"Confederate Infantry in Defence Review" Topic

"As with any war, the Civil War increased the pace at which new technologies were introduced into weaponry. Perhaps the biggest advance was the change from smoothbore muskets to rifled barrels, which allowed a much better potential range for accurate fire. The introduction of the French Minié bullet made loading of rifles easier and quicker, which again increased the potency of the civil war soldier. However the gunpowder used at this time was little different to that of fifty years earlier, and it quickly filled the battlefield with smoke, which meant that men often could not see more than a short distance, so negating the better range and accuracy of their weapons. The result was that battles tended to remain what they had been for a long time – attempts to bring as great a volume of fire as possible onto the enemy, with little or no attempt at aiming. The result on a closely-packed formation of men, as were often to be found during the War, could be devastating, and the numbers of casualties from musket and rifle fire were often huge and shocked Americans on both sides.

This set has a very impressive 21 different poses, which can be divided into the main soldiers (three of each) and the command figures (one of each). The ordinary soldiers are all in the act of using their weapon, either firing or reloading, so a very fine firing line can be constructed here. In general all the poses seem reasonable apart from the last man in the third row, who seems to be trying to pull his ramrod into his musket, which looks very awkward and is certainly not how he has been taught. The command figures start with a series of four casualty poses. Such poses are still quite rare in the hobby, and for any conflict, and certainly the Civil War, such poses are very relevant, lest we forget the horrors of what is going on. Having welcomed these poses, we were not particularly impressed by the stance of the two men being hit, which do not seem particularly natural, but the prone man is okay and the man on the ground leaning on one arm is a very nice pose and one of our favourites of the whole set. The last row begins with a man playing a trumpet upside down – this was probably meant to be a bugle, but the sizing is horribly wrong and just looks silly. The man with the flag is a good piece however, with a suitably battered flag, and the officer is in a classic but very appropriate pose. So the poses are a mixed bunch, mostly good with a few gems and a few turkeys…"

Full Review here

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Amicalement
Armand