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I don't actually know that the huge mortar that plays the role of antagonist in this feline tale of horror, is, in fact the famous "Dictator."
But, it might have been, for the story takes place during the siege of Petersburg, where the Dictator was active. The writer is W. W. Blackford, for many years J.E.B. Stuart's Adjutant, but at this time serving as Chief Engineer of the Confederate Cavalry Headquarters.
Blackford takes up his story near the end of 1864:
The enemy had been constantly increasing the size and power of their mortars, for at first they used only the small size for pitching shells four or five inches in diameter into the trenches; but now we saw in the Northern papers that three- hundred-pound mortar shells were to be used against us and we looked forward to their coming with some apprehension. The first of these three-hundred pounders was connected with such an amusing scene at my quarters that I must relate it. I have before stated that my camp was back of old Blanford church, dug into the slope of the hill. From the camp to the church was an open, closely grazed field called the "common," sloping down towards the camp, and a favorite resort for cats from town at night. My fly was pitched in a dugout about ten feet wide dug back into the hill to a perpendicular wall about eight feet high. The back pole of the fly set against this perpendicular bank and reached three or four feet above the surface, so that there was an opening in the gable of the fly from the surface of the ground behind to the ridge pole* left in this way for light and air during the hot weather.
One night a working party was to be sent out to start a mine in an exposed place and the officers who were to go with it, four or five in number, were sitting around a table in my tent, examining a plan of the work I had made and was explaining to them. We were all intently engaged on this when we heard approaching through the still night air what sounded like a railroad express train. We all knew what it was. It was the long-expected three-hundred-pounder; but no one spoke, all pretending unawareness, and I went on with my explanation. It must have been three miles off when it started and by a computation I made it must have reached an elevation of at least five thousand feet. It seemed hours that we were kept in suspense, though I suppose it was not really more than two or three minutes. Presently the sound came from right over our heads, apparently, and increased to a terrific roar, becoming louder and louder every second and I was sure it was going to fall right on my table. In spite of all I could do I felt my hand on the plan in which I held my pencil begin to shake; so I had to stick the end of the pencil into the paper to keep it steady, and I found my explanations were becoming not as lucid as they might have been, nor my voice as steady as usual.
Just then a young Lieutenant sitting at the end of the table, a young fellow of not over eighteen or twenty, got so nervous that he slipped under the table; this started a titter among the others, which an instant later burst into an irrepressible roar of laughter from a most unexpected event. As I have said, the common above the fly was a resort for cats from the town at night, and these cats, hearing the fearful noise above them, and seeing the long stream of fire shooting towards them from the heavens, became completely demoralized and went scampering by as fast as they could run, back to the deserted houses where they made their homes. One huge tomcat, however, came tearing down the hill with eyes flaming, claws out, and hair on end, directly towards my fly. He was going so fast that he could not avoid the pit in which the fly stood, but came dashing, spitting and sputtering with one bound flop' on the table, and with another clear out at the front and away.
The effect was irresistible. If we were all to go to kingdom come the next instant, laugh we must, and laugh we did until the tears ran down our cheeks. Even the young fellow under the table was relieved and came crawling out looking very crestfallen, and this convulsed us the more. But still that horrid sound came fiercer and fiercer, and nearer and nearer, and more and more directly above us. The laugh cooled down as suddenly as it began and we looked around at each other very gravely. Then to our intense relief came a tremendous blow nearby; the earth shook like an earthquake as the great shell struck the ground twenty paces away. Then we waited and waited for the explosion, but it never came. The fuse had been extinguished by the blow.
Blackford takes up his story near the end of 1864:
The enemy had been constantly increasing the size and power of their mortars, for at first they used only the small size for pitching shells four or five inches in diameter into the trenches; but now we saw in the Northern papers that three- hundred-pound mortar shells were to be used against us and we looked forward to their coming with some apprehension. The first of these three-hundred pounders was connected with such an amusing scene at my quarters that I must relate it. I have before stated that my camp was back of old Blanford church, dug into the slope of the hill. From the camp to the church was an open, closely grazed field called the "common," sloping down towards the camp, and a favorite resort for cats from town at night. My fly was pitched in a dugout about ten feet wide dug back into the hill to a perpendicular wall about eight feet high. The back pole of the fly set against this perpendicular bank and reached three or four feet above the surface, so that there was an opening in the gable of the fly from the surface of the ground behind to the ridge pole* left in this way for light and air during the hot weather.
One night a working party was to be sent out to start a mine in an exposed place and the officers who were to go with it, four or five in number, were sitting around a table in my tent, examining a plan of the work I had made and was explaining to them. We were all intently engaged on this when we heard approaching through the still night air what sounded like a railroad express train. We all knew what it was. It was the long-expected three-hundred-pounder; but no one spoke, all pretending unawareness, and I went on with my explanation. It must have been three miles off when it started and by a computation I made it must have reached an elevation of at least five thousand feet. It seemed hours that we were kept in suspense, though I suppose it was not really more than two or three minutes. Presently the sound came from right over our heads, apparently, and increased to a terrific roar, becoming louder and louder every second and I was sure it was going to fall right on my table. In spite of all I could do I felt my hand on the plan in which I held my pencil begin to shake; so I had to stick the end of the pencil into the paper to keep it steady, and I found my explanations were becoming not as lucid as they might have been, nor my voice as steady as usual.
Just then a young Lieutenant sitting at the end of the table, a young fellow of not over eighteen or twenty, got so nervous that he slipped under the table; this started a titter among the others, which an instant later burst into an irrepressible roar of laughter from a most unexpected event. As I have said, the common above the fly was a resort for cats from the town at night, and these cats, hearing the fearful noise above them, and seeing the long stream of fire shooting towards them from the heavens, became completely demoralized and went scampering by as fast as they could run, back to the deserted houses where they made their homes. One huge tomcat, however, came tearing down the hill with eyes flaming, claws out, and hair on end, directly towards my fly. He was going so fast that he could not avoid the pit in which the fly stood, but came dashing, spitting and sputtering with one bound flop' on the table, and with another clear out at the front and away.
The effect was irresistible. If we were all to go to kingdom come the next instant, laugh we must, and laugh we did until the tears ran down our cheeks. Even the young fellow under the table was relieved and came crawling out looking very crestfallen, and this convulsed us the more. But still that horrid sound came fiercer and fiercer, and nearer and nearer, and more and more directly above us. The laugh cooled down as suddenly as it began and we looked around at each other very gravely. Then to our intense relief came a tremendous blow nearby; the earth shook like an earthquake as the great shell struck the ground twenty paces away. Then we waited and waited for the explosion, but it never came. The fuse had been extinguished by the blow.
[W.W. Blackford, War Years with Jeb Stuart, pp. 272-3]
Bringing the