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Model 1857 12-pounder Napoleon at National Civil War Naval Museum. The 12-pounder Napoleon was the most favored field gun of both Union and Confederate armies. It was fairly accurate at all ranges and especially lethal when firing canister at close range. [5] The Napoleon was mounted on a carriage weighing 1,128 lb (511.7 kg). [22]
This type of "canon obusier", commonly called in English the 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857, was the primary cannon used in the American Civil War. [2] [3] Over 1,100 such Napoleons were manufactured by the North, and 600 by the South. [4] At Gettysburg, 142 out of 360 Union guns (39%) were Napoleons.
This invention was related to the origin of the development of the Dahlgren shell gun in the United States in 1849. The French Army introduced the canon-obusier de 12 in 1853. The US version of this type of canon-obusier, commonly called the "12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857", was one of the most-used cannon in the American Civil War.
The French "Canon obusier de campagne de 12 modèle 1853", on display in Les Invalides. The canon obusier de 12, introduced in the French Army in 1853, an early type of canon obusier, or gun howitzer developed during the reign of Napoleon III, was the primary cannon used in the American Civil War, under the name of 12-pounder Napoleon Model 1857.
The introduction of the M1857 12-pounder Napoleon represented a significant development as the gun-howitzer could replace several of the outdated pieces at once. The Napoleon, along with the 10-pounder Parrott rifle , the 20-pounder Parrott rifle , and the 3-inch ordnance rifle , came to constitute the vast majority of Union field artillery ...
Mordecai praised the Canon obusier de 12 gun-howitzer, which soon afterward was manufactured in the United States as the M1857 12-pounder Napoleon. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] Alexander Rose notes that Mordecai's report is a "masterpiece of unbiased scholarship" but that he was curiously dismissive of repeaters and breechloaders .
The most famous of these "gun-howitzers" was the Napoleon 12-pounder, a weapon of French design that was extensively used in the American Civil War. [20] 12-pound Napoleon at the Colorado State Capitol Nineteenth-century 12-pounder (5 kg) mountain howitzer displayed by the National Park Service at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, United States
At the time he joined, the battery included subordinate section chiefs Lieutenants Samuel S. Elder, Lorenzo Thomas Jr., and Theophilus Bhyrd von Michalowski [11] [12] and was armed with four 12-pounder cannons and two 6-pounder howitzers. These pieces were soon replaced with six smoothbore Model 1857 light 12-pounder "Napoleon" guns. [12]