What is this?

I recently bought a big box of paper stuff. [My husband called it junk.] But what the box contained was the outpouring of some lone artist, possibly a former German puppeteer. What first attracted me were what appeared to be storyboards whose stories were told by moving flaps up and down, Harlequinade -like.
Also were “marionettes” in of various sizes with knotted joints, the kind I’ve seen in early 19th century movable books. There were backgrounds included with some of these “marionettes” leading me to believe they were stage sets, a circus, a desert oasis, and a Tyrolean village.

Most striking of all were almost hundreds of hand-painted soldiers. Some were clearly civil war soldiers; others looked Prussian. There are canons with movable wheels and horses with their legs attached to wooden rods forming a puppet.

The box came out of a New Hampshire house but in the box were several papers relating to Providence, Rhode Island in the 1880s.

Can you help me know more about these fascinating and well-crafted movables? Please take the time to look at the photos and video.

PLEASE email The Popuplady if you have any information about these movables..