The thirteen-inch mortar "Dictator"

Knox, David · [ca. October 1864]

From "War Memories" catalog: This large sea-coast mortar is mounted on a special flat-car made very strong for this purpose. This mortar-car is on General Grant's military railroad at Petersburg. The car is readily moved along the line and the mortar is fired whenever required; it is thus made very effective and annoying to the enemy, for it is something like the Irishman's flea, "when they put their hand on it, it ain't there;" in other words, when they turn the fire of their batteries on the railroad battery, our boys hitch on to the car and run it along out of the line of fire, and commence pegging away again. By the time the "Johnnies" find out where the railroad battery is, and get the range to smash it, "it ain't there" again, the boys run it along to a new stand for business.