page_title: Canon de 8 Gribeauval
section_title: Historic organizations
hierarchical_section_title: Canon de 8 Gribeauval / Historic organizations
caption_attribution_description: Gribeauval guns of Bonaparte in the Paris insurrection, 5 october 1795
context_page_description: The Canon de 8 Gribeauval or 8-pounder was a French cannon and part of the Gribeauval system developed by Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval. The Old French pound was 1.07916 English pounds, making the weight of shot about 8.633 English pounds. The 8-pounder was the medium weight cannon of the French field artillery; the others were the light Canon de 4 Gribeauval and the heavy Canon de 12 Gribeauval. Replacing the older Vallière system, the Gribeauval system was introduced in 1765 and the guns were first employed during the American Revolutionary War. The most extensive use of Gribeauval guns was during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The 8-pounder could be found in divisional reserves, advanced guards or army artillery reserves. Emperor Napoleon began to phase out the 8-pounder by increasing the proportion of 12-pounders in his artillery. The emperor began switching calibers to the handier 6-pounder piece, utilizing captured guns as well as newly designed French cannons. The Year XI system began in 1803, but it only partly replaced the Gribeauval system which was not entirely suppressed until the Valée system was introduced in 1829.
context_section_description: At the Battle of Marengo in 1800, Jean Boudet's division had four 8-pounders and four 4-pounders manned by the 3rd and 4th Companies of the 2nd Horse Artillery Regiment. The division of Jean-Charles Monnier was equipped with one 8-pounder and one howitzer crewed by the 5th Company of the 1st Artillery Regiment and two captured 3-pounders manned by 10th Company of the 6th Artillery Regiment. The Consular Guard had two 8-pounders and one howitzer.
  For the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806, Napoleon's Grand Army went to war with the following numbers of 8-pounders in each corps organization. The Imperial Guard employed 20 8-pounders out of a total of 42 pieces, the III Corps had 23 of 46 guns, V Corps had six of 38 pieces, VI Corps had 12 of 24 guns, VII Corps had 12 of 36 guns and the Reserve Cavalry Corps had eight of 18 pieces. Attached to each of the four dragoon divisions was a half-battery of horse artillery composed of two 8-pounders and one 6-inch howitzer. The I Corps and IV Corps had no 8-pounders in their artillery batteries; the medium cannons were replaced by 6-pounders.
  The 8-pounder was employed at the start of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809. In the 1st Division of Nicolas Oudinot's II Corps, the 4th Company of the 7th Artillery Regiment had two 8-pounders and six 4-pounders. The corps artillery reserve included the 5th Company of the 3rd Artillery with four 8-pounders, two 4-pounders and two 5½-inch howitzers. In the III Corps, the infantry divisions each had a company of foot artillery attached. The 1st and 2nd Division companies each had six 8-pounders and two 6-pounders, the 3rd Division company had six 8-pounders and the 4th Division company had six 8-pounders and two 6-inch howitzers. The 1st Heavy Cavalry Division was assigned the 4th and 5th Companies of the 6th Horse Artillery, the 2nd Heavy Cavalry Division had the 3rd Company of the 5th Horse Artillery attached and the 3rd Heavy Cavalry Division had the 6th Companies of the 5th and 6th Horse Artillery. Each of the five companies were equipped with four 8-pounders and two 6-inch howitzers. The IX Corps, which was made up of soldiers from the Kingdom of Saxony, had four batteries each with four 8-pounders and two howitzers.  Like France, Saxony manufactured its own 4-, 8- and 12-pounder cannons. In the Army of Italy four foot artillery companies were armed with four 8-pounders and two 6-inch howitzers. These companies were attached to the divisions of Jean Mathieu Seras, Jean-Baptiste Broussier, Gabriel Barbou des Courières and Jean Maximilien Lamarque. In Paul Grenier's division the foot artillery company had six 8-pounders. The other four infantry divisions had foot companies equipped with 6-pounders.
  During the Battle of Talavera in 1809, the British and Spanish captured 17 French guns from Jean François Leval's division. Among the 13 British prizes were four 8-pounders, four 6-pounders, one 4-pounder and two 6-inch howitzers. The weights of the other captured pieces were not reported. All but two guns were soon recaptured by the French at the Battle of Arzobispo.
  The weapon was still being used in the 1814 Campaign. At the Battle of Montereau on 17–18 February, Michel Marie Pacthod's National Guard division was supported by two 8-pounders and four 4-pounders. On 1 March in the XI Corps, the artillery company of François Pierre Joseph Amey's 2nd Division counted four 8-pounders and one howitzer while the corps artillery reserve numbered 15 12-pounders, four 8-pounders, 17 6-pounders and 12 24-pounder howitzers. On 15 March in the French Army of the Rhône, the artillery companies of Louis François Félix Musnier's 1st and Alexandre, vicomte Digeon's Cavalry Divisions were each armed with two 8-pounders, two 4-pounders and two 6-inch howitzers. Claude Marie Joseph Pannetier's 2nd Division artillery company consisted of two 8-pounders and two 4-pounders and Jean-Jacques Desvaux de Saint-Maurice's Artillery Reserve had two 8-pounders and four 4-pounders.
caption: Napoleon Bonaparte's cannons put down an October 1795 attempted coup in Paris. The two cannons in the sketch are almost wheel to wheel; the minimum gap between guns was normally 10 meters.
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