Editing Mitrailleuse (section)

==Origin==
[[Image:Montigny Mitrailleuse.jpg|thumb|left|The 37-barrel [[Montigny mitrailleuse]], which was developed in 1863.]]
The first "mitrailleuse" was a manually fired 50-barrel [[volley gun]]. It was developed in Belgium in 1851 by [[Belgian Army]] Captain [[Fafschamps]],<ref>{{citation | quote = Subject of all this secrecy was the twenty-five-year-old Fafschamps-Montigny Mitrailleuse, warmed over by De Reffye. This weapon was invented in 1851 | title = The Gatling Gun | page= 43 | first1 = Paul | last1 = Wahl | first2 = Donald R | last2 = Toppel | year = 1965 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lf9CAAAAIAAJ&q=Fafschamps}}.</ref><ref>{{citation | quote = In 1851, some twenty years before the outbreak of the Franco–German War, Captain Fafschamps, a Belgian officer, offered drawings of an invention to a fellow countryman, Monsieur Montigny | title = Machine Guns: Their History and Tactical Employment | page = 9 | author-link = Graham Seton Hutchison | first = Graham Seton | last = Hutchison | year = 1938 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=z4ZCAAAAIAAJ&q=Fafschamps}}.</ref> who made a rough prototype and drawings of his invention.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VWkYoAkoMHIC&pg=PA35&dq=Montigny+Mitrailleuse#PPA35,M1 ''Machine Guns'' by James H. Willbanks p.35]</ref> The system was improved during the 1850s by Louis Christophe and the Belgian engineer [[Joseph Montigny]], with the completion of the 37-barrel [[Montigny mitrailleuse]] in 1863.  From 1859, Joseph Montigny proposed his design to [[Napoleon III]], which led to the development of the French Reffye mitrailleuse, which was designed by [[Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye]] in collaboration with Montigny, and which was adopted by the [[French Army]] in 1865. Initially kept under wraps as a secret weapon, it was widely used in battle by French artillery during the [[Franco-Prussian War]] (1870–71). Smaller numbers of other designs, including the Gatling gun, were also purchased by the French government during the latter part of that conflict.  The Reffye model had initially been built in small numbers and in secrecy: only about 200 were available at the beginning of the conflict.  This also kept regular French field artillery in a neglected position in the eyes of French emperor [[Napoleon III]], with dire consequences during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.