ABSTRACT
The giant gun was nearly the size of a fire engine and had a giant conical metal shield that made it look like a metal monster. Built by Ohio inventors William Joslin and Charles Dickinson, this massive automatic weapon sat on an armored train carriage and used steam to fire projectiles. Dickinson tried to sell the gun to the city of Baltimore, but in the corrupt city, police took the weapon from Dickinson. They planned to use it on union recruits as they traveled through Baltimore. The Union didn’t like the idea of the confederates having an all-powerful steam gun, so they stole it. The steam gun spent the rest of the war on display, but it never actually saw battle. In reality, the Winans Steam gun looked like a super weapon but was less reliable than a regular powder fire gun.
