Evening star. [volume], May 31, 1931, Page 10, Image 80

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
10
THE BEST STORY OF THE CIVIL
ft hen I hi' prim nil i rew hail its hands full. 4 sketch math' d urinp the Civil War sho inp the balloon bugle in a storm
with frantic infantrymen working to kei'p it from being destroyed.
FEW people of this age. in which aviation
has become a commonplace and a by
word. know what an important and
thrilling past the Air Service played in
the winning of the Civil War. In fact,
few people are aware that there was
an Air Service in the Civil War.
But indeed there was. and War Department
filet contain few accounts of wartime operations
more startling or stirring than the history of
the Federal Balloon Corps. For instance did
you know:
'That shots fired bv the Confederates at a
Union balloon fell closer to the United States
Capitol than any other shots ever fired?
That the Federals had six balloons i and
maybe more) which participated in any number
of battles around Washington. Richmond and
Fredericksburg and made almost dally ascen
sions for more than two years?
•That the chief of the Union Air Sen ice was
a civilian, who after two years of faithful and
dangerous service finally became so drgusted
with Army red tape that he quit in the middle
of the war?
That this same man. just at the beginning
of the Civil War. was getting ready for a trans
atlantic balloon flight and that he made a bal
loon trip from Cincinnati to the South Carolina
coast—soo miles —in nine hours?
That the Air Service then had the same
bitter fight for recognition as a military asset
that it has had in recent years? And that It
finally took a personal visit from President
Lincoln to the commanding general of the
Union Armies before balloons * w ere adopted
for military use?
THAT the Confederates, constantly jealous of
the Federals’ balloons but too poor to con
struct one themselves, finally sent out a call
for silk dresses, which were converted into a
balloon at Richmond?
And that, shortly after, the balloon was cap
tured by the Union forces, the capture being
termed by a Southern general the • meanest
trick of the war, taking the last silk dress in
the Confederacy"?
•That the first accurately determined indirect
fire, made at objects which could not be seen
by the gunners, was directed from a balloon in
the Civil War?
Few people know these things, and yet they
are true. Interest in the history of Civil War
aeronautics was recently rearoused by the pres
entation to the Smithsonian Institution at
Washington of several relics of the balloon of
Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, chief aeronaut of
the Union Army and later the founder of
Lowe's Observatory in California.
The presentation was made by Lowe's grand
children, now living In Norristown. Pa. Al
though a good deal of the aeronaut’s Civil War
correspondence and records are in the hands
of the family. War Department tiles contain a
complete history of Lowe's balloon participation
in the Civil War, in the form of a report made
by Lowe himself to the then Secretary of War.
Lowe was born in Jefferson. N. H.. on August
20. 1832. When but 24 he began building bal
loons in order to study atmospheric phenom
ena. From the beginning of his areal career
to the end he was a scientific investigator and
inventor —the man of science rather than the
heroic daredevil.
LOWE had experimented with balloons for 10
years before the Civil War broke out, and
in 1863 built a balloon (the largest in the world
at. that time) for a transatlantic flight.
"Some people may think I am insane, rash
or a seeker afier fame,” Lowe wrote at the
t.ime, "but such is not the case. I have for
two rears coolly considered the subject and
have provided for every contingency.”
His balloon, the City of New York, later
named the Great Western, had • f»e capachj
of 725.000 cubic feet and carried beneath the
basket a 30-fcot lifeboat for use in case of a
forced landing at sea. It was Lowe's belief that
at high altitude; there is a constant west-to
east wind blowing, and that this wind wtuld
blow him across the sea to Europe.
But his friend Joseph Henry, then secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution, persuaded him
to test thP. theory over land before Wring the
perilous ocean flight.
So Lowe went to Cincinnati, taking with him
a smaller balloon, and on the 20th of April,
1»61 ta few days after the Civil War atartedi,
made an astounding flight of 500 milrs from
the Ohio city to the sen shore of South Caro
lina in exactly 9 hours.
That proved his theory, but Whe war stopped
all plans for a transatlantic flight. It is told
that he had a hard Wine getting out < f Smith
Carolina and back to the North, but finally
managed to do so. even taking his balloon
with h'm.
The valve from that balloon was later placed
in one of the Civil War gas bags and today
rests in the Smithsonian Institution Museum.
It is a circular piece of wood and brass about
the sice of a pie plate. The valve rests in the
top of a balloon, with a cord running down
through the bag to the basket, and when the
aeronaut has to “valve” gas he opens the valve
by pulling the cord.
After he phenomenal 500-mile fight. Lowe
took this same balloon <the Enterprise* and
went to Washington on June 5. I*6l, to offer
hit services to the Union Army. At first he
got little attention. Finally, through the influ
ence of Prof. Henry, he was enabled to make a
preliminary demonstration at the Capital.
The ballocn was inflated from one of the city
gas mains and Lowe made repeated ascensions
from the Smithsonian grounds and even from
■ » -e t B _ wnBvJIB.
Taking McClellan* s eyes into the air. A Civil War sketch dr turn by an artist
during the famous “Seven Days ” campaign before Richmond showing Prof.
Lowe taking the balloon Intrepid into the air for a scouting trip.
the grounds in front of the White House. On
one of these flights he established telegraphic
communication between a bi’.loon and the earth
for the first time in hist'iy and while at an
elrvathn of 1.000 feet tent a message to the
President.
June 21, 1861, Lowe was directed by a
Capt. W’hipple of the Topographical Engi
neers to take his balloon from Washington to
Arlington, across the Potomac. It w?s inflated
from the gas mains In Washing’:n and towed
to its destination, tied to a wagon.
The next morning orders came to take it
from Arlington to Palls Church. Va. The enemy
was not far awav.' and as the wagon moved
the balloon was let up by ropes to ascertain
that it was safe to proceed. A Confederate
scouting patty, seeing the balloon and supposing
that, a large force accompanied it. beat a hasty
retreat.
That was the Air Service s first victory in the
Civil War. the first of a long string of suc
cesses. The balloon was kept in constant use
at Palls Church for two days and then taken
back to Washington. DeapKe its apparent value,
K sUil was not. adopted for military use.
Nearly a month later a report was circulated
in Washington that the enemy was marchirg
in force upon the Capital. There was great
excitement. I owe lock bis balloon over into
Virginia, went, up on a free flight. % floated
directly over the enemy territory around Manas
sas and found that the reports were untrue.
The result of his observations, published ia
Washington, resiored confidence.
Having obtained his view of the enemy. Lowe
rose to the great height of three and a half
miles, feund a wind that would blow him beck
east and when over the Potomac b gan to
descend. But within a mile of the earth the
THE SUNDAY ST AH, WAsJ
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Th* » /Jrsf naval aerial scouting expPtlih
hallttons operating along the Potomac in
"aircraft carrier.” The \flty success
later in the attach on Island No. 10 in
Union troops began shooting at him, thinking
he was a Confederate.
‘I descended near enough to hear the
whistling of the bullets and the shouts of the
soldiers to show my colors.’ ” Lowe later wrote.
Having no flag with him, he sailed on and
landed about 10 miles away, completely outside
of the Union picket line*. But. luckily he was
not captured and Yankee soldiers brought his
balloon back to Washington. Still Lowe had
not convinced the Army generals that his bal
loon could be of any value in the military opera
tions that were then beginning.
Although Lowe does not record It In his
official report to the War Department, It Is
definitely known that only through the inter
vention of President Lincoln himself was the
balloon finally adopted.
Lowe made two fruitless visits to Oen. Win-"
field Scott, commanding general o l the armies.
Then he went to Lincoln and the President
wrote a note to Scott, asking him "to please see
Prof. Lowe once more about his balloon.’* That
note of Lincoln s <the original) is now in the
thnithsonian.
But Scott even ignored that, and on the fourth