I love the history of war. Particularly the Napoleon era. I played many games and trying to see which is the most accurate. Napoleon total war has very accurate canons which can hit units far away. In the other hand some game like assassin creed 4 have canon which seems to cannot fire farer than ~ 30 meters. So in the real life what was the use of canon ? Their efficiency, accuracy and the damages they did on people ? ( for example in master and commanders the canon ball seems to project sharp wood everywhere)
Here is one data point: 1 mile at Siege of Quebec City by British Forces, 1759.
Extract from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham)
The following day, Wolfe's troops landed on the south bank of the river at Point Levis, nearly directly across the river from Quebec; an artillery battery was established there in early July that nearly leveled the lower town by bombardment.[7]
The French version is much more detailed:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si%C3%A8ge_de_Qu%C3%A9bec_(1759)#Bombardement_quotidien_de_la_ville
Here is some data about the ranges of cannon in the US civil war period.
Smoothbore 6 and 12 pounder field guns had an effective range of 600 to 700 yards and a maximum range of about 1,500 yards.
These cannon were very similar to those used in the Napoleonic wars, so Napoleonic cannon would probably have had similar ranges.
Larger cannon had longer ranges. A 6 inch howitzer had a maximum range of about 2,600 yards (a mile and a half). 12 inch Columbiads had a maximum range of over 3 miles.
Rifled cannon had longer ranges. A 30 pounder, 4.5 inch Parrot gun had a range of 8,450 yards. In 1863, a 200 pounder Parrot gun bombarded Charleston from 7,000 yards away.
Source:
It depends on the size of the commission, the composer, and the time.