On the afternoon of June 17, 1861, a keen-eyed observer surveyed the scene before him and then dictated to a telegraph operator by his side. ‘This point of observation commands an extent of country nearly 50 miles in diameter,’ he said, and the operator obligingly tapped out his words with the telegraph key. ‘The city with its girdle of encampments, presents a superb scene. I have pleasure in sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station, and in acknowledging indebtedness for your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of the science of aeronautics in the military service of the country.’

The man dictating the fulsome message was Thaddeus Lowe. He and the telegraph operator were in a gas balloon tethered 500 feet above the grounds of the Columbia Armory in Washington, D.C. The telegraph cables, which ran along one of the rigging wires to the ground, were connected to the War Department and the White House. Most important was the man on the receiving end of the message–President Abraham Lincoln. With a finely honed gift of salesmanship, Lowe was making his pitch to become the head of an aeronautic corps attached to the Union Army, using the balloon as a military machine.

The use of balloons in war was not really new. In a letter to a friend written less than three months after the first manned balloon flight in France in 1783, Benjamin Franklin suggested that ‘five thousand balloons, capable of raising two men each could not cost more than five ships of the line, and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense as that ten thousand men descending from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them?’

During the turmoil that followed the French Revolution, the government in France established a balloon corps attached to the army and a training academy for corps members. Its main purpose was to observe enemy positions and strength. Other European nations, including Denmark, Russia and Austria, either employed balloons in military actions or attempted to do so.

In the United States, the use of balloons by the military had been suggested prior to the Civil War, although they had not been utilized up to that time. During the Seminole War in Florida between 1835 and 1842, Colonel John Sherburne suggested to Secretary of War Joel Poinsett that balloonists could make night ascensions to spot the campfires of the rebellious Seminoles. Poinsett seriously considered the idea but declined to approve it after the military commander in Florida, Maj. Gen. Warren K. Armistead, said the terrain there was not suitable for balloon use.

During the Mexican War, John Wise, considered the ‘Father of American Aeronautics,’ devised a plan to take the city of Vera Cruz, which was guarded by the imposing fortress of San Juan de Ulua. Wise suggested fabricating a gas balloon capable of lifting 20,000 pounds, attaching it to a five-mile-long cable and flying the craft over the fortress so that 18,000 pounds of explosives could be dropped on it. Wise sent his ambitious idea to the War Department, but it appears to have gone unanswered.

Two months before he stood in the basket of the tethered balloon dictating his telegraphic message to President Lincoln, Lowe had made a lengthy flight that may have inspired his thoughts about the value of such aircraft to the military. Along with several other balloonists, he had set a goal of flying across the Atlantic Ocean during the summer of 1860. Lowe hoped to use the balloon Great Western to make the Atlantic crossing, but the craft burst during an attempt to inflate it on September 8. Like other aeronauts, Lowe believed that the wind at higher altitudes moved from west to east and would, once he reached the proper altitude, waft him easily across the Atlantic.

As he sought funding to replace Great Western, Lowe received advice about putting his theory of west-to-east winds to a safer test than would be possible over an open ocean. Joseph Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, suggested that Lowe make some test flights over the interior of the country. To do so, Lowe took his new balloon Enterprise to Cincinnati in the spring of 1861 and began inflation for a trial flight on the night of April 19, exactly one week after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter.

While the winds did carry Lowe east, they also carried him south, and he received a less-than-friendly greeting after touching down near the border between South and North Carolina. When he attempted to land, Lowe was met by a group of armed men who advised him in no uncertain terms to take off again. As he did so, Lowe released a bag of sand ballast over the side, which caused one of the men on the ground to call out: ‘Hey, mister, I reckon you’ve dropped your baggage.’

When Lowe next attempted a landing, he found himself again in the midst of armed and unfriendly country people, some of whom apparently felt that the aeronaut was some kind of devil, if not in fact a spy. The unwelcoming committee decided to escort Lowe to Unionville, S.C., along with his balloon, which was deflated and placed in a wagon. After his arrival, Lowe was recognized by some better-informed residents, including the editor of the local newspaper, who had heard of his exploits as an aeronaut and gave him a letter of introduction to friends in the capital city of Columbia.

Upon his arrival there, he was arrested by the local sheriff and thrown into jail. He was released after a visit from government officials, including Mayor W.H. Boatwright, who drew up a passport for Lowe stating that he was ‘a gentleman of integrity and high scientific attainments.’

On April 26, Lowe and his balloon successfully made it back to Cincinnati via railroad. During his flight over South Carolina and the time he was in the state, he had observed activity by Confederate troops, and he decided to give up his idea of flying across the Atlantic and offer his services to the Union military. Murat Halstead, editor of the Cincinnati Daily Commercial, offered to write to Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury, urging him to consider Lowe for service with the Union forces as a reconnaissance aeronaut. That contact later led directly to Lowe’s journey to Washington and his aerial telegraph message to Abraham Lincoln.

While Lowe may have had the inside track through his personal contacts with Lincoln, there were other aeronauts who also had been seeking to head up a nascent balloon corps. Among them were Wise, James Allen of New England and John La Mountain of Troy, N.Y. La Mountain had flown with Wise before the war but had taken to launching verbal barbs at both him and Lowe on a fairly regular basis. Indeed, the prewar relationships between the balloonists was one of considerable bickering and backbiting, which did not change during the period when each sought to control the Army’s aeronautical services.

Allen’s flight attempts were short and anything but sweet. On July 8, 1861, he was ordered to make reconnaissance flights over Confederate forces near Washington. Allen made an attempt to inflate one of his two balloons on July 9, but his gas generator failed to operate sufficiently to fill the vessel. Allen decided to use city gas to inflate his balloon and then transport the inflated balloon by wagon. During a subsequent inflation attempt on July 14, Allen’s smaller balloon burst. Later, his larger airship was inflated, and 60 men from the 11th New York Zouaves were assigned to move it by hand to Falls Church, Va. They had towed the balloon only a short distance when a gust of wind came up and blew it into a telegraph pole, destroying it. Exit James Allen.

Wise fared little better. He arrived in Washington on July 18. Placed under the command of Major Albert J. Myer, Wise also decided to inflate his balloon with city gas and have it moved in the direction of Manassas. Unfortunately, the movement of Myer’s troops was slowed by the necessity to keep the balloon out of trees that bordered their route. Frustrated by the slow pace, Major Myer ordered the balloon attached to a wagon, a move that Wise argued against. His objections were well founded. The faster pace set by the trotting horses caused the balloon to begin swaying, and it was promptly wedged in the branches of the roadside trees. Following one bad decision with another, Myer ordered the horses driven forward to free the balloon, which tore the fabric. A disconsolate Wise returned to Washington with his damaged balloon.

Wise made the necessary repairs to the shredded silk and successfully made an ascension over Arlington on July 25, where he noted the presence of Confederate forces and supposedly with his rifle fired the first hostile shot from an airborne contrivance in military history. Two days later, he was directed to take his balloon to Ball’s Cross Roads. During the journey, Wise noticed that the troops towing the balloon were hampered by their knapsacks and rifles, so he had them remove their equipment and place it inside the balloon’s gondola. The party soon encountered winds that made the balloon sway, and the mooring ropes came into contact with telegraph wires. The wires cut through the ropes and the balloon sailed away. It came back to earth eventually in damaged condition near a New York regiment whose members deflated it and sent it back to Washington, after first enjoying a snack thanks to the contents of the knapsacks found in the balloon’s gondola. Wise returned home to Lancaster, Pa.

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