A guardsman on campaign carried his household on his back. The cowhide pack held a rolled greatcoat or blanket strapped on top, a spare shirt and shoes, grooming kit, and several days' bread; below it hung the cartridge box with fifty or sixty rounds, the bayonet, a canteen, and a mess tin, with the camp kettle and tools shared around the squad. All told a man shouldered close to sixty pounds before he picked up his ten-pound musket — and then marched, sometimes more than twenty miles in a day to reach the battlefield. The relaxed pose here is the soldier's truest one: standing at rest, taking the weight off, between one march and the next.

The figure stands at ease, the Charleville cradled across his body in the crook of one arm — the posture of a man halted rather than fighting. He is in full marching order: bearskin with red plume, dark blue coat, white waistcoat and trousers over black gaiters, and the cowhide pack with rolled blanket and mess tins on his back. He belongs to a column on the march or halted at the roadside. Fall him in behind a French Imperial Guard Drummer at the head of the column, set a French Imperial Guard in Campaign Trousers beside him, and put a French Imperial Guard Company Officer in command of the file.

W. Britain model 36225. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.