Civil War cavalry could not charge infantry the way it had in earlier wars. The rifled musket changed the math. A regiment of infantry could begin engaging cavalry at three hundred yards with aimed fire and would kill or wound most of the horses before the troopers got within saber range. So the cavalry's role changed. Union mounted regiments spent the war doing what infantry could not — riding ahead of the army to scout, screening the army's flanks and rear from enemy reconnaissance, raiding behind enemy lines, and fighting dismounted with breech-loading carbines as a kind of mobile infantry. The traditional saber charge survived in the manuals; in practice it survived in the cavalry-on-cavalry engagements only.

This W. Britain figure depicts a Union cavalry trooper at the trot — the steady, mile-eating gait cavalry covered ground at over distance. He wears the regulation cavalry kit: dark blue shell jacket with yellow trim, light blue cavalry trousers with yellow stripe, dark forage cap, the M1860 light cavalry saber at his left hip, the bedroll lashed behind the saddle, and the breech-loading carbine slung at his right side. The bay horse moves at the natural cavalry traveling pace. The figure pairs naturally with other mounted cavalry figures for a column on the march, or with cavalry officer figures for a command vignette. Pair this figure with Union Cavalry Trooper Mounted on Trotting Horse No.2 for a matched cavalry pair; with Union Cavalry Corporal Mounted for a three-figure squad column; or with Brig. Gen. John Buford, the cavalry commander whose Day 1 stand at Gettysburg exemplified the new dismounted role.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31439. From the American Civil War range. Single mounted figure, supplied painted and ready for display.