On one afternoon late in the month of May the inhabitants of the capital city of a certain warring government, by looking northward, might have seen, if they occupied advantageous viewpoints, one of the enemy's aircraft at no great distance away.
Had this particular capital city been London, or Paris, or Rome, and had the time been the present, the appearance of an airship of an enemy on the horizon would have been a signal for a general scramble for storm cellars in the expectation of a shower of bombs, for this particular airship was just 4 miles away in an airline.
Fortunately for the onlookers in the city, their homes were not located in any of the allied capitals, and the time was more than half a century removed from the double tragedy in Sarajevo. There was no rush for storm cellars and no bursting of bombs. The only explosions incident to the appearance of the aerostat, in fact, were the discharges of cannon aimed at the intruder; and fortunately for the airman, the incident under discussion antedated by many years the development of aerial guns and gunners, so that he too entirely escaped injury. The only result of the aircraft's appearance so near the enemy's stronghold that May afternoon, so far as history records, is the following dispatch:
May 27, 1862.
Gen. A. A. Humphreys:
Ascended at 4.45 p. m. one mile from Mechanicsville and I should judge, four miles from Richmond, in an airline. At 5 o'clock three batteries opened upon me, firing many shots, some falling short and some passing beyond the balloon and one over it, while it was at an elevation of 300 to 400 feet. A battle is going on about four miles distant; heavy cannonading and musketry. I will go up again and report.
T. S. C. LOWE.
Brigadier General Humphreys was then chief of topographical engineers of the Army of the Potomac and the day before had been given direction of the balloon department.1 Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe was chief of the balloon corps of the army. The date and places mentioned identify the incident with General George B. McClellan's Peninsular Campaign against Richmond.
Military aeronautics in the Sixties was a very different proposition from military aeronautics in 1917. There was no bomb dropping then, no duels in midair, no flights overseas to bombard an enemy's cities. The Civil War airman was generally let up in his balloon 1000 feet or so and, while stout ropes anchored his gas bag to the earth, he or those accompanying him made observations of the enemy's movements, or the topography of the country ahead, or even made photographs. However, even this comparatively modest scope of duty involved risks. There was always a chance that a shell luckily aimed would tear the balloon to pieces and the balloonist be dropped to destruction, for it was to be expected that as soon as the aerostat rose above the friendly tree tops the enemy's batteries in range would promptly make it a target.
What was done at Washington in 1861 toward the promotion of military aeronautics becomes of peculiar interest now in view of the vast importance attached in many quarters to the airplane in connection with the United States' part in the world war. Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary has expressed the belief that the aeroplane will prove the deciding factor in the war. Administration bills introduced early in July carried an appropriation of $639,000,000, and contemplated the construction of 22,625 aeroplanes the first year. The President himself has written Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, strongly endorsing the production of aircraft and the training of men to operate them. If the signs are read aright, this country will soon be mistress of the air, and more pronouncedly so than England is mistress of the sea.2
1Military aeronautics did not become a part of the work of the Signal Corps of the army until 1892.
2On June 22, 1917, the following letter from President Wilson to Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, was made public: "I have your letter of yesterday about the production of aircraft and the training of men to operate them and want to say that I am entirely willing to back up such a programme as you suggest. I hope that you will present it in the strongest possible way to the proper committee of congress."
The attitude of official Washington toward military aeronautics in 1861 was quite different, though as recently as the battle of Solferino in 1859 balloons had been used to good purpose by the French. Washington did manifest interest in the airmen it is true; there were some interesting experiments and some marked advances made, but there was uncertainty and hesitation on the part of officials which must have tried the patience of the aeronauts who were only too anxious to serve the government. Three men whose names have places in the history of aeronautics were competitors for the honor of heading the balloon department. They were Professor Lowe, John Wise and James Allen.
Professor Lowe was a practical scientist of note, a New Englander by nativity, born in Jefferson, N. H., August 20, 1832. Among the achievements accredited to his long and useful life is the manufacture of ice, he having been the pioneer maker of artificial ice in this country.3 He died at Pasadena, Cal., January 16, 1913. Lowe observatory located upon a peak of the Sierra Madre mountains perpetuates his name.
Wise was a Pennsylvanian, a veteran airman and pioneer parachute adventurer, whose life was subsequently lost, supposedly in Lake Michigan, following an ascent at St. Louis on September 28, 1879.4
Allen was a Rhode Islander who became one of Professor Lowe's most valued assistants and who after the war entered the service of the Brazilian Government when that country, Argentine Republic and Uruguay were at war with Paraguay.4
3Taken from a sketch of Professor Lowe in Who's Who in America, 1908-9.
4Sketches of John Wise and James Allen are to be found in the National Cyclopædia of American Biography. In Series 3, Volume 3, War of the Rebellion Official Records, is an interesting letter from Allen to Professor Lowe, paying tribute to the latter's work as chief of the balloon corps of the Army of the Potomac.
Just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, Professor Lowe's attention had been centered upon the idea of sailing in a balloon across the Atlantic. With the endorsement of 16 citizens of Philadelphia, he sought financial aid of the Smithsonian Institution. Reporting upon the project, Professor Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Institution, did not recommend the appropriation of any institution funds to the enterprise, but he did express the belief that a balloon of sufficient size and sufficiently impermeable to gas to maintain a high elevation a long time would be wafted across the ocean, the fact having been established that no matter the direction of the wind near the earth's surface, the prevailing current in an upper region would be eastward. In accord with a suggestion made by Professor Henry, Professor Lowe in April made a long distance inland flight as an experiment, ascending at Cincinnati at 4 a. m., April 20, 1861, and alighting on the South Carolina coast at 1 p. m., having traversed the intervening 900 miles in nine hours.5
5Series 3, Volume 3. War of the Rebellion Official Records, and Who's Who in America, 1908-9.
When he went to Washington on June 5 to offer his experience to the government, young Lowe met with both competitors and discouragements, but through the persevering kindness of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution he succeeded in impressing the authorities with the value of his balloon as an aid to the army. On June 21, he received an order from Captain A. W. Whipple, of the topographical engineers, to report with his aerostat at Arlington. The next day the big gas bag was inflated at the works of the Washington Gas Company and towed across the Long Bridge to the Federal camp. The matter was not finally settled, however; as late as August 2, 1861, Secretary Henry was writing Captain Whipple again urging him not to abandon the idea of using war balloons. In the meantime the first battle of Manassas had been fought. Owing to the uncertainty as to whether Lowe or Wise was to be balloonist, it was the evening of July 21 (the date of the battle) before the former finally had his balloon inflated and was started on the way to Virginia. At Falls Church he received news of the disaster to McDowell's army. An aftermath of Manassas was the alarming rumor that the Confederates were marching upon the national capital, and in this connection Professor Lowe rendered a public service to the people of Washington. On July 24, he took a flight in his balloon to investigate the basis for the wild rumors current. A favorable west wind carried him over the country occupied by the Confederate forces, and having discerned nothing of an alarming nature he mounted to the higher regions of air to be carried home by the perennial east wind. He was carried across the Potomac without misadventure, but when he sought to descend he was greeted with rifle bullets, and shouts to show his colors. Being without a flag he was forced to ascend again and finally landed 2½ miles outside the Federal picket line. His observations published the next day served to quiet the excitement in Washington, however much the nerves of Professor Lowe may have suffered while his balloon was being shot at by the defenders of the city.
This was an exceptional use to which the balloon was put; as a general rule the war balloons of the Sixties were not set free, but were safely anchored to the earth by ropes. However, about the time that Professor Lowe's balloon was being made the target of Federal soldiers in Washington, a notable flight for the Federal army was made. John La Mountain, then with General Benjamin F. Butler at Fortress Monroe and later with McDowell (at least his balloon, the Atlantic, was with McDowell), was the man making the flight. Ascending to a height of 3500 feet he sailed over Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and up the James River, returning to Fortress Monroe with a diagram of the Confederate camps in the vicinity.6
6John La Mountain's flight was made on August 10, 1861. His report to General Butler is to be found in Series I, Volume 4, War of the Rebellion Official Records.
Early in August, 1861, the compensation of Professor Lowe, as head of the balloon department, was agreed upon. His pay was fixed at $10 per day; his position carried no military rank.7 So far all his observations had been made from his own balloon, the one in which he had made the Cincinnati-Carolina flight. On August 2 he was authorized to have a real war balloon constructed. It was to be made of the best India silk and to contain 25,000 cubic feet of gas. Three anchor ropes, 1200 to 1500 feet in length, were included in the specifications. This balloon, according to Professor Lowe, was the first real war balloon ever constructed. By August 28, it was completed and two days later it was in the air betimes, Professor Lowe discovering the Confederate batteries on Munson's Hill and Clark's Hill, sufficiently near to Washington for the southern troops to obtain distant views of the capital. During that afternoon the balloon was moved to Ball's Cross-roads, where cannon balls fired at it fell nearer to Washington than any fired in that direction up to the time of Gettysburg.
7The government's original proposition was pay at the rate of $30 a day for each day the balloon was in use for reconnaissance on the Virginia side of the Potomac, according to the letter of Captain A. W. Whipple, which is reproduced in Series 3, Volume 3, War of the Rebellion Official Records.
During the autumn of 1861, on the recommendation of General McClellan, the Secretary of War ordered Professor Lowe to have four more war balloons constructed. These were christened the Constitution, the Washington, the Intrepid and the Union. One of these was sent to Port Royal, S. C., to cooperate with the command of General Thomas W. Sherman. Later it was used about the mouth of the Savannah River.8
The balloon department was more or less conspicuous on a number of battle-fields of the war. The war balloon Eagle was with Commodore A. H. Foote during his attack on Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River in the spring of 1862.9 There is a suggestion of modern aeronautics in the following reference in Professor Lowe's account of this balloon:
During the bombardment (of Island No. 10) an officer of the Navy ascended and discovered that our shot and shell went beyond the enemy, and by altering our range our forces were soon able to compel the enemy to evacuate.
In McClellan's Peninsular Campaign the balloonists rendered signal service. It was from a balloon sent up from the Federal camp that discovery was first made that the Confederates had abandoned their works at Yorktown, which barred the way to Richmond. Later, at the battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, information furnished by a balloonist led McClellan to order General Edwin V. Sumner to rush the construction of a bridge across the Chickahominy and cross his corps to help the troops on the south side of the swollen river at a crucial moment.
8J. B. Starkweather, of Boston, was the aeronaut with this balloon.
9In the abstract of the log of the Mortar Division of the U. S. Western Flotilla, March 14 to April 10, 1862, occurs this reference to the balloon:
"March 25.—At about 3 p. m. balloon ascensions were made in Captain Steiner's balloon Eagle, to the height of 500 feet. The day being hazy they could not define fully the position of the enemy, but the experiment proved satisfactory."—Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Volume 22.
It was during this campaign that General Fitz-John Porter had his thrilling adventure in the air. From the Federal camp before Yorktown he had himself let up to make observations and the rope, anchoring the balloon, having been eaten by acid, parted. Word was quickly carried to McClellan that the balloon had broken away and had come to earth 3 miles distant, which meant that the landing had been made within the Confederate lines. The commander promptly sent out to the pickets to ascertain the facts and prepared to make a demonstration hoping to rescue his subordinate. Just about that time Porter walked into headquarters, a vagrant air current having brought the balloon back into the Federal camp after a voyage over the enemy's lines.
No less than three war balloons were used in the Peninsular Campaign, which campaign was the high water mark of military aeronautics during the war.
The balloon corps also saw service at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when General A. E. Burnside commanded the Army of the Potomac.10 On this occasion General Burnside ordered the balloon kept in concealment until the day of the battle. Early in the morning of that bloody day ascensions began, the balloon's station being directly over the general's headquarters. Several times the Confederate cannoneers took shots at it, and one cannon ball, which passed very close to it, fell 2 miles beyond it, the elevation of the gun having carried the missile over 3 miles. In striking contrast to the present day reliance placed upon aircraft for scouting purposes, it is pertinent to mention that critics of the battle of Fredericksburg have vigorously condemned Burnside for making aeronauts instead of cavalry his dependence in securing information.11
10The Fourth Maine Infantry, Colonel Elijah Walker, furnished the detail, an officer and 30 men, to assist the balloonist at Fredericksburg. Series 1, Volume 21, War of the Rebellion Official Records, Colonel Walker's report.
11Steele's "American Campaigns" says: "'His balloon,' says Colonel Henderson in his life of Stonewall Jackson, ‘had reported large Confederate bivouacs below Skinker’s Neck, and he appears to have believed that Lee . . . . had posted half his army in that neighborhood.’ Colonel Allan remarks: ‘He appears to have relied chiefly upon his balloons—a wretched substitute at best for scouts and cavalry, and especially so in a broken and heavily wooded country.’"
When the battle of Chancellorsville was fought early in May, 1863, there were two balloons with the Army of the Potomac, the Eagle and the Washington. The others on April 17 had been sent to Washington for repairs. One of the two remained in the vicinity of Fredericksburg when General Hooker launched his great flanking movement. The other was carried to Banks' ford of the Rappahannock River. It was at Chancellorsville on May 2, it will be remembered, that "Stonewall" Jackson, before receiving his death wound, marched a large part of the Confederate Army across the Federal front and fell at sundown upon the unsuspecting right wing of Hooker's army—rather a poor showing at first glance for the balloon corps. The following exchange of messages between Professor Lowe and General Hooker's chief of staff may serve to exonerate the balloonist, however:
May 2, 1863, 12 m.
Prof. Lowe:
Why is not the balloon up, and why do we not hear from it?
DANL. BUTTERFIELD, Major-General.
12.30 p. m.
Major-General Butterfield, etc.:
General, I have made several efforts to ascend, but found the wind too high and could not use the glass. It is getting calmer now, and I will try again.
T. S. C. LOWE.
May 2, 1863, 1.05 p. m.
The enemy remain the same opposite this point, and no movement is visible on any of the roads seen from the balloon. The wind continues so flawy that the balloon was blown from a thousand feet elevation to near the earth.
T. S. C. LOWE.
Observations taken the next morning from the balloon near Fredericksburg were more fruitful. Ascending there about 7 o'clock Professor Lowe reported the Confederate line very thin opposite his point of observation and especially so immediately in the rear of Fredericksburg. The Federal troops were concentrated and at 11 o'clock the weakest point was assaulted and carried.12 The last fruitful ascents were in this connection—the attack of Sedgwick upon Marye's Heights. The heavy storm of May 5 and 6 caused the loss of all the gas in one balloon and some of the gas in the other. Ten carboys of acid and four barrels of iron trimmings were also destroyed. On May 7, Professor Lowe retired from the service.
12Professor Lowe assumes in his account that his observations were responsible for the discovery of the weakness in the Confederate line. General William Barksdale's report of the fighting on Marye's Heights attributes this discovery to the improper reception of a flag of truce sent over by the Federals to ask a truce for the removal of the wounded. Barksdale commanded a Mississippi brigade; he lost his life at Gettysburg.
On April 7, 1863, Captain Cyrus B. Comstock, Corps of Engineers (the late General Comstock, of New York), had been assigned to the immediate direction of the balloon establishment by order of General Hooker. Friction between the new commander and Professor Lowe developed early. In less than a week Captain Comstock proposed to eliminate from the balloon corps Clovis Lowe, the chief's father, and John O'Donnell, and to reduce Professor Lowe's pay from $10 to $6 per day. Professor Lowe wrote an aggrieved letter to General Butterfield, Hooker's chief of staff, announcing that it would be impossible for him in justice to his family to serve at the proposed figure, but promising to lend his best efforts toward making a success of the next battle, which proved to be Chancellorsville. The promise was kept, and when the battle was over he left the service. According to his own account, he received no pay for the last month of his service, nor did he prior to the order for the construction of the original war balloon which went into commission on August 30, 1861. Several writers of the war period have given him credit for working indefatigably by night as well as day in carrying out his contract with the army.13
13At the time he severed his connection with the balloon corps, Professor Lowe addressed a lengthy communication to Secretary Stanton, in the nature of a protest at the treatment which brought about his retirement. This communication takes up 70 pages in Series 3, Volume 3, War of the Rebellion Official Records, and furnishes the basis for this account of military aeronautics in Civil War times. Observations of Professor Lowe's work with the Army of the Potomac, recorded by Colonel Beaumont, of the Royal Engineers of the English Army, reproduced in "Travels in Space," E. Seton Valentine and F. L. Tomlinson, throw some light on the devotion which Professor Lowe gave to his duties. "The balloon staff with McClellan," says Colonel Beaumont, "consisted of one chief aeronaut whose rank I could never quite make out, but it was not lower than a captain nor higher than a brigadier; he was a civilian and by profession an aeronaut; he was very highly paid, the same as a brigadier. . . . . At any rate he was a very clever man, and indefatigable in carrying out his work. By night or day, whenever the weather gave a chance of seeing anything, he was engaged on his observations," etc.
Military aeronautics in Civil War times reached the highest state of development during the time that McClellan commanded the Army of the Potomac. With the retirement of Professor Lowe as chief of the corps, the war balloons seem to drop out of the official records of the war, or nearly so.14 At the time Burnside succeeded to the command of the army the balloon corps represented a highly advanced department as things went in those days. The corps then possessed the following apparatus:
Six balloons with portable gas generating apparatus by which one of the balloons could be inflated at any place, sufficiently to raise two men and the anchoring ropes a thousand feet or more, in three hours time.
A telegraph train with five miles of insulated wire permitting reports to be telegraphed directly from a balloon in air to the headquarters of the commanding general.
A lighting apparatus producing a powerful oxy-hydrogen or calcium light by means of which a force of two thousand men could work at night as well as by daylight.
Powerful magnifying lenses by which photographs of three inches square could be magnified to twenty feet square.
A set of small signal balloons for use during either day or night, to which fires of red, white, green, or blue could be attached, burning ten times as long, with greater brilliancy and costing no more than rockets.
The balloons were kept inflated from one to two months without a change of gas, and when in commission were ready for an ascent on five minutes notice.15
14An interesting reference to the Federal war balloons, appearing subsequent to Professor Lowe's retirement, is to be found in the following dispatch to General G. T. Beauregard's chief of staff at Charleston, recorded in Series 1, Volume 35, Part 1, War of the Rebellion Official Records
MOUNT PLEASANT, (S. C.), January 25, 1864.
Brig. Gen. Thomas Jordan:
I have information that balloons have gone up for the last three nights from Capers' Island; they have not gone up in the daytime. The object must have been to discover camp-fires. I have given directions to insure their seeing a number of them after to-night, and shall commence rocket practice. Shall also send a reconnoitering party in that direction.
R. S. RIPLEY, Brigadier-General.
15The apparatus given here was enumerated in a letter addressed by Professor Lowe to Major General John G. Parke, General Burnside's chief of staff, November 20, 1862. The letter is to be found in Series 3, Volume 3, War of the Rebellion Official Records.
Among the aeronauts connected with the balloon department at various times were Professor Lowe, James Allen, E. S. Allen, J. B. Starkweather, Clovis Lowe (the chief's father), Captain E. Seaver, John O'Donnell and William Paulding. During the days when the balloons were in active use many of the generals took advantage of the opportunity to make ascents in them and observe the positions and movements of the Confederates. Among the number were Generals Irvin McDowell, McClellan, Daniel E. Sickles, Stoneman, Heintzelman, Fitz-John Porter, Daniel Butterfield and the Comte de Paris, who was an aide on McClellan's staff at the time. Another foreigner with the Army of the Potomac as a military observer was Count Zeppelin; and it is said that the father of the dreadnought of the air obtained valuable ideas on military aviation by watching the operations of the balloon corps of the Army of the Potomac.
In comparison with the well-equipped balloon department of the Army of the Potomac, the efforts of the Confederates in aeronautics were scarcely deserving of technical consideration. A war balloon which they made use of during the Peninsular Campaign was a very crude affair—a great cotton bag treated to make it impervious to air, and inflated with hot air derived from burning pine knots and turpentine. General Joseph E. Johnston brought it down from Richmond when he came to the relief of General J. B. Magruder, who had entrenched the Peninsula at Yorktown. Several ascents in this balloon were made by John Randolph Bryan, a young member of Magruder's staff. Some observations that were of value were made from this homely airship. At least one ascent in it was a highly thrilling adventure for the young aeronaut.
Just before the Confederate Army fell back from Yorktown, according to Mr. Bryan, the Confederate balloon squad was waked in the middle of the night with an order to heat up the aerostat for an ascension to discover the direction in which Federal troops were moving. The young aeronaut—he had made but two ascensions before—counted himself lucky in making a night instead of a day trip, expecting to escape the Federal gunners the better. The preparations for the ascension began satisfactorily enough for the occupant of the balloon basket.
However, a balloon ascension was a novel spectacle for many of the southern soldiers; every time the great cotton bag was inflated large numbers of them assembled to watch the proceeding. On the occasion of this night ascension a crowd of curious soldiers gathered about the balloon squad, intently following each detail of the preliminaries. The balloon had been let up to an altitude of about 400 feet when one of these intent bystanders, heedless of where he planted his feet, inadvertently stepped into the coil of the anchor rope and was directly being whisked toward the windlass by means of which the balloon was raised and lowered. The fellow yelled promptly and lustily, and a comrade, seizing an axe, severed the balloon rope with a blow—and away went the balloon!
The balloon's leap upward, a distance of about 2 miles, as it seemed to young Bryan in the car, left the latter breathless and sick. Finally, though, the balloon climbed no higher and the condition of the passenger began to improve; he began to think of his probable fate. One possibility was that the balloon might be blown out into Chesapeake Bay; another was that the balloon might descend within the enemy's lines and the balloonist be captured and treated as a spy. The hot air in the bag began to cool and the balloon began to descend. Capture seemed the certain fate of the balloonist, for his airship drifted from over the Confederate camp across the Federal lines. Further and further, the big cotton bag settled, and finally Bryan's heart began to beat hopefully—another current of air had begun to waft it back over the Confederate lines. The young balloonist's satisfaction, however, was short-lived; the Confederates camped below mistook him for an enemy, and the soldiers—the regiment was the Second Florida—began chasing the balloon and shooting at it. Then once again an elfish current of air took the balloon in charge and blew it out over the York River, 3 or 4 miles wide at that point. The prospect now was that the balloon would end its career in the river, and Bryan stripped off his clothes in expectation or having to swim for his life; his boots being fashionable and tight fitting had to be ripped off. When the balloon rope was dragging in the river, the wind veered still again and the young aeronaut came to earth in an orchard, where he made his airship fast, borrowed a horse, and dashed off to General Johnston's headquarters, 6 or 8 miles away, to make a report of the observations he had managed to make in spite of the thrills of various character experienced during the expedition. It was young Bryan's last ascension, General Johnston after receiving his report allowing him to return to his Post at Magruder's headquarters.16 The Confederate balloon, however, was in service as late as the battle of Gaines' Mill on June 27.17
16Captain Bryan's account of his experiences as balloonist of the Army of Northern Virginia is to be found in the Confederate Veteran of April.1914, reprinted from the Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch.
17Mention of the Confederate balloon is made in the following dispatch from Professor Lowe, recorded in Series 3, Volume 3, War of the Rebellion Official Records:
June 27, 1862, 9.20 a. m.
Brigadier-General Humphrey, or General Marcy, Chief of Staff:
Although I reported myself ill on this occasion I will remain constantly in the balloon, and if you will send me two orderlies I will keep headquarters constantly informed of what can be seen from the balloon. My assistants that you speak of are trying to save the property in their charge. In an exact north direction from here, and about two miles and a half from the river, in an open field, there are large bodies of troops, but I should judge they were too far down on our right to be the enemy. On a hill this side of Doctor Gaines' house there is a long line of skirmishers stationary. On the field near where General Morell was camped everything is on fire.
About four miles to the west from here the enemy have a balloon about 300 feet in the air. By appearances I should judge that the enemy might make an attack on our left at any moment. We are firing occasional shots on our left.
T. S. C. LOWE.
In several departments of the science of war, the Confederates were notable for the innovations which necessity forced them to develop to compete with the superior equipment and resources of the enemy. Military aeronautics does not seem to have been one. It was the North which set the pace in aerial operations. The Federal balloons corps was responsible for a very material advance in the matter of inflating balloons, the gas necessary being generated wherever wanted and the time of inflation greatly reduced. The balloons of the aeronaut corps of the Army of the Potomac, it was claimed, ascended four times as high as balloons (with ropes) had ascended before. On June 18, 1861, it is recorded that messages were sent by telegraph to the earth from a balloon in air, one of the first such messages going to President Lincoln from a balloon 1000 feet above ground. On November 11, 1861, the first balloon expedition by water was successfully carried out, the scene being the Potomac River at the mouth of Mattawoman Creek.18 Should the present efforts result in making the United States preeminent in the air one might in all justice say that it is but another instance of history repeating itself.
18The account of the first balloon expedition by water is found in a report made by Professor Lowe to Lieut. Colonel A. V. Colburn, of General McClellan's staff, recorded in Series 3, Volume 3, War of the Rebellion Official Records, as follows:
Navy Yard,
WASHINGTON, D. C., November 12, 1861.
Lieutenant-Colonel Colburn:
DEAR SIR: I have the pleasure of reporting the complete success of the first balloon expedition by water ever attempted. I left the navy-yard early Sunday morning, the 10th instant, with a lighter (formerly the G. W. P. Custis) towed out by the steamer Coeur de Lion, having on board competent assistant aeronauts, together with my new gas generating apparatus, which, though used for the first time, worked admirably. We located at the mouth of Mattawoman Creek, about three miles from the opposite or Virginia shore. Yesterday I proceeded to make observations, accompanied in my ascensions by General Sickles and others. We had a fine view of the enemy's camp-fires during the evening, and saw the rebels constructing new batteries at Freestone Point. I was under the necessity of returning for some necessary articles this morning, and will go back immediately to continue in person the reconnaissances.
After making all necessary arrangements below, and leaving a competent aeronaut and assistants in charge, I shall return and place the other balloons wherever the general desires them. I have now a competent aeronaut for each of the new balloons, and in the course of a few days they can all be in active operation.
I will call and see you on my return.
Your obedient servant,
T. S. C. LOWE, Aeronaut.