The gun and accessories could be packed on two mules. The gun was introduced as a modern replacement for the aging twelve-pound mountain howitzer. The first gun purchased by the U.S. military from the French arms firm of Hotchkiss was employed against the Nez Percé in 1877. Over the next twenty years the U.S. purchased 56. They were used at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, and again in Cuba at the Battle of Las Guasimas, the Battle of El Caney and the attack on San Juan Hill during the Spanish–American War of 1898.