Every Civil War army marched with stragglers behind it. A regiment of a thousand men on a hot day's march in heavy wool uniforms would lose dozens of soldiers to exhaustion, sore feet, illness, or simple inability to keep up — they fell behind, sometimes by miles, and the army's provost guard rode the rear of the column to round them up. Some were genuinely sick or injured; others were called "stragglers" or by Sherman's later term "bummers" because they had simply quit the column. The figure in this set — a Confederate soldier walking at the tail of his regiment's column with a friendly dog beside him — captures the rear of the march where exhaustion and informality coexisted.

This W. Britain set depicts a Confederate infantryman at the tail of his regiment's marching column — gray shell jacket, butternut trousers, dark forage cap, the rifle musket slung over his shoulder with bayonet fixed, knapsack on his back. He is reaching down to lead or pet a tan hunting-dog mix walking alongside him. The dog could be a regimental mascot or a stray that has attached itself to the column. The set is a natural piece for the rear of any Confederate marching diorama, where the formal column gives way to the informal rear of the march. Pair this set with Hard Road to Travel Confederate Marching for the column ahead of him; with Confederate Infantry Drummer Marching for the cadence at the head of the column; or with Two Seated Union Officers with Dog for a pair of dog-themed scenes from both sides.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31487. From the American Civil War range. Two-piece set (figure and dog), supplied painted and ready for display.