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The ‘Dictator’ mortar and wayside marker is at Stop One on the Petersburg National Battlefield Eastern Front Auto Tour. The marker is on a walking trail about 0.3 miles from the Visitor Center next to the replica of the huge siege mortar, named “Dictator”. The replica was cast to the exact dimensions of the original mortar from concrete rather than iron, but is otherwise identical. It is set up in the same location as the original, sheltered from Confederate counterbattery fire by the parapets of Battery Five.
The marker is next to a replica of the mortar set up in its firing position.
The 17,000 pound mortar was originally fired from a railcar on the line from City Point. The first flatcar that it was fired from was destroyed by the recoil. Its reinforced successor would be thrust down the tracks with each firing, while the mortar itself would surge back on the car. The mortar was finally placed in a permanent installation protected from Confederate counterbattery fire.
Company G of the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery manned the giant mortar. The regiment had been in charge of the Army of the Potomac’s siege artillery since the days of General McClellan.
Dictator original wayside marker
This damaged marker has been replaced with a new version with updated text. (see below)
Original text from the marker:
Dictator
Sept. 1864: “…the enemy frequently shoot very large shells into Petersburg & do some damage to buildings, but the people are getting used to it, so they don’t mind them….”
– A.I.P. Varin 2nd Mississippi
Famous but militarily ineffective, the “Dictator” fired on Petersburg from this spot during July, August, and September 1864.
The Dictator was a 13-inch seacoast mortar similar to the one in front of you. It was the largest gun used during the siege and could lob a 225-pound explosive shell more than two miles. During its service in the siege lines, the Dictator fired 218 rounds at Petersburg and its defenses.
Caption to the photo on the left:
This view, taken from your left, shows the Dictator and the entrance to its powder magazine.
Caption to the photo on the right:
A battery of 10-inch mortars at work. Watching mortar shells arc through the night sky became a popular – and sometimes dangerous – spectator sport.
The updated Dictator wayside marker
A new wayside marker about the “Dictator” with additional information replaced the original.
Text from the new “The Dictator” wayside marker
The “Dictator,” a 13-inch seacoast mortar, fired 218 times from this spot. Their most frequent target was the Chesterfield Battery across the Appomattox River (in present-day Colonial Heights). Due to its size, it required a custom-designed rail car to move it. The recoil frequently damaged its firing platform. Due to its impracticality and ineffectiveness, the Dictator was only used during the first three months of the siege in 1864.
Dimensions
Bore diameter: 13 inches
Tube material: iron
Length of tube: 53 inches (4.4 feet)
Weight of tube: 17,120 pounds
Ammunition
Powder charge: 20 pounds
Projectile: 220 lb. Mortar Shells
Performance
Effective range: 4,325 yards (~2.4 miles)
Max height: 1,207 yards (3621 feet)
Time to impact (at 45°) ~30 seconds
Caption at the bottom of the photo:
The 13″ seacoast mortar to your left is Civil War era, but not the original Dictator.
The massive mortar threw a 13″ 225 pound shell more than two miles.
Door to the well-protected powder magazine that served Dictator
Text to the sign outside the powder magazine:
Powder Magazine
Powder for the “Dictator” was stored here. It required 14 pounds of black powder to hurl the 225 pound 13-inch shell two miles into Petersburg. Each shell was filled with 11 pounds of powder and set to explode at tree height.
The powder magazine’s entrance was situated so that if it were to explode it would probably not harm the gunners around the mortar, at far right.
Location of the “Dictator”
The wayside marker and the mortar replica are along a walking trail about 0.3 miles north of the Visitor Center.