The Wilderness battlefield was a tangled second-growth scrub forest of saplings, briars, and dry undergrowth — so dense that officers could not see across a hundred yards even at noon. Through May 5 and 6, 1864, the constant muzzle flashes from thousands of rifles set the brush on fire. The fires spread faster than men could run. Hundreds of wounded soldiers on both sides — Union and Confederate — were unable to crawl away and were burned alive where they fell. Survivors described the smoke and the screams of the wounded as the worst memory they carried out of the war. The 146th New York went into the Wilderness with the V Corps and lost more than half its strength in the first afternoon.

This W. Britain figure depicts a 146th New York Zouave in the regulation kneeling-firing position — right knee down, left knee raised to support the left elbow, rifle musket leveled and steady. He wears the regiment's French-pattern Zouave kit: red fez with yellow tassel, sky-blue jacket trimmed in yellow braid, the yellow sash with belt and brass U.S. buckle, baggy sky-blue trousers, white gaiters above black shoes. The kneeling figure is the front rank of any two-rank firing line, and pairs naturally with the regiment's Standing Firing figure to build a complete two-rank Zouave firing diorama. Pair this figure with 146th NY Zouave Standing Firing No.1 for the matched two-rank firing line; with 146th NY Zouave Officer, the regimental leadership; or with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general whose Overland Campaign opened with the Wilderness fight.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31285. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.