The "Dictator" Cannon - Petersburg, VA, 1864
The current whereabouts of the Dictator are unknown, this famous weapon may no longer survive. Its oft-repeated identification as the 13-inch Mortar, No. 95, at Hartford, Connecticut may be false, as that piece does not match the recorded weight of the Dictator.
Cast at the Fort Pitt Foundry in 1862 by Mr. Charles Knapp, the Dictator was used for a short time in the summer and fall of 1864 during the siege operations in front of Petersburg, VA.
"Soldiers on both sides hated the mortars. 'These mortar shells were the most disgusting, low-lived things imaginable,' declared W. W. Blackford, a Confederate engineer. 'There was not a particle of the sense of honor about them; they would go rolling about and prying into the most private places in a sneaking sort of way.' 'Mortar shells fly into the works occasionally,' a Maine soldier confirmed, 'at which times we get out in double-quick time.' Added a Georgia infantryman, 'Old veterans can never forget the noise those missiles made as they went up and came down like an excited bird, their shrieks becoming shriller and shriller, as the time to explode approached.'"
