The Seminole Wars, the wars by which the United States government would eventually forcibly evict most of the Seminoles from their lands in Florida, were fought between the years 1818 and 1858, and at times were the major commitment of US forces, with perhaps as many as 40,000 US troops involved in the second war. However, they have largely been forgotten in the face of the much better-known later plains wars further west in the years following the Civil War, and have consequently received little attention in the modelling world until sets like this one were produced. Much of the Florida territory was covered in thick woodlands and swamps, and this made it excellent terrain for the favourite Seminole tactic – ambush and guerilla raids – since the Seminoles were always relatively few in number and could never hope to prevail against regular US forces in open terrain. This also meant that any potential use for cavalry was extremely limited, and while the Seminoles certainly owned and rode horses, they would almost always enter into battle on foot. So if a horse was to be used for anything other than transport or as a pack animal, it is most likely to be in a hunt, though even then, it is unclear how common this was.

The first thing that strikes you about this set, given what we have just said about the utility of the horse, is just how many warriors are shooting from the saddle. No less than four of the mounted poses are more-or-less firing their musket, and two more have drawn a pistol. One man is striking down with a tomahawk, and just four are in more pacific poses, not apparently in a fight or a hunt. The Seminoles had good access to firearms from the early 19th century, but there is no easy way to reload (or aim) such weapons while on a horse, and especially on the fast-moving animals we find in this set, so we wondered why there were so many firing poses. In a hunt they could have mounted with a loaded weapon, taken a shot while in the chase, but then had to withdraw to dismount and reload. It is conceivable, but we felt such an action is over-represented here. The pistols would be much easier to use of course, though less effective in bringing down a quarry, and in many ways the man with the tomahawk is the most convincing action figure here, as he could be raiding some farm, for example. The men in relaxed poses are likely to be far more typical, and could be used for warriors moving toward a location earmarked for an action, and all of those look good to us. The last mounted pose is of a warrior holding up a musket and with a spear with feathers down the shaft in his left hand. We could find no reference to this anywhere, except as an invention used by modern Florida State University sports teams, so this seems entirely inaccurate.

Like most native Indians, Seminoles usually stripped for battle, but probably not for the hunt, so all these men are wearing full everyday costume of long shirt, leggings and moccasins. Many have headbands or the turban with metal band, and one has a hat in the style of the European settlers. Some of this clothing has fringes, and much of it could be decorated, though this would need to be done in painting. The warriors carry an assortment of bags (usually held by broad decorated belts), knives and powder horns, all of which looks authentic. The last mounted figure also has several crescent-shaped gorgets on his chest – a fashion copied from European military officers, and largely denoting the same thing – rank and wealth – so we might assume this figure is meant to be some chief.

The horses are interesting, because they have seen the light of day before, most notably in the Strelets set of Batavian Cavalry in Roman Service. Do they still work 1800 years later? We have our doubts. Many have a simple animal skin cover and no saddle, and while there is almost no information on Seminole horse furniture, we think they would have had cloth covers/blankets and probably proper saddles too. One of the horses has an approximation of a Roman saddle (i.e. before stirrups), so we are really uncomfortable about the authenticity here, although evidence is almost non-existent. The poses too are not good. Many are just not natural to a horse, and date from a period in the story of Strelets when their horses were far from ideal. Also, despite the odd poses, most are clearly travelling at great speed, which is a terrible match with the riders, both those looking relaxed and those firing from the saddle. We can’t really find anything positive to say about the horses in this context.

The sculpting of the horses reflects the characteristics typical when they were made, twenty years ago, and are quite chunky and basic. That of the men reflects the much better, more modern style from Strelets, and are pretty decent. They are not works of art, but have fair proportions and reasonable detail, wisely leaving any fine bead detail for the painter to add. The muskets are of various lengths, but not clear enough to determine if they are flintlocks or percussion, though one man seems to carry a sort of carbine. Both horse and man have about an average amount of flash on all the seams, but some of the men are not a good fit on some horses, having legs too close together to stay on the animal and requiring some knifework to make him sit properly.

For a set labelled as ‘mounted’, the one foot figure must be some sort of a bonus. He seems clothed for very cold weather as he wears a large coat, potentially trousers over his moccasins, and some form of separate hood in the shape of an animal’s head. We could find no reference to such an item, which may be to protect from the cold or have some religious significance. He stands very sternly, with legs apart and arms crossed, a pistol tucked into his belt and a short musket slung on his back. He is a monster of a man, standing 26 mm (1.87 metres) tall with really thick limbs, so while we don’t know what he is doing, we are too scared to ask him!

While we will always welcome new sets, particularly on novel and interesting subjects, we find it hard to find a place for this particular one. All accounts of Seminoles in battle have them on foot, and clues about their hunting customs are hard to find, so it is hard to escape the impression that the Seminoles mainly used horses for moving about, and even then, only when the terrain made this viable, which may not have been often. This makes the four relaxed riders the most plausible to us, though hardly the most exciting, while the rest, though dressed and armed reasonably, don’t fit with the accounts left us of contact between them and the European settlers. Random elements like the feathered spear and the stern foot figure don’t help either, and the horses are really quite poor in our view. The riders are much better, but exactly how you might use them we do not know, though the hunt would be our best guess.