The Birth of Railway Guns
German railway guns of WWI and WWII are famous, but the Russians were the first to theorize about such weapons during the 19th century. The Americans were the first to put the idea into practice during their Civil War!
The Lee-Brooke Railgun
The Lee-Brooke railgun was the very first railway gun ever produced that saw action! The Confederates fitted a 32 pound Brooke Banded Rifle naval gun to a carriage protected by a sloped steel beam casemate. This platform was used to defend Richmond in June 1862.
The Dictator: Union’s Contribution
The Union played around with the idea too, fitting a 13-inch siege mortar to a rail cart. “The Dictator,” as it was called, was successfully used in a counter-battery role during the siege of Petersburg in 1864.
-RBM.
