Due to limited physical strength, horses carrying knights could only maintain a high-speed in a short time. As a general rule, in a charge, the knights would let their horses trot first when the enemy was around 800 to 1,000 meters away. They would speed up once the distance was shortened to 500 meters and sprint for the last 200 meters.
Theoretically, the shooting range of a 12-pound Napoleon cannon was 1,300 meters for solid shells, but the cannons designed and made by Roland tended to miss targets over 1,000 meters away, which might result from a small ratio of the barrel caliber to the barrel length. To ensure a high hit ratio, he made it a rule that artillerymen could only fire when an enemy was within 800 meters. In this way, shells would also be very destructive especially to a crowd of enemies as they would bounce forward on the ground after landing.
