Also known as: siege of Petersburg.
| Dates | June 1864 - April 1865 |
|---|---|
| Location | Petersburg, Virginia |
| Character | Trench siege with heavy siege guns and mortars |
| Notable piece | The Dictator, a 13-inch seacoast mortar on a railway car |
Siege lines
The long investment of Petersburg settled into a siege of entrenchments in which artillery served day and night from fixed batteries. Alongside the field guns, both sides brought up heavy siege pieces and quantities of mortars to reach troops sheltered in the trenches.
The best known of these was the Dictator, a 13-inch seacoast mortar mounted on a reinforced railway car, which lobbed its heavy shells into the Confederate lines. The siege continued until the lines finally broke in the spring of 1865.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington: GPO, 1880-1901.
- CivilWarArtillery.com research archive: fort and battlefield references, manuals, and reports.