Mortier de 15 de Vallière

Mortier de 15 de Vallière
15-pouce pierrier (stone-throwing) mortar (bottom)[1]
TypeArtillery
Place of origin Kingdom of France
Service history
In service1732–1756, 1772–1774
Used by Kingdom of France
United States
WarsWar of the Polish Succession
War of the Austrian Succession
Seven Years' War
Production history
DesignerJean-Florent de Vallière
Designed1732
Specifications
Mass289 kg (637 lb)
Caliber406.05 mm (15.99 in)

The Mortier de 15 de Vallière was a type of mortar designed by the French officer Jean-Florent de Vallière (1667–1759), Director-General of the Battalions and Schools of the Artillery. The 15-pouce (a French inch) mortar was designed to hurl stones rather than bombs. The mortar was part of the Vallière system which was established in 1732. The new system reduced the variety of cannons to five calibers and the number of mortars to three calibers, standardized their production, and manufactured all new artillery pieces in France.

Vallière system

Jean-Florent de Vallière was a French Royal Army veteran who served in 60 sieges and 10 battles. In 1726 he was appointed Director General of Artillery.[2] The French guns of that era included artillery pieces that were manufactured in different countries and employed a range of various calibers. Keeping track of the different ammunition sizes was a logistical headache. On 7 October 1732, the Vallière system replaced all earlier artillery systems used by the French Royal Army. Its purpose was to reduce the number of calibers, standardize the production of the new gun barrels, and manufacture all its artillery pieces in France. The system successfully met these goals.[3] The Vallière cannons were well designed and accurate.[4] The Vallière system artillery included 24-pounder, 16-pounder, 12-pounder, 8-pounder and 4-pounder cannons, mortars of 12-pouce and 8-pouce, and stone-throwing (pierrier) mortars of 15-pouce.[5]

A mortar was an artillery piece that threw an explosive projectile or stone on a high arc into enemy fortifications. A mortar was usually of short length and large caliber. It lacked wheels and was used during sieges.[6] The Vallière guns performed well in siege warfare but proved disappointing as field artillery.[5] Vallière believed it was foolish to make different cannons for siege and field artillery.[7] In the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) it was discovered that the new guns were appropriate for sieges, but the great weight of the 4-, 8-, and 12-pounder guns made them unsuitable for use as field artillery.[8] To address this problem, the French manufactured some lighter 4-pounder cannons copied from a Swedish design.[9]

During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) the French artillery was at a serious disadvantage when facing lighter Prussian and British cannons. As a remedy, the so-called Swedish 4-pounders were again produced and employed as battalion guns.[10] Before the war, Austria implemented the Liechtenstein artillery system which greatly improved its cannons.[11] Even Russia introduced reforms for its obsolete cannons with the Shuvalov artillery system in 1757. [12] Meanwhile, Vallière was succeeded by his son Joseph as Director General of Artillery. In 1761, King Louis XV's War Minister Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul sent Joseph de Vallière to review the Kingdom of Spain's artillery. With the younger Vallière out of the way, Choiseul authorized Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval to conduct a series of tests at Strasbourg in 1765.[13] The tests showed Gribeauval's much lighter guns could shoot just as far as the old Vallière guns.[14] On 17 August 1765, the Vallière system was replaced by the Gribeauval system.[15]

Specifications

Note that pouce is a French inch equal to 27.07 mm (1.066 in), so that 15-pouce equals 406.05 mm (15.99 in). The livre or French pound equals 0.48941 kg (1.08 lb).[16] The 15-pouce mortar weighed 1,000 livres or 489.41 kg (1,079 lb) and required 2.5 livres or 1.223525 kg (2.7 lb) of gunpowder to launch its stone.[17]

15-pouce Vallière pierrier stone-throwing mortar
  • 15-pouce Valliere mortar at Yorktown Battlefield, front view
  • 15-pouce Valliere mortar at Yorktown Battlefield, side view
  • 15-pouce Valliere mortar at Yorktown Battlefield, tape shows 16 inch bore

History

When Joseph de Vallière returned from Spain, he found that he had been replaced as Director General by Gribeauval. At first, he lobbied intensely but unsuccessfully to reinstate his father's system. After Choiseul was replaced, a new minister of war reappointed Joseph de Vallière as Director General of Artillery in June 1772. By this time, 1,200 new 4-pounder, 8-pounder, and 12-pounder Gribeauval guns had been cast and the cost to melt them down and recast them was prohibitive. However, the Vallière 24-pounder and 16-pounder siege guns and mortars were still available. Joseph de Vallière's tenure was short; the Gribeauval system was reinstated on 3 October 1774.[18]

During the American Revolutionary War, a French corps under the command of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau marched together with American forces under George Washington from the area near New York City to the south to carry out the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.[19] There the allies were joined by a second French corps under Claude-Anne de Rouvroy de Saint Simon which disembarked from a French fleet led by François Joseph Paul de Grasse.[20] While Rochambeau's corps was equipped with thirty Gribeauval field guns, Saint Simon's corps was largely armed with Vallière artillery. There were twelve 24-pounders, eight 16-pounders, seven 12-pouce mortars, four 8-pouce mortars, and two 8-pouce howitzers. The only pieces of Saint Simon's that were not Vallière guns were twelve Rostaing 1-pounders and eight Swedish 4-pounders.[21][note 1]

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ^ Note that no 15-pouce mortars are listed. However, the presence of the mortar in the USA suggests that it was employed at Yorktown or at some other location during the American Revolutionary War.
Citations
  1. ^ Fave 1863, p. 81.
  2. ^ Revue 1895, p. 247.
  3. ^ Chartrand & Hutchins 2003, p. 3.
  4. ^ Kiley 2021, p. 235.
  5. ^ a b Corvisier et al. 1994, p. 837.
  6. ^ Kiley 2021, p. 346.
  7. ^ Summerfield 2025, p. 36.
  8. ^ Chartrand & Hutchins 2003, p. 4.
  9. ^ Summerfield 2025, pp. 41–42.
  10. ^ Summerfield 2025, pp. 44–45.
  11. ^ Kiley 2021, p. 312.
  12. ^ Kiley 2021, p. 443.
  13. ^ Chartrand & Hutchins 2003, p. 6.
  14. ^ Kiley 2021, p. 522.
  15. ^ Kiley 2021, p. 239.
  16. ^ Chartrand & Hutchins 2003, p. 2.
  17. ^ Fave 1863, p. 84.
  18. ^ Chartrand & Hutchins 2003, pp. 14–15.
  19. ^ Greene 2005, pp. 16–18.
  20. ^ Greene 2005, p. 20.
  21. ^ Kiley 2021, p. 563.

References

  • Chartrand, Rene; Hutchins, Ray (2003). Napoleon's Guns 1792-1815, vol. 1. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84176-458-2.
  • Corvisier, André; et al. (1994). "A Dictionary of Military History and the Art of War". Wiley. ISBN 9780631168485. Retrieved 22 October 2025.
  • Fave, Ildefonce (1863). "Études sur le passé et l'Avenir de l'Artillerie, Volume 4" (in French). Paris: Librairie Militaire. Retrieved 22 October 2025.
  • Greene, Jerome A. (2005). The Guns of Independence: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781. New York, N.Y.: Savas Beatie. ISBN 1-932714-05-7.
  • Kiley, Kevin F. (2021). Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars: A Concise Dictionary 1792-1815. Philadelphia: Pen and Sword Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84832-953-9.
  • Revue (1895). "Revue d'Artillerie: Paraissant le 15 de chaque mois" (in French). Nancy, France: Berger-Levrault et Cie. p. 247. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  • Summerfield, Stephen (2025). "Smoothbore Ordnance Journal: M1732 Vallière System (1732-1765)" (PDF). The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 30 September 2025.


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