A Civil War paper cartridge was a self-contained loading unit. Arsenal workers at the Watervliet, Frankford, and St. Louis arsenals on the Union side assembled them by the hundreds of thousands: a measured charge of black powder — roughly sixty-five grains for a .58 caliber rifle musket — wrapped together with a single Minié ball in heavy paper, then coated in beeswax and tallow to keep the powder dry and to lubricate the bullet down the barrel. Each Federal infantryman carried sixty cartridges in his black leather cartridge box on his right hip — three tin canisters of twenty cartridges each. To load, he drew a cartridge, brought it to his mouth, and tore the paper end off with his teeth to expose the powder. The taste was foul. Soldiers' diaries describe the black coating on their lips and tongues after a long firefight, and the unquenchable thirst that came from biting cartridges for hours.

This W. Britain figure catches an Iron Brigade soldier at the second motion of the loading drill — right hand raised to the mouth, paper cartridge between his teeth, rifle butt grounded between his feet and held vertical with his left hand. He wears the disciplined regulation kit Gibbon imposed on the brigade: dark blue nine-button frock coat, light blue kersey trousers, white canvas gaiters above the brogans, the tall black Hardee hat with brass insignia, and the cartridge box angled forward on his right hip for easy access. The mustache and beard are the campaign grooming of an enlisted volunteer who had been in the field through several seasons. This is the kind of detailed loading-sequence figure that anchors a diorama — combined with the Reaching for Cap (motion 7) and Standing Firing (motion 9) figures from the same range, the three build out a complete cartridge-to-fire sequence for a brigade-line vignette. Pair this figure with Iron Brigade Reaching for Cap in Gaiters, the same uniform five motions later in the loading sequence; with Col. Henry A. Morrow of the 24th Michigan, the brigade's regimental commander at Gettysburg; or with Color Sergeant Abel Peck, the brigade's color sergeant killed on Day 1 of the same battle.

Scale: 1/30 (60mm). Matte-painted metal. W. Britain model 31413. From the American Civil War range. Single foot figure, supplied painted and ready for display.