Did Napoleonic cannonballs explode?

Were Napoleonic Cannonballs Explosive?

When picturing the smoke and thunder of a Napoleonic battlefield, it is easy to imagine every cannonball bursting into a fiery storm of iron shards upon impact. The reality, however, was a bit more nuanced. The short answer is yes, but only certain types of projectiles actually exploded.

During the Napoleonic and Revolutionary Wars, the standard ammunition fired by most field artillery was the solid shot—a massive, heavy iron ball designed to smash through infantry lines, shatter fortifications, and roll destructively across the ground. These solid cannonballs did not contain gunpowder and relied entirely on kinetic energy to cause devastation.

However, armies did use specialized hollow projectiles filled with gunpowder, often referred to as shells or howitzer grenades. These were intended to detonate either mid-air or upon hitting a target. The major hurdle of the era was reliability. Artillery fuses consisted of wooden or paper tubes packed with slow-burning powder, which had to be cut to length manually before firing. Because timing these fuses accurately in the heat of battle was notoriously difficult, many shells fizzled out prematurely, failed to detonate entirely, or occasionally exploded too early right as they left the barrel—posing a severe danger to the gunners themselves.

Ultimately, while explosive ordnance certainly existed and played a crucial role in siege warfare, the iconic screech and roar of the Napoleonic Wars was still dominated by the relentless impact of solid iron.