The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-04-23
Before Petersburg.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: After the
battle of Cold Harbor we returned to
Burmuda Hundred with ''Baldy" Smith
and the Eighteenth Corps.
On June %, 1864, started for Peters
burg front, where we arrived on the
morning of June "a and took position on
the first high ground south Of the City
Point & Petersburg Railroad, near a
battery Of 10-pOund rifled pieces and NOR
tar batteries. We had not been here long
before we learned of the Petersburg Ey-
press" 1t was large rifed piece mount
ed on Petersburg flights, east by north Of
us. and threw fuse shell, as from our
standpoint We could see her headlight
as she flew over us into Petersburg on her
mission of destruction. The boys named
it Petersburg Express" on account Of
the velocity with which it travelled.
Chaplain VIM. l.. Hyde, in his history
heavy guns: 1.-The position of the regi-
ment was directly in front of huge
piece of ordnance, mounted on the hill
near Division Headquarters, called by tho
men the Petersburg Express, and little
farther back was a 15-inch mortar. These
immense guns frequently opened upon
Petersburg at night, and then from every
| direction shot and shell would fly over
head
In case Gen. Grant ordered shotted
salute of 100 guns, as when Gen. Sherman
! captured Atlanta, Ga, the boom of this
huge mortar was the signal for all the
| batteries to open fire, and it was this that
gave it the name Of Dictator"
| One comrade says it was placed in po-
sition about June %, and was there few
days only. 1t must have been in position
| a time or Sapf liz IA tent
mate, Francis j. Kayer (nOw of LII ke-
wood, n. " and myself paid Dictator
visit. We found it mounted on fiat
car standing on n track leading to the
southwest from the City Point Il Peters
burg Railroad, behind hill, so it was out
Of range. made the following entry in
my diary, which l kept the entire three
years | was in service, and is now before
me: From five to six feet long; diameter
across muZzle, 43 inches;o 13-inch shell;
weight of gun, 17,1859 pounds; powder
charge, q pounds; shell thee inches thick,
and, when loaded, weighed 200 pounds
and, as / was informed. was used as a
case shot, containing 200 one-ounce cast
| iron balls N %
The mortar Dictator" twas not the
heaviest piece of ordnance used, as we
had on Morris Island, IS. &C., under Gen
Gilmore, rified guns throwing 100. 200 and
3OO-pOund shells; but ii.DictatOr' threw
the only 2G0-pOund she'll from land bat
terry ever heard of before Petersburg OIL
Richmond. at
That some of our shells reached Peters
burg is evident from newspaper accounts
at the time. l read one account from 9
Petersburg paper where aeshell fell in 4
church where they We're holding evening
services, killing and wounding some Of
those present.
There are now many of the old boys o.
the Second Brigade, Second Division
Tenth, and later the Twenty-fOurth, Corps
who well remember Dictator" when hel
shells loomed up from behind the hill
We could see her fuse-light as the shell
revolyed on its course directly over Oul
heads as we lay in the trenches in from
Of Petersburg, our right resting on thu
Appomattox River.
Who knows, was the old 13-inch NOR
tar in the Government exhibit at the Buff
falO Pan-American the mortar Dictator
used at Petersburg in the campaign Of
1854? And il not, how many of THU
style of mortars were In use. and wher'
were they located?-WM. II. WINcHEs
TER, Co. I 112th N. Y, Dunkirk, N. Y.