The third rank was the army's unsettled question. French regulations drew up infantry three deep, but the rearmost rank could never fire cleanly — it could not get a musket past two ranks of comrades without endangering the men in front, and its shots, fired high or at an angle, mostly went to waste. So the third rank became a reserve of bodies: men to close up the gaps as the front ranks fell, to pass loaded muskets forward, or to face about against cavalry from behind. The British dispensed with it altogether and fought two deep, every musket bearing. By 1815 even French commanders were thinning their lines, conceding that the third rank's value was the men in it, not their fire.

The figure stands firing from the rear rank — musket levelled and extended, the blue coat with red trim, white waistcoat and mud-flecked trousers, bearskin with red plume. He completes the depth of a three-rank firing line, and the line is the point of a Guard diorama. Kneel a French Imperial Guard 1st Rank Kneeling at the front, stand a French Imperial Guard 2nd Rank Standing Firing in the middle, and post a French Imperial Guard Company Officer to command all three ranks.

W. Britain model 36176. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.