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The Canon de 4 Gribeauval or 4-pounder was a French cannon and part of the artillery system developed by Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval. The Old French pound (French: livre) was 1.079 English pounds, making the weight of shot about 4.3 English pounds. In the Gribeauval era, the 4-pounder was the lightest weight cannon of the French field artillery; the others were the medium Canon de 8 Gribeauval and the heavy Canon de 12 Gribeauval. The Gribeauval system was introduced in 1765 and the guns were first employed during the American Revolutionary War. The most large-scale use of Gribeauval guns occurred during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. At first a pair of 4-pounders were assigned to each infantry battalion and were often called "battalion pieces". Later, Emperor Napoleon took the guns away from the infantry units and began to replace the 4-pounder with the 6-pounder, using captured guns as well as newly cast French cannons. However, as the French infantry declined in quality after 1809, the 4-pounders were reintroduced in order to provide direct support for formations of foot soldiers. All Gribeauval cannons were capable of firing canister shot at close-range and round shot at long-range targets. The Gribeauval system supplanted the older Vallière system, was partly replaced by the Year XI system in 1803 and completely superseded by the Valée system in 1829. ==History== The Gribeauval system was approved by the king and officially adopted by the French army on 15 October 1765. It was quietly introduced to keep it secret from foreign powers but also to avoid an unfriendly reaction from conservative elements in the French Royal Army. In fact, resistance within the French army prevented full implementation of the system until 1776. The Gribeauval system included 4-, 8- and 12-pounder field pieces, the Obusier de 6 pouces Gribeauval (6-inch howitzer) and the 1-pounder light cannon, though the 1-pounder was quickly abandoned. The Canon de 4 Gribeauval was used extensively during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. However, its first major operational use came during the American Revolutionary War. The new cannons were employed by the French expeditionary corps under Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau in 1780–1782 including the 1781 Siege of Yorktown. The Gribeauval system replaced a system developed in 1732 by Florent-Jean de Vallière. The earlier system lacked a howitzer and its heavy cannons were difficult to move. These shortcomings became more obvious during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. Gribeauval made both the barrels and the carriages lighter, so that his cannons were about half the weight of the Vallière guns. Other improvements were the addition of a screw to elevate the barrel, a tangent gunsight and carriages with interchangeable parts. The 4-pounder was originally assigned directly to the infantry units. Later, Napoleon decided to replace the 4-pounder with the heavier 6-pounder. Large numbers of Austrian and Prussian 6-pounders were captured in 1794–1800 and utilized to up-gun the French armies. The 6-pounders were too heavy for the infantry regiments to use, so they were taken from the infantry units and massed into batteries. Also, the French began manufacturing the Canon de 6 système An XI. This piece was designed to make the French system conform to the European 6- and 12-pounder standard. After 1809 Napoleon reintroduced the 4-pounder for direct infantry support due to the lower quality of French and French-allied foot soldiers. In 1829 France adopted the Valée system, which reduced the calibers of field artillery to 8- and 12-pound cannons and 24-pound and 6-inch howitzers. It improved mobility by standardizing limber sizes so that the 8-pounders and 24-pound howitzers used the smaller limber and the 12-pounders and 6-inch howitzers used the larger type. In both cases, the gunners rode into action while sitting on the limbers instead of having to walk beside the guns. A battery was established as having four cannons and two howitzers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Canon de 4 Gribeauval」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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