Well, I can see that this manufacturer had not heeded my advice given years ago. First of all, the drummers in the Berdan's new offering, McCord's Zouaves, and 14th Brooklyn show them holding their sticks incorrectly. Let's face it: Ringo Starr's matched grip was not de rigor in the 1860's. The reason for the traditional grip wherein the left hand cradled the stick between the thumb and first finger and resting on the curved third finger was due to the natural slant of the drum when on a sling. No drummer had to elevate the left elbow as depicted in the figures--that is just plain wrong. As far as Berdan's two regiments, historically, they used bugles exclusively when operating as skirmishers in action, and according to the regimental history (Stevens, pg. 17) used the two buglars of each company as part of the first regiment's band for parade duty whose principal musician was a bugler himself. My other pet peeve are the overwhelming numbers of Civil War figures depicted with knapsacks and blanket rolls. Any one with any sense realizes perfectly that soldiers in a static position when not on the march stowed away their knapsacks and blanket rolls. Generally when not placed into action immediately upon arrival to the battlefield (unlike the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg that had no time to dispense with those items), the men on the attack didn't have knapsacks that would only bog them down. Yet I see dioramas with union soldiers defending against Pickett's men wearing full marching gear. I just laugh when I think that those men had been position in the hot sun all day and yet were wearing those items standing behind the stonewall awaiting the Confederate assault. Come on guys: lets try some diversity here for those of us who want to create a realistic diorama. The same goes with artillery depictions. Where are the six team horses attached to limbers and caissons behind each gun? These kind of inaccuracies are precisely why, as students of the Civil War, many become frustrated as they learn more and cannot create the accurate impression of a particular scenario with their collections.
