A “new old” diorama is at Civil War Tails! The Snowball Battle came on display on March 16, but its story reaches back to the very early days of our clay Civil War cats.

Our very first snowball battle diorama was actually of Union cats fighting. It first appears in a photo from early 1999, making it one of our very early dioramas (we began dioramas in 1998).  We ended up selling it at a garage sale, but the idea of such a diorama did not fade away. There are just too many stories of the fun that soldiers had in the snow! (For a few, check out our other mewsings here and here.)

The story of Gen. Patrick Cleburne joining in a snowball fight is one that just begs for a diorama. How can you pass up a story where soldiers have to discuss whether or not to throw their general into a creek? On July 29, 2000, we began making our current version with 2-inch tall Confederate cats under Gen. Cleburne. By July 2003, the diorama was set up in a large wooden tray. The snow was white paper, and each cat had a white clay base.

Since opening Civil War Tails in 2015, the idea of bringing out the Snowball Battle has been on the wishlist, but we knew it would need a major overhaul. Finally, in January of 2026, when Gettysburg sat under eight inches of snow and we were all sick and tired of cold and shoveling, the inspiration struck. Now was the time to revamp the Snowball Battle!

As with “Come On, You Wolverines”, revamping old clay cats involved cleaning decades of grime off of their faces and uniforms. With them being old, stiff, non-hardening modeling clay, lots of arms, legs, tails, and even heads fell off, so we did quite a bit of gluing.

The main change, however, was creating a new base and installing new “snow.” We took the opportunity to add a little topography, too. Rebecca began gluing the cats onto the base, keeping the basic layout of the original diorama. And then, Ruth realized the charging cats were in a single rank! Civil War soldiers fought snowball battles with the same formations and tactics as a real battle, so they would be in the double ranks that Napoleonic tactics dictated. So, we had to take up the glued ranks and combine them. That would have been a big mistake to overlook! It just goes to show that even if an old diorama is loosely based off of a story—as opposed to detailed accounts and maps—we still need to pay attention to the details and check if they need to be updated for general accuracy.

On March 16, the Snowball Battle was finished and brought out on display! (Rebecca made a last push specifically in order to bring it out exactly six weeks after the groundhogs and Charlie the Groundcat [#CharlieTheGroundcat on Instagram] predicted six more weeks of winter.)

We are excited to have one more diorama showing the lighter side of the Civil War. Because the human interest stories of the war are what has always caught our interest, we enjoy sharing the fact that even though “war is hell,” the individuals involved were men and women just like we are, and they enjoyed fun, humor, and laughter just as we do. So, stop by and check out our Snowball Battle (if you’re tired of snow, feel free to come in July or August when you’ll be glad to think of snow days!), and while you are here, make sure to find our other non-fighting scenes: the Union Ball, Confederate Ball, and photographer.