In December 1862, General R. E. Lee lamented towards the Confederate Secretary of War that his army really required additional Napoleon guns to deal with those being used by the Northern army. A deficiency of Napoleons, Lee wrote, left his artillery "very unequal" to their adversaries, with results which were "discouraging to our artillerists" Lee suggested that significant quantities of his army's bronze cannon be melted down and recast into Napoleons. He defined his position by proclaiming that "the best guns for field service, in my opinion, are the 12-pounder Napoleons" and a couple other models of field units. The Napoleon acquired its name due to the fact its design was initially sponsored by Emperor Louis Napoleon of France in the 1850s. In United States service, the Napoleon gun was formally proclaimed as "Light 12-Pounder Gun, Model 1857." There were only a few dozen existing in the United States when the Civil War commenced in 1861, but by the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Napoleons had become the preferred smoothbore cannon for both sides. Before the end of the war, greater than 1100 Napoleons had been created in the North and greater than 600 in the South. Late in 1864, General Lee's army was utilizing more Napoleons than all other styles of cannons combined. The Napoleon gun was so widespread mainly because it was as good as its forerunners, but much lighter and more mobile. It was preferred because it worked very well. Solid shot, explosive shell, spherical case shot (containing many small balls) and canister could very well all be shot with lethal effect. Successful range was about 1000 yards, and highest range was almost one mile. Rifled cannons could shoot a greater distance and more accurately, but just weren't so successful with canisters. Confederate ammo for rifled guns suffered from such harmful faults that Southern gunners were notably keen on the usage of Napoleons. Any Civil War buff would appreciate this miniature cannon, which is a smaller version of the original.
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