EDIT: Thank you all for your answers, I figured I blew the switch with the initial wiring attempt. Things happen when you don’t think before you do, will be more patient next time!
I have a single-pole light switch in a room I want to replace with a dimmer switch. When I pulled the old switch out of the box it only had two black wires and a ground wire connected. I originally tried pigtailing off of the white wires and putting that into the load terminal on the switch without testing anything first (like an idiot), and I put both black wires into the hot terminal, with the ground wire connected to ground. I turned the breaker on and it was on for a moment, then popped the breaker. Since then I rewired it to how it is in the photos above, and I am worried I might have broken the switch with my original wiring attempt? I believe I am currently just having an issue with finding the load wire because whenever I turn on the breaker the switch works but doesn’t dim the lights when I turn it. Any help (or criticism) is appreciated.