The 12-pounder howitzer wasn't a smaller Napoleon — it was a different weapon for a different job. The Napoleon gun fired solid shot and canister on a flat trajectory and was the workhorse of Civil War field artillery. The howitzer, with its shorter barrel and lower powder charge, lobbed explosive shell and spherical case at high angles — over hills, into ravines, behind earthworks — and switched to massed canister at point-blank range when infantry came up the slope. Confederate batteries usually mixed types: a pair of Napoleons for general work, a pair of howitzers for defensive ground, sometimes a 3-inch ordnance rifle for long counter-battery fire.

The set captures the moment after the gunner's "Load!" — four crewmen at their numbered stations around the 12-pounder howitzer. No.1 grips the rammer staff at the muzzle, No.2 stands ready with the round, the gunner sights down the barrel from the breech, and a fourth crewman waits with the next charge. All wear the dark blue early-war artillery uniform with red trim and matching red kepis — the dress of pre-war militia batteries that brought their state uniforms with them into Confederate service. Build out the full battery diorama by adding the Confederate Artillery Crewman with Sponge and Rammer and the Confederate Artillery Guidon, or face them off against the Union Artillery Crewman with Fuze Pouch and Lanyard in a counter-battery scene.

W. Britain 31425 'Load!' Confederate Artillery with 12 Pound Howitzer. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Multi-piece set: four Confederate artillerymen with 12-pounder howitzer field gun on sculpted groundwork bases. Boxed.