PROFESSOR THADDEUS LOWE
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS
NEAR COUP DE GRACE OF CONFEDERATE LEADERSHIP
May 31, 1862
General Robert E. Lee President Jefferson Davis General James Longstreet
LEE, pages 182-183
May 31 found Lee still restless. No commanding duties held him at his office. An irresistible desire to see what was happening on the front of the opposing armies led him to ride with some of his lieutenants to Johnston's headquarters. Learning that Johnston had gone forward, Lee went on. He found Johnston at a new headquarters. There was a tenseness in the air. Officers were coming and going. Johnston was preoccupied. A general movement evidently was afoot. That obvious fact Johnston must have announced to Lee, but he did not explain his plan in detail or tell Lee when the battle was to open.
Noon passed. Presently, from the southeast, came the intermittent mutter of heavy guns and, very faintly, after 3 o'clock, a sound that Lee's ear took to be the sound of musketry. But, no, Johnston explained; it could only be an artillery duel. Ere long, orders reached the troops waiting at the forks of the road, the word of command was passed, and Whiting's men hurried down the road that led toward the enemy.
Now a familiar mounted figure turned into the lane from the road. It was the President. A moment later - either by chance or with intent to avoid an embarrassing meeting - Johnston rode away across the field, in the direction of Whiting's march. Lee went out to meet Mr. Davis. The President's first question was what the musketry-fire meant. Lee explained that he thought it was musketry, but had been assured by Johnston that only artillery was in action. Together the two walked to the rear of the house and listened. There was now no mistaking the sound, faint though it was. Either a heavy skirmish or a battle was in progress.
Davis, always a soldier at heart, could never resist the impulse to ride to the sound of firing. He returned to his horse and started forward. Lee rode with him. It was now late afternoon. If a battle was being fought, night would soon end it, one way or another. They went down the road for nearly a mile, with a thick wood on their right and open ground on their left. Then, beyond a lane leading off toward the Chickahominy, they found a heavy tangle of timber on their left also. Whiting's and Pettigrew's brigades had left the road near this point and had deployed on the left, driving back Federal pickets to an unseen line.
Before they knew it, Lee and Davis were under hot fire. To their left, hidden Federal batteries were pouring a regular and well-placed fire into charging ranks that foundered over fallen logs and through the bushes, vainly seeking the Federal infantry.
WAR OF THE AERONAUTS, page 114
During the course of directing ground fire on an unseen enemy position, a target far off in the distance was selected. According to Lowe, the observing balloon was at a “height of one to two thousand feet and could very well discern a distinguished group of officials in a field beyond the tall timber.” Although it was not known just who the “distinguished group of officials” were, the order was given to fire in the general direction of the meeting, with the balloonist adjusting range and trajectory of the shots. (Thaddeus Lowe, My Balloons in Peace and War, page 83)
Years after the incident, Thaddeus Lowe came across the recollections of Confederate general James Longstreet on the events of that day:
While the order to open was going around to the batteries, President Davis and General Lee, with their staff and followers, were with me in a little open field near the rear of my right. We were in pleasant conversation, anticipating fruitful results from the fight, when our batteries opened. Instantly the Federal batteries responded most spitefully. It was impossible for the enemy to see us as we sat on our horses in the little field, surrounded by tall, heavy timber and thick undergrowth; yet a battery by chance had our range and exact distance, and poured upon us a terrific fire. The second or third shell burst in the midst of us, killing two or three horses and wounding one or two of our men. Our little party speedily retired to safer quarters. The Federals doubtless had no idea that the Confederate President, commanding general, and division commanders were receiving point-blank shot from their batteries. (Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Lough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Volume III, pages 400-01.
From Longstreet’s retelling of this incident, Thaddeus Lowe was convinced that the havoc rained downed upon the Confederacy’s high command that afternoon was a direct result of balloon-directed artillery fire.
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