A sketch of the CSA gun car followed by cotton clad sharpshooters. Made by Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden. This was drawn at (or after) the battle of Savage Station around June 29, 1862, where the "Lee Gun Car" was deployed. Note that this drawing shows the sides protected by iron.
-BUT-
It's the cotton clad that is this posts topic.
This car looked fair to me at first. Now the 1:72 scale Airfix® soldiers just look a bit wrong. I purchased Civil War soldiers on eBay that were MUCH closer to the correct size of 1:87 or HO.
In doing that I decided to do a bit more research on the Seven Days Battle that occurred outside Richmond. In the Battle of Savage Station, General Lee asked for an armored battery to aid in the repulsing of the Union forces. This armored battery was accompanied by "Cottonclad" sharpshooter cars for support of the Railroad Merrimac. The battery was a new construct but the cottonclads were simple platform or flat cars protecting the soldiers from small arms fire. These cars had a support frame to keep the cotton bales from shifting or simply falling off. This particular car is in the paint of the "Richmond & York River Railroad", the railroad that owned the trackage from Richmond to Savage Station and beyond. It would have been quick and easy to frame in a car and line it with cotton bales.
The reworked Cottonclad.
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