“Gunboat at Alexandria (Virginia)” by Mathew B. Brady, published in Benson J. Lossing’s A History of the Civil War (1912). I find this image from the American Civil War to be haunting, the enormous mortar in repose. Boats like this were not meant for actual combat, but rather stood off at a “safe” distance and coughed up shells that soared high into the sky, paused at the top of the arc and then accelerated all the way down to their intended target, usually the insides of enemy fortifications, where their impact and explosion were meant to discourage enemy fire and encourage enemy surrender. A most impersonal but devastating weapon.
