On September 1, 1864, photographers documented the Union Army’s enormous 13‑inch siege mortar, commonly known as the “Dictator,” near Petersburg, Virginia. The weapon was among the most formidable artillery pieces used during the Civil War siege of Petersburg.
The Dictator weighed roughly 17,000 pounds and fired massive explosive shells in a high arc over Confederate works. Its purpose was not precise battlefield maneuvering, but devastating siege fire: striking fortified positions, disrupting troops, and demonstrating the industrial scale of late‑war artillery.
Because it was too heavy for ordinary field transport, the mortar was mounted on a reinforced railroad flatcar. That arrangement allowed Union forces to move it along the Petersburg rail network and fire it from prepared positions—an early and notable American use of rail‑mounted siege artillery.
