the center.

This W. Britain figure depicts an Irish Brigade soldier at the fifth motion of the loading drill — kneeling, rifle butt grounded between his feet, right arm raised to drive the ramrod down the barrel. He wears the regulation Federal infantry kit: dark blue blouse, light blue trousers, dark forage cap, the rolled blanket and haversack across his chest, the cartridge box on his belt. The kneeling-ramming posture was the front-rank loading motion — the kneeling soldier loaded while the rear-rank soldier behind him fired over his head, then the front rank stood to fire while the rear rank knelt to reload. This figure anchors the loading-sequence diorama for any Irish Brigade scene. Pair this figure with Irish Brigade Standing Firing No.1, the rear-rank firing companion; with Irish Brigade Drummer, the regiment's drum calls translator; or with Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, the II Corps commander under whom the Irish Brigade served from Antietam through the Overland Campaign.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31353. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.