Rifle Infantry

(Firelock Fantasy) Confederate Arms

Added 2025-08-11 05:47:07 +0000 UTC

A progression of infantry equipment over nearly two centuries.

If I did a black powder Firelock wargame, I'd divide factional rosters into smaller era-subsets. Think Medieval 2: Total War; depending on the year of your campaign your available pool of units radically differs, as do your tactics.

The above trio depicts the Confederate rank-and-file in about 1700, 1850, and 1890 or so: the end of pike and shot, the high water mark of caplock linear warfare, and the onset of open order and the machine gun respectively.

The first man carries kit both advanced and antiquated for his era: a good doglock musket and plug bayonet, and a full cuirass and helmet. Likely he is kitted out for the Ebon Forest or far colonial postings where close combat and arrows are likely threats. Against more organized armies he would likely dispense with both in favor of a simple "iron chest": a thick, hopefully bulletproof under-jacket breastplate.

The second man carries a caplock musket (be that smoothbore, firing buck and ball, or rifled), and has dispensed with body armor. He carries a small case of hand grenades. The ever-popular Intermarine wheel cap makes its first appearance here; in color I'd also mark him in a sky-blue comparable to the later Federal horizon blue.

The third man carries a single-shot bolt action rifle; could be large or small-bore (i.e. around 11 or 8mm respectively). In typical Confederate fashion the external musket-hammer remains. It could either automatically cock or be a separate step, like a Dreyse or Werndl (in which case I'd probably set the bolt handle on the left). He wears a rolled greatcoat and jackboots recognizable to any modern States-Grenadier.