The+Dictator

=The Dictator=

an HMS American Cultures collaborative production
The [|Dictator] is a type of mortar. A [|mortar]is muzzle -loading indirect weapon that fires at low velocities and short ranges. It typically has a barrel length less that is times its caliber. It is simple to use. A most modern mortar consists of a tube in which gunners drop a shell. The Dictator was a 13 inch seacoast mortar that weighed over 17,000 pounds. This was used in the Siege of Petersburg, by being mortified on a railroad car. This mortar threw a 218 pound shell about 2 and one- half miles with a charge of 20 pound powder. In the war the mortar was placed on the car. And then up to the tracks from City Point toward the Union cordon somewhere around Petersburg. The curve in the tracks allowed the gunners to adjust the plane of fire. And the power of the weapon was powerful enough to shatter the field causing teh Confederate gunners to withdraw their attemps to fire. In 1862 the whereabouts of the Dictator are now unknown.

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