Description:
"Also known as the Dictator, the Petersburg Express mortar monument honours the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery Unit members. The unit used the mortar during the Siege of Petersburg from 1864-65. Weighing in at 7.7 tons, the mortar had to be mounted on a railway car to be used by soldiers. In 1896, the Petersburg Express was brought from Fort Monroe, Virginia, where it was left after the war, to Connecticut to be mounted on a granite pedestal subsequently. In 1958 the mortar's authenticity as the Petersburg Express was called into question by a newspaper in Oneonta, New York, claiming to have the real Petersburg Express within the city. Still today, some historians question the mortar's authenticity as the mortar used at the Siege of Petersburg.
