PROFESSOR THADDEUS LOWE
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS
Letter from Thaddeus Lowe to Professor Joseph Henry
Note: page 2 was not available
Excerpts from Letter from Thaddeus Lowe to Joseph Henry, July 15, 1863:
To.
Professor Joseph Henry
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir.
I beg pardon for troubling you with
my affairs connected with the Government but in as
much as the first operations of Balloons for Military
purposes were under your immediate supervision,
and you being acquainted with the fact that these
experiments were made with my own machinery and
subsequently used in the field by order of Captain
A. W. Whipple later Gen'l Whipple now dead and
from whom I can get no assistance, I hope that
you will find it consistent to furnish to the Hon. Secre-
tary of War such a statement as will satisfy him
of the truthfulness of my claims. In order that you
may know what my claims are and judge of their
correctness I enclose them with this letter.
The way I now stand in relation to my employment with the government
is this... The amount I have received for service has barely supported my
family at home and myself in the field. For want of a proper investigation of
the advantages of my branch of science and proper organization of the
Department its use has been suspended, which throws me out of employment too
late in the season to resume my former enterprise, besides which my health is
considerably impaired by hard work and constant exposure in the field - while
in the government employ I have managed my Department, with the strictest
economy and with the very best of faith and did all that I possibly could for
the cause in which we were engaged.
My report shows this and also the great value of my services on
several particular occasions in testimony of which I have letters from Major
Generals Heintzelman and Stoneman and shall soon have obtained a dozen others
from Generals who have used the balloons...
As things now stand, I hope at least to be able to obtain the amount
contained in the accompanying accounts and the one already at the War
Department for the approval of the Hon. Secretary of War the whole amounting
to about three thousand
dollars. Should I meet with much delay in getting
this amount it will probably defeat the object for
which I have been laboring for many years, and
will consequently put me to much distress. Again,
asking your pardon for troubling you. Knowing as
I do, that in addition to your labors at the
Smithsonian Institution, that much of your time
is occupied in rendering valuable scientific service
in the General Government.
I remain with great respect
Your ever obd't servant
T. S. C. Lowe
Aeronaut
No 1617 Race St.