A Civil War recruit needed good front teeth. Loading a rifle musket started with tearing open a paper cartridge, and soldiers did that with their teeth, so examining surgeons turned away men who didn't have enough opposing upper and lower teeth to bite through the paper. After the cartridge was torn, the soldier poured the powder down the barrel, seated the bullet, and rammed it home. In a long fight, loose grains of black powder coated his lips and tongue. Men came out of battle with blackened mouths and a thirst they remembered for the rest of their lives, and canteens were often empty long before the firing stopped.

The figure is caught at that first step: right hand raised to his mouth as he bites into the cartridge, left hand holding his rifle musket with its fixed bayonet across his body, ready to prime and load. He wears K&C's 83rd Pennsylvania uniform, with a dark blue frock coat trimmed in yellow, sky-blue trousers, white gaiters, and a red corps badge on his forage cap, plus a blanket roll on his knapsack. Continue the loading sequence with Infantry Reaching for a Cartridge, pair him with the Kneeling Infantryman Firing Rifle for a firing line diorama, or add Lying Prone Firing for a soldier already in position.

King & Country model CW134. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure of an 83rd Pennsylvania infantryman biting a cartridge, on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.