[[Image:PaixhansCanonImage.jpg|thumb|The first "canon-obusier", the Paixhans gun, in 1842. Musée de la Marine.]] [[Image:Canon obusier de campagne de 12 modele 1853.jpg|thumb|Field shell gun "Canon-obusier de campagne de 12 modèle 1853 ''Le Hangest''". Bronze, founded in Strasbourg in the mid-1850s. Caliber: 121 mm. Length: 1.91 m. Weight: 626 kg (with carriage: 1200 kg). Metal ball or explosive shell 4.1 kg.]] thumb|Canon-obusier ''Le Lassaigne'', modèle 1853.{{Short description|Type of French cannon using explosive shells}} The '''Canon-obusier''' (literally "Shell-gun cannon", "gun-howitzer") was a type of cannon developed by France in the 1850s. The canon-obusier was a smoothbore cannon using either explosive shells, solid shot, or canister, and was therefore a vast improvement over previous cannon firing only solid and canister shot, such as the Gribeauval system.
The very first canon-obusiers were naval shell guns, invented in 1823 by Henri-Joseph Paixhans and introduced in the French Navy in 1842.<ref>A Treatise on Naval Gunnery By Howard Douglas p.432 [https://books.google.com/books?id=PK50sbOOfjUC&pg=PA432&dq=canon-obusier#PPA430,M1]</ref> 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.<ref>''The Mitrailleuse'' by Dr. Patrick Marder [http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/francoprussian/articles/mitrailleuse.aspx Military History Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223234104/http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/francoprussian/articles/mitrailleuse.aspx |date=2008-12-23 }}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070102080119/http://www.nps.gov/archive/vick/interp/napoleon.htm Nps.gov]</ref> Over 1,100 of these "Napoleons" were manufactured by the Union, and 600 by the Confederacy.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070102080119/http://www.nps.gov/archive/vick/interp/napoleon.htm Nps.gov]</ref>
The canon-obusier de 12 was followed by rifled cannon of the Treuille de Beaulieu system which had been introduced in 1858.<ref>"...the introduction by the French army of the Beaulieu 4-pounder rifled field-gun in 1858: the new artillery, though much more accurate and long-ranged than the smoothbore 'canon-obusier' it replaced (which, incidentally, was the most prevalent artillery piece of the US Civil War), was not suited to firing anti-personnel case-shot (which, in French, is called 'mitraille')." in ''The Mitrailleuse'' by Dr. Patrick Marder [http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/francoprussian/articles/mitrailleuse.aspx Military History Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223234104/http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/francoprussian/articles/mitrailleuse.aspx |date=2008-12-23 }}</ref>
The term "Canon-obusier" remained in use after World War I to designate various gun howitzers of the French Army.
==See also== *Twelve-pound cannon *Field artillery in the American Civil War ==References== {{reflist}}
{{French weapons of the 19th century}}
Category:Artillery of France