In the spring of 1861, in Cincinnati, when the weather was exactly right, Professor Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe cut loose from his moorings at 4:00 a.m. on the morning of April 21st and took off on what was to be the longest and fastest balloon flight up to that time.
Professor Lowe, originally of New Hampshire, later Ohio, and finally California, theorized that there was an upper stream of air that continually flowed in an easterly direction and that if he made a balloon large enough, he could take off and fly to Europe non-stop. He made a few trial flights over Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Ottawa, Canada, in small balloons before moving to Cincinnati in 1860 to construct a large, home-made gas bag that was designed to lift several hundred pounds. He named it the “Enterprise.”
The account in the Cincinnati Enquirer reveals that the big ball was inflated with hydrogen gas supplied by the Cincinnati city gas works. When the balloon was full and started up and away, she headed for California, but when the huge sphere got away from the surface currents at about 7,000 feet, she reversed her course and headed east.
According to accounts, Lowe traveled much faster than he expected. His instruments indicated that he was cruising at an average height of 16,000 feet and that his speed was 100 miles per hour. At one time during the flight he reached an altitude of 23,000 feet.
At sun-up, Lowe wondered where he was. He dropped the balloon down to a lower altitude above a man plowing in a field, and shouted, “Where am I?” The puzzled farmer stopped plowing, looked all around but saw nothing. He returned to his work and Lowe yelled again. This time the farmer answered, “You’re in Virginia!” The aeronaut thanked him and began to dump ballast over the side of the basket to gain altitude. When the planter saw sand falling out of the sky, he looked up in time to get a fleeting glimpse of one of this country’s first unidentified flying objects. The terrified man took off like Chicken Little. He left his plow and mule in the middle of the field and headed for the barn screaming.
The amused professor sailed on and finally landed on Pea Ridge, near Unionville, now Union, South Carolina, the county seat of Union County. He was soon surrounded by astounded farmers and field hands brandishing pitchforks and shotguns. He had a hard time explaining that he was human and not from some other planet. Fort Sumter had surrendered to the Confederates just one week before and some people thought he was a Yankee spy.
Eventually convinced that the professor was not from outer space, or a spy, the crowd escorted him to Unionville. On file in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Institute of Aerospace Sciences, is an account of the unexpected visit.
Unionville, 21st April 1861
The Citizens of Unionville received a visit from Professor T. S. C. Lowe, who arrived near this place on yesterday at one o’clock, P.M., in his beautiful balloon, the Enterprise, having ascended from the city of Cincinnatti [sic] Ohio, a little before four A.M., making the passage in nine hours. Mr. Lowe, presented to several gentlemen, the papers of Cincinatti [Cincinnati Daily Commercial] of the same morning—which is certainly, the next thing to the telegraph. Mr. Lowe made his quarters at the hotel of Messers Fant and Powell, who extended every attention and courtesy to the adventurous gentleman. Throughout the day he received the calls of our citizens generally who were no less social and kind than they were surprised.
P. M. Wallace
A. W. Thompson
Jesse Lamb
Joseph Fant
Thomas McNally
A. Barrett
Thaddeus Lowe made such a big hit with the people of Unionville that one of the community leaders prepared a letter of introduction for him to take with him to Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, before returning to Cincinnati.
Unionville, 22nd April 1861
John Calwell, Esq.
Col. Richard Anderson
Gentlemen:
This will be handed to you and introduce to your acquaintance Professor T. S. C. Lowe, who arrived in our town on Saturday evening last after having left Cincinnati in the State of Ohio as he says and as appears from a statement in a paper of that city dated on the 20th April 1861, which paper he said he did not [know] what it contained at the time he handed to us only that it gave an account of his departure from Ohio at the time therein and we asked him to give us some copies of that paper as a matter of curiosity but on examining the paper I do not approve of the political opinions it contains and Professor Lowe says he is no politician but only engaged in his profession of an aeronaut in which I hope he will succeed. If you can render him any assistance in getting on his way or any other assistance you can render him will confer a lasting favor on our friend.
(signed) A. W. Thompson
News of the record-breaking flight, approximately 900 miles in nine hours, was flashed back to the North by telegraph. Lowe became a nationally famous figure overnight.
Three months later, the Yankees came out second best in the first battle of Bull Run and this caused much concern at the White House. In late July 1861, President Lincoln called in Lowe, talked with him about aerial reconnaissance from captive balloons, and hired him as a civilian balloonist with the pay of an Army colonel—ten dollars in gold per day. He sent Professor Lowe the aeronaut to see General Winfield Scott, the commander of the Army, with this note: “Will Lieut. Genl. Scott please see Professor Lowe once more about his balloon?”
Lincoln was certain that aerial reconnaissance of the Confederate lines would give the Union Army a definite advantage. The President had been “sold” on balloons for the army ever since Professor Lowe’s ascent on 18 June 1861. On this flight, Lowe had sent the president the first electronic message from a lighter-than-air craft. He sent the message from a tethered balloon from an altitude of about 500 feet.
Balloon Enterprise in the air
To His Excellency, Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United States
Dear Sir:
From this point of observation we command an extent of country nearly fifty miles in diameter. I have the pleasure of sending you this first telegram ever dispatched from an aerial station, and acknowledging indebtedness to your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of the science of aeronautics in the service of the country.
I am, Your excellency’s obedient servant,
(signed) T. S. C. Lowe
Professor Lowe didn’t exactly design the first aircraft carrier, but he was among the first to fly from one—a “balloon carrier.” Shortly after joining the U. S. government as an aeronaut, one of his first projects was to request the Navy to furnish him a “balloon boat” that he could use as a mobile carrier for his aerial observations.
For the balloon carrier project, the Navy purchased a coal barge, the George Washington Parke Custis.[*] It was fitted out with gas generating gear invented by Professor Lowe. Most of the modifications were done by John A. Dahlgren at the Washington Navy Yard.
A few months after his unusual cross-country flight, Professor T. S. C. Lowe had become the chief aeronaut of the Army of the Potomac and was making balloon observations of Confederate troop movements.
On 10 November 1861, the balloon boat was ready to go on carrier duty. The sidewheel steamer, Coeur de Lion, loaned to the Navy Department by the Lighthouse Board, towed the modified coal carrier down the Potomac. On the next day, Lowe, accompanied by General Daniel Sickles, made an ascension off Mattawoman Creek to see what Johnny Reb was doing on the Virginia shore three miles away.
On the third day, Lowe had seen enough to make his first aerial reconnaissance report: “We had a fine view of the enemy camp fires during the evening and saw the rebels constructing batteries at Freestone Point.” This trial balloon operation was so successful that it led to the widespread use of balloons by the Union Army.
After Lowe had built his balloon corps up to six “bags” in the Army of the Potomac, he started signing his dispatches as “Chief of Aeronautics” instead of just plain “Chief Aeronaut.”
The “Chief” continued to experiment with air-to-ground telegraphy and flew captive balloon reconnaissance missions high above the fighting troops. In May 1862, it is said that he located a large body of concealed Rebels; using a “spy glass,” from his observation balloon, he telegraphed their position back to the Union army below.
The Cincinnati Enquirer observed that “This marked the first time that air and ground forces worked together in combat.”
During the same month, General Fitz John Porter went up with the Chief as a passenger. When the big gas bag was over the spot where General George R. McClellan and his staff were stationed, the Confederates opened up with everything they had to try to shoot the large target down. One of the first Rebel projectiles landed very near where General McClellan was standing. While descending, the aeronaut received this cryptic message from one of the General’s aides: “The general says the balloon must not ascend from the place it is now anymore!”
The Yankees were so successful with their balloons and their propaganda that it was rumored that the southern belles around Richmond were collecting silk petticoats with an idea of making a Rebel balloon to compete with the Yankee six-balloon air force.
Professor Lowe continued his small-scale research and development program and invented a mobile wagon-mounted gas generator that was pulled by horses to the balloon ascension sites.
It is the general concensus [sic] that the use of balloons in combat during the Civil War reached a peak during the Peninsular campaign in the spring of 1862. The information gained from balloon reconnaissance in the battle of Fair Oaks, a railhead just east of Richmond, was the determining factor in this engagement.
Several times during Professor Lowe’s career as Chief of Aeronautics, Army of the Potomac, he tried to get a commission in the Army, but each time he failed. On one of the last times he tried to get commissioned as an officer, he wrote to a close friend in Philadelphia.
National Hotel
Washington, D.C
Jan. 30, 1862
Dear Sir:
I am about to undertake a series of balloon observations which would expose me to be treated as a spy, should I fall into the hands of the enemy. I am, therefore, desirous of obtaining from the Government some commission, even if temporary, which will entitle me to the protection of an acknowledged agent of the Army of the United States.
Will you do me the favor to furnish me with such an expression of your opinion of me as an aeronaut, and as a reliable man, as I may place before the War Department in support of my petition. I now hold, by appointment, the position of Chief Aeronaut to the Army of the U. S., but without commission.
Mr. Wm. Hamilton, Esq.
Philadelphia
Very Respectfully,
Your Ob’t Sv’t.,
(signed) T. S. C. Lowe
Bickering and salary squabbles between Professor Lowe, his superiors, and underlings, caused him to turn sour on Army “civilian” service. He left the Army in 1863, but before he departed he struck a blow for the future of aviation in his final report. He wrote:
“I would most respectfully recommend [the aeronautic department] being permanently adopted as an arm of the military service.”
History has proven that his recommendation was a sound one.
[*] See W. T. Adams, “The Birth of the Aircraft Carrier,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1967, pp. 162-165.