PROFESSOR THADDEUS LOWE
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS
Summary of Balloon Operations During the American Civil War
Military Ballooning During the Early Civil War - pages 374 - 375
In general, the service performed by the balloon corps on the Potomac lines during the fall and winter of 1861-1862 was all that could be expected under the prevailing conditions and circumstances. Despite poor administrative organization as a result of its hybrid military - civilian status, and despite the rigors of winter weather, the aeronauts had accomplished their mission of vigilance and watchful observation from one end of the Potomac lines to the other. The information reported, though not of vital importance, had been accurate and reliable, and had provided the various commanders with a knowledge of the strength and position of the hostile forces confronting them that they would not have otherwise been able to obtain. Lowe had succeeded in organizing and maintaining continual and simultaneous observation at several stations of tactical importance. He had supervised the work of his assistants as well and as efficiently as circumstances permitted. And in every case, the general officers under whom the stations were assigned, were interested and satisfied with the results obtained. They had learned to regard the balloons as a valuable part of their intelligence service. The expansion of the service from one balloon to a corps, loosely organized as it was, had proved justified and successful. The support of Porter and McClellan had been fully rewarded.
Another
aspect of the success attained was present in the reaction that the
balloons produced at the various Confederate headquarters. The
continual presence of the Union aerostats caused apprehension and
misgivings more than once in the minds of the Southern commanders. In
November Beauregard had written to General Whiting that he believed the
numerous balloon ascensions to be indicative of impending offensive
operations on the part of the Federal army. At Leesburg, General D.H.
Hill commented on the fact that four Yankee balloons were constantly
hovering over the lines. And a deserter from his brigade declared that
General Stone's balloon at Edwards Ferry had been regarded as a serious
menance. "Its occupants, the man asserted, must have had a full view of
(Fort Evans) and the men there at work." At Centerville Longstreet
directed his brigadiers to conceal carefully the dummy guns mounted in
the outer works in order to prevent the enemy balloonists from
discovering their real nature. Thus the aeronautic operations not only
provided material advantage for the forces with which the corps
functioned, but also served to affect the morale of the enemy.
Balloon Operations in the Peninsula
Campaign
By CSM James Clifford, USA
On 19 April 1861, just seven days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, a
showman determined to be the first balloonist to fly over the Atlantic Ocean
took off on a test flight from Cincinnati, Ohio. Professor Thaddeus Sobieski
Constantine Lowe aimed to test the westerly winds in an effort to prove that
transatlantic flight was possible. Lowe was not a professor in any academic or
professional sense. At that time, showmen such as Lowe cultivated the myth that
they were somehow instructing the public on some scientific level. Hence they
enjoyed the popular title of professor. His nine-hour flight took him southeast
of Cincinnati into the recently established Confederacy. Early the next morning,
local citizens were amazed to see the 50-foot tall, 20,000 cubic foot balloon
Enterprise descending from the heavens near Unionville, South Carolina.
Once they got over their fear and amazement, the citizens of Unionville seized
Lowe under suspicion of being a Union spy. He was interrogated and threatened
with prison. Fortunately, a local hotelkeeper was acquainted with Lowe and
convinced the authorities that he was not a spy. Eventually, Lowe was released,
and he and his balloon were put aboard a northbound train. Later, Lowe would
boast of being the first prisoner of war of the Confederacy.
After a brief return to Ohio, Lowe traveled to Washington, D.C., which was
gripped by hysteria as war seemed imminent. Like many other scientists,
inventors, innovators, and crackpots, Lowe hoped to gain the interest of the
government. While other balloonists were angling for the government’s attention,
Lowe was the first to gain the trust of President Abraham Lincoln. On 17 June
1861, while in Washington, Lowe ascended in the Enterprise, accompanied by
representatives of the American Telegraph Company. From a height of 500 feet,
Lowe telegraphed Lincoln and assured him that from that altitude, his point of
observation commanded an area of nearly fifty miles in any direction.
While this experiment appeared as a stunt to many, it hooked Lincoln on the
usefulness of balloons. For the rest of the evening the Enterprise remained
tethered on the south lawn of the White House. On 19 June 1861, a story in the
Boston Transcript described Lowe’s ascent in the following terms: “A balloon is
now floating nearly over the President’s house. The plan of sending telegraphic
messages is found to work admirably.”
With the encouragement of Lincoln, the War Department began a program to build
several balloons. The first military balloon was the 25,000 cubic foot Union,
launched in August 1861. After the Bull Run debacle, fear in Washington ran
high. Lowe’s daily ascensions eased the minds of soldiers and civilians alike.
In September, Lowe, now an official member of MG George B. McClellan’s staff,
used the Union to direct artillery fire on Confederate positions in Falls
Church, Virginia, the first use of a balloon in military operations.
By the end of 1861, there were seven military balloons in existence. Each had
three or four 5,000-foot reels of cable. Oxy-hydrogen searchlights with
eight-inch reflectors and colored flares were affixed to each balloon for use
during night ascensions.
As McClellan prepared to move his army for the Peninusula campaign, he ordered
that a balloon be sent to MG John Wool at Fort Monroe, Virginia, where the
Confederate ironclad Virginia was prowling the nearby waters. The mission of the
balloon was to observe the ironclad and gather information not attainable by
other means. One of Lowe’s aeronauts, Ebenezer Seaver, took the balloon
Constitution to Fort Monroe on 15 March 1862. Seaver took the balloon up several
times but saw no trace of the Virginia or any Confederate activity nearby. Soon
Lowe’s entire organization was on the Peninsula with the Army of the Potomac.
The organization, unofficially referred to as the Balloon Corps, was placed
under the command of the Chief Topographical Engineer of the Army. Essentially a
civilian organization, it received no real support from the Army for men or
equipment. Without military status the Balloon Corps was subject to confusion
and jealousies. Lowe had to fight for everything during the existence of the
corps. In addition to personnel, the corps needed wagons, tentage, horses, and
forage to operate. The Quartermaster Department refused to cooperate in
supplying Lowe. Anything Lowe procured was through the cooperation of local
commanders and was subject to recall, as the mission required.
Lowe repeatedly had to fight to get and keep ground crews. Commanders naturally
demanded that their soldiers be returned as their regiments moved out of the
area. Lowe struggled to maintain rained ground crews to operate the balloons.
Local commanders that provided soldiers seldom appreciated the complicated
nature of these tasks.
During the entire war there were very few trained aeronauts in any theater. The
greatest number in the field at any one time was seven. Only a few
soldier/specialists were assigned to Lowe. The rest were additional duty
soldiers. The trained specialists included one man to varnish the envelopes, two
generator assistants, one repairman, one machinist, and one permanent orderly.
Only a few enlisted soldiers are known to have been assigned to Lowe during the
Peninsula campaign. CPL James Starkweather, a soldier from the 19th
Massachusetts Infantry, was a sailmaker before the war, making him skilled in
balloon and netting repairs. PVT William A. Hodges came from the 14th New York
Infantry. PVTs Albert Trunbull, W.H. Welch, James F. Case, Robert Wardell, and
Francis Barrington were all from the 22d New York Infantry. SGT Charles F. Eaton
was also from the 22d and served under Lowe from September 1861 until he died of
typhoid fever in May 1862. Lowe’s crews were rounded out with PVTs John H. Hall,
Lawrence M. Chickey, and George W. Fisher of the 29th Massachusetts Infantry. BG
George W. Morrell detailed an enlisted draftsman by the name of SGT William
Bancroft from the 4th Michigan Infantry to Lowe. He made ascensions in the
balloons and produced aerial maps. These few soldiers formed the core of Lowe’s
organization.
Enlisted soldiers of the Balloon Corps wore a special insignia in the form of a
cap ornament of metal in the shape of a balloon, with the letters “BC”
surmounted on it. Civilians of the balloon corps wore whatever clothes were
suitable for the field. Lowe himself wore semi-military dress consisting of
trousers stuffed into high riding boots, a dark coat, and a black slouch hat.
An especially disturbing problem for Lowe was to how to pay his civilian
aeronauts. They frequently went unpaid for long periods. Two aeronauts, Ebenezer
Seaver and Ebenezer Mason refused to work until their long overdue salaries were
paid. Aeronaut John Stiener complained that he had plenty of everything except
money. Eventually he left the corps because he did not get paid.
With the balloons on the Peninsula, Lowe’s activities were under the tactical
direction of MG McClellan. He directed each ascent and the information gleaned
from them went directly to him. After the fighting at Yorktown, command was
transferred to BG Andrew A. Humphreys, Chief Topographical Engineer of the Army
of the Potomac.
Each flight near Yorktown was an adventure. Civilian balloon flights were
fraught with danger by themselves; military balloon flights magnified that
danger. Occasionally, the balloons broke loose from their moorings, putting the
occupants at the mercy of the wind. One example of the dangers of balloon flight
came when the mooring line of the balloon that BG Fitz John Porter was in riding
snapped. As he drifted over the Confederate lines, Union soldiers below urged
him to open the valve, but Porter correctly assessed this was a bad idea.
Instead, he tossed ballast out in order to gain altitude and get himself out of
range of enemy gunfire. As he ascended, he carefully noted the positions of
rebel emplacements. After a while, the wind changed direction back towards
friendly lines, where upon he released the valve and made a swift descent onto a
tent near McClellan’s headquarters.
In addition to being subject to the fickleness of the winds, aeronauts were the
targets of continuous ground fire, sometimes from friendly troops who mistook
the balloons for the enemy. Confederate gunners resented the fact that they were
being observed from above. Every balloon ascent brought potshots from every
rifle and gun below.
Every time a balloon came into sight it offered Confederate gunners an
opportunity to practice their gunnery skills. The Confederates developed a
tactic for shooting at the balloons. They laid out a sheet of fire designed to
hit the balloon as it ascended or descended. This is much like the technique
taught to modern ground troops for engaging aircraft. The likelihood of bringing
down a balloon down with small arms fire, much like the chance of bringing down
a modern aircraft in the same manner, would be in the realm of pure luck. The
Confederates scored some near misses but no direct hits. Fragments sometimes
struck the baskets at Seven Pines as shells passed between the mooring lines.
At Yorktown, the rebels fired incessantly at the balloons. Lowe reported that on
one occasion the enemy elevated an Armstrong gun in attempt to shoot a balloon
down, but the rebels used such an excessive propelling charge that the gun
burst. A Union correspondent at Yorktown recorded that the balloons “gave [the
Confederates] paroxysms of rage.” The likelihood of bringing down a balloon was
so remote that rebel commanders must have allowed the continual shooting at them
only as a stress reliever and morale booster. The waste of ammunition defies
explanation.
The Confederates did claim to have shot a balloon down on the Peninsula. On 20
June 1862 the Atlanta Southern Confederacy announced under the headline “Abe’s
Balloon Plugged” that a federal balloon was brought down when a shot from
Purcell’s Battery struck the balloon and tore it to pieces. This story and
others are unsubstantiated, as there is no record of any Union balloon being
shot down. Furthermore, when the Balloon Corps disbanded in 1863, it had all the
balloons it started with.
Although no balloons were shot down, Confederate gunners did make life difficult
for ground crews. At one point Lowe had bombproofs constructed to provide some
measure of safety for his troops. BG George Stoneman, McClellan’s cavalry chief
on the Peninsula, complained once that a shell fired at one of Lowe’s balloons
nearly struck him. A sergeant in a New York regiment reported that one rebel
shell “dropped down into the cookhouse at General Slocum’s headquarters,
scattering camp kettles and cooks, who were just preparing breakfast.”
At Yorktown, MG Samuel P. Heintzelman described how he and nearly 100 other
troops, including six general officers, narrowly escaped injury when a shell
fired at a Union balloon fell among them. Also, on 3 May 1862, a 64-pounder
struck close to McClellan. Fearing that the nearby balloon would draw fire
towards the troops on the ground, he ordered the balloon, with BG Porter onboard
as an observer, to descend. The incoming fire brought by balloon ascents did not
bother the soldiers during active operations, but during lulls in the battle,
the uninvited artillery fire rightly disturbed them.
In the early days of the Peninsula campaign, the Confederates also had a
balloon. Flown by CPT John Randolph Bryan, it was inflated with hot air
generated from a stove burning turpentine soaked pinecones. It could not stay
aloft very long. When compared with the Union balloons, which could be filled in
less than three hours and stay aloft for up to two weeks, the Confederate effort
at using balloons on the battlefield was quite dismal.
Like the Union ascents, Bryan’s brought the attention of the enemy. In order to
reduce the likelihood of having a balloon brought down by gunfire, the
Confederates harnessed horses to the guide wires. At the signal from the
balloonist, the horses were driven away at a gallop, literally dragging the
balloon out of the sky.
Bryan made his last flight at night, and it was not terribly successful. During
the flight, the single anchor cable was cut when a hapless soldier on the ground
became entangled. With the balloon freed from its mooring, Bryan floated
helplessly over the Union lines, then over friendly lines where he was nearly
brought down by fire from rebels who thought he was a federal. Finally, Bryan
crashed behind Confederate lines, destroying the balloon. The Confederates would
not have another balloon until later in the Peninsula campaign.
Balloons were used on the Peninsula for artillery observation. The aeronauts
would observe the artillery fire at unseen targets. As the shells impacted the
balloonist would relay instructions to the artillerists. These instructions
would be passed to those on the ground by one of three methods: dropped
messages; telegraph, with a system of codes to minimize the time required to
send messages; and visual signals. Written messages were weighted with a bullet
fastened to a ring, attached to a mooring cable, and slid to the ground station
below. When time was not of the essence the observer would write out a report
and deliver it upon request.
Telegraph lines could be connected as far back to the rear as necessary. On one
occasion, Lowe sent a message directly to President Lincoln from his balloon. At
Seven Pines the telegraph lines ran directly from one of Lowe’s balloons to the
War Department in Washington, via Fort Monroe. This gave the War Department and
the Commander in Chief up to the minute information on the battle.
Visual signals first consisted of several balloons signaling to one another. On
the Peninsula, McClellan’s signal officer, COL Albert Myer, suggested a system
of rockets fired from the balloons. Gunboats on the James River observed these
rockets, and observers relayed the messages to headquarters. Sometimes units on
the ground fired rockets. Several balloon ascents were made just for the purpose
of observing these rockets. Balloons could relay information from these
dispersed units quicker than other methods of communications. During the battle
of Seven Pines visual signals supplemented the telegraph. Myer directed a signal
officer to “look for signals from [the] balloon nearest you and report them to
General McClellan, who is in front near Sumner. [The] Balloon will reply to
signal ‘AF’ which [you will] make with a 6-foot flag and 16-foot pole.”
Critical to the success of balloons on the Peninsula (and anywhere else) was the
careful selection of ascension points. Balloon camps were placed, whenever
possible, in spots that provided cover from artillery fire and concealment from
enemy observation. The balloons were susceptible to enemy action and could not
be moved easily. Before Yorktown, CPT Henry N. Blake described the ground
station of one balloon as a “cavern, which seemed to have been prepared by
nature for the purpose.” A British observer, CPT Frederick F.E. Beaumont,
described Lowe’s headquarters near the Chickahominy River as “snugly ensconced
in a hollow, protected from view by a hill in front, from the top of which a
convenient position for ascent was gained. The Professor’s tent and those of the
rest of the balloon corps was scattered around, forming a small distinct
encampment.” Another consideration in placing balloons was shelter from the
wind. Operators also had to keep the inflation sites away from open fires to
prevent ignition of the highly flammable hydrogen gas.
Throughout the Peninsula campaign Lowe’s balloons made countless ascents during
the battles at Hanover Courthouse, Gaines Mill, and Seven Pines. Lowe used his
balloon Intrepid many times. The typical observation height was 1,000 feet.
While anchored at a spot north of the Chickahominy, the Confederates would
engage the balloon with a Whitworth gun posted on the south side of the river.
The balloon was in particular danger while at a height of 300 feet or less. BG
Porter made no fewer than 100 ascensions under these conditions.
While observing the Union balloon activities, the Confederates labored to
construct a durable balloon of their own. The idea of making a Confederate
balloon for military observation came from Dr. Edward Cheves of Savannah,
Georgia. He bought all the silk in Savannah and Charleston, developed a varnish
(made of old rubber railcar springs dissolved in oil) to make the silk airtight,
and constructed a balloon. Cheves brought his balloon to Richmond in 1862.
When the balloon arrived, GEN Robert E. Lee ordered LTC Edward Porter Alexander,
who would later become Lee’s chief of artillery, to take charge of the balloon.
Alexander later wrote in his memoirs that he felt strongly that balloon
observers should be “trained staff officers, not the ignorant class of ordinary
balloonists...generally in charge of the Federal balloons.” Clearly Alexander
considered himself superior to the crews sent aloft by Lowe, even though he had
a fear of heights that followed him from his days at West Point. This fear was
overcome through counseling by Dr. Cheves.
While the Confederates had a balloon, they lacked the ability to fill it in the
field. Even though they had captured three of Lowe’s portable gas generators,
they did not use them. Instead, the rebels filled their balloon with
illuminating gas from the Richmond Gas Works. This gas had its limitations: it
could lift a man to a maximum height of 1,000 feet and flights were limited to
six or seven hours. The balloons also lacked the signaling options of Lowe’s
balloons. Alexander had to rely on a series of balls suspended from the bottom
of the balloon to signal troops below.
Alexander’s first ascension came during the battle of Gaines Mill. He was at a
point about two miles from the action. He could seldom see actual troops but the
smoke of battle told him what was happening. He was able to report the movement
of Slocum’s division to reinforce Porter. Over the next few days he made both
day and night ascensions. At night he observed campfires to estimate the numbers
and locations of troops and to identify the retreat routes of the federals.
Alexander transported the inflated balloon by train and tugboat to the scene of
battle. On the night of 3 July 1862, Alexander had the tug Teaser tow the
balloon down the James near Malvern Hill. Alexander ascended for a few hours
before dawn on 4 July. At sunrise he descended and folded the balloon on he deck
of the tug. The skipper of the Teaser offered to take Alexander further down
river where he could land and make his report to GEN Lee. The Teaser, however,
ran aground, and it was not long before a federal gunboat captured the tug.
Alexander and the boat’s crew escaped, but the Confederate balloon was captured.
Thus ended Alexander’s brief career as an aeronaut. After the loss of this
balloon, another was constructed in Savannah. It was used in the
Savannah-Charleston area until it too was lost in 1863. The rebels did not
attempt to build any more, probably because by then Union Balloon Corps had
ceased operations.
Lowe’s Balloon Corps was a useful element of the Army of the Potomac on the
Peninsula. They were used as forward observers for artillery, as a signal
platform, and for spotting enemy formations. Commanders relied on these balloons
as intelligence platforms, and they saved Union forces from major defeats at
Gaines Mill and Fair Oaks. They forced the enemy to conceal themselves by
blacking out camps after dark and waste manpower to create dummy camps and gun
emplacements. Yet, for all they offered, they were virtually unsupported by the
chain of command. They had to fight and overcome obstacles just to maintain
operations.
After the Peninsula campaign, as went McClellan, so went the Balloon Corps.
McClellan’s successors failed to support Lowe. In 1863, Lowe left the Army in
frustration, leaving only a few balloonists in his place. His successors lacked
his organizational skills and the corps he put together with so much promise
vanished.
It is not exactly clear why the Balloon Corps was abandoned. While it is true
the corps lacked the necessary support of senior officers, the question as to
why they did not support it remains. Perhaps they were shortsighted in
recognizing the potential of balloons. Or, perhaps they concluded, just as
Prussian GEN Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke did in 1859, that the technical
challenges posed by balloons outweighed their military potential. The truth is
not likely to be known. Suffice to say that what could have become a significant
contribution to tactical intelligence has been relegated to the position of
historical curiosity.