The weapons used by Napoleon's armies

From the Model 1777 musket to the Gribeauval 12 pounder

Napoleon’s Grande Armee was not the most technologically advanced army in the field during the Napoleonic Wars — that title would go to the British army — but its weapons were reliable, plentiful, and most importantly, easy to produce.

Let’s take a closer look.

Charleville M1777 musket

The mainstay of armies in the 18th Century was the smoothbore musket with a flintlock charge. Napoleon’s armies used the Charleville model 1777 musket, which was a new musket put into production during the French Revolution as a hybrid from older muskets.

• Calibre: 17.5 mm (0.69 inch)

• Weight: 4.7 kg (10.5 lbs)

• Length: 1.5 meters (5 feet)

• Muzzle velocity: 450 meters/second (1,400 feet/second)

• Range: up to 100 yards

The Charleville was one of the most mass-produced muskets of all time. French industry pumped out over 7 million of these long and accurate smoothbores between 1777 and 1839, an incredible 70-year run!

The Grande Armee left behind a staggering 450,000 Charlevilles during their retreat out of Russia, and the Russian army used these right up until the outbreak of the First World War, a century later, although they were mostly ceremonial by that point.

There are still some 4,000 operational Charleville muskets in the world today, lovingly cared for by collectors.