cannonade

Cannonade comes from French cannonade, from canon (cannon) plus the suffix -ade, which indicates a sustained action or a product of an action. The same suffix appears in blockade (a sustained blocking), fusillade (a sustained burst of gunfire), and — more peacefully — lemonade (a product of lemons). A cannonade was a prolonged bombardment by multiple cannons, as opposed to a single shot.

The word entered English in the early 1600s and became standard military terminology by the Napoleonic era. Napoleon's artillery doctrine — mass cannons at the decisive point and bombard relentlessly — made cannonade the defining experience of Napoleonic battle. At Borodino in 1812, both French and Russian artillery fired thousands of rounds in sustained cannonades that lasted hours. Tolstoy describes the sound in War and Peace: a continuous roar that made individual shots indistinguishable.

The most famous cannonade in American history occurred at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Confederate General Alexander ordered approximately 150 guns to fire simultaneously at the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. The cannonade lasted about two hours and was heard as far away as Pittsburgh, 150 miles east. It was intended to soften the Union line before Pickett's Charge. It failed — most rounds overshot the ridge — and the charge that followed failed as well.

The word has faded from modern military vocabulary as 'bombardment' and 'barrage' replaced it. Cannonade sounds archival, a word from an era when cannons were the weapons and officers spoke French. Modern artillery fires 'barrages' and conducts 'fire missions,' not cannonades. The word is Napoleonic, and it sounds Napoleonic. It belongs to the era of black powder, solid shot, and officers on horseback watching the smoke.