However by 1900, when its procurement was underway, first concrete information about the revolutionary French Canon de 75 modèle 1897 was declassified and new true quick-firing designs with a long recoil by private manufacturers emerged in Europe, and the Commanding General of the United States Army Nelson A.

The features of rifling, breech loading with fixed ammunition, and a hydraulic-spring system to absorb the gun's recoil and quickly return it to the firing position combined to improve the range, accuracy, and rate of fire of the gun compared with previous weapons, allowing it to be used more effectively in operations with infantry.

The gun fired 3 inches (76 mm) steel, shrapnel, or explosive shells that weighed 15 pounds (6.8 kg).

[2] The use of nickel steel construction meant that the M1902 could fire a heavier shell at a higher muzzle velocity and greater accuracy (due to tighter rifling) than any other field gun of American origin to that point.

General John J. Pershing brought several of the guns with him during the "Punitive Expedition" against Mexican forces in 1916–17, but they were not fired in combat.