Gas Balloons: View From Above the Civil War Battlefield

 | America's Civil War  | 0 comments  | Print This Post  | Email This Post

Confederate forces did not take kindly to having their actions and positions observed from above. They began trying to shoot down the aeronauts, winning Lowe the unwanted title of ‘the most shot-at man in the war.’ While none of the balloons was shot from the sky, Confederate gunners learned that they could more easily direct their fire at them when they were ascending or descending, since the tether lines dictated the area where they would be sent up and pulled down. Despite numerous Rebel efforts, the only casualty associated with the corps was the death of D.D. Lathrop, a telegraph operator who stepped on a concealed torpedo planted at the base of a telegraph pole in Yorktown, Va.

Artillery fire proved mainly to be a problem for ground forces situated near the balloons. In February 1863, David Hogan, an enlisted man with the 13th New Hampshire Infantry, was performing sentry duty when a shell aimed at Lowe, who was aloft, instead hit a cesspool near Hogan, covering him with the unpleasant contents. Hogan was not injured, but a fellow soldier noted dryly that ‘his clothes and appetite are utterly ruined.’

Confederate forces took actions on the ground to frustrate Union attempts to observe them from above. General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered his forces to conceal their fires at night and to pitch tents under the cover of trees. The Confederates also sought to confuse aerial observers with the placement of so-called Quaker guns–logs or stovepipe blackened to resemble the barrels of artillery pieces.

While the Union forces had the upper hand when it came to aeronautical activities, they by no means had a monopoly on employing balloons. Early during the Peninsula campaign, on April 13, 1862, Confederates under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston launched a hot-air balloon near Yorktown, Va. It was piloted by 21-year-old Captain John Randolph Bryan, who had volunteered since he was familiar with the terrain in the area. The tethered balloon was inflated by the heat and smoke of burning pine knots soaked in turpentine. Bryan made several flights, including one unintended free flight when his tether rope was cut in order to untangle a soldier whose leg had become caught in it just as Bryan was ascending. The free-flying balloon started to drift over Union positions but encountered a fortunate shift in the wind and landed safely behind Confederate lines.

These Confederate balloon flights were of short duration because the hot air quickly cooled and became denser. As a result, the Southerners looked with envious eyes at the Union’s fleet of gas balloons. In the summer of 1862, the Confederates would get a gas balloon of their own, although they would not have it long. The balloon, which would come to have a romantic legend associated with it, was known as the ‘Silk Dress Balloon.’

Former Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, in an 1886 article in Century magazine, appears to have gotten the story going. Longstreet wrote: ‘We longed for the balloons that poverty denied us. A genius arose for the occasion and suggested that we send out and gather together all the silk dresses in the Confederacy and make a balloon. It was done, and soon we had a great patchwork ship of many and varied hues.’ While Longstreet’s story created a fanciful picture of the sacrifices made by the women of the South, his tale was not accurate. The Silk Dress Balloon was made during the spring of 1862 in Savannah, Ga., by Captain Langdon Cheeves. Cheeves purchased 40-foot lengths of multicolored dress silks. After being sewn together and coated, the balloon was shipped to Richmond and first saw service on June 27.

The Silk Dress Balloon, inflated with city gas and moved to desired locations by railroad, made several flights. It was being transported in a deflated state aboard CSS Teaser when it was captured by Union naval forces on July 4, 1862. A second balloon made of dress silk was constructed that summer by Southern balloonist Charles Cevor and was in operation until the summer of 1863, when it was lost during the siege of Charleston. Overall, Confederate aeronautical activities were hampered by the Southerners’ inability to generate gas in the field.

The Union aeronautical corps was also plagued by problems throughout its existence. One involved the training of ground crews. A crew typically consisted of the aeronaut, a captain and 50 noncommissioned officers and enlisted men. The practice was to assign the crews from troops located near the site where a balloon was to be sent up. That custom led to a new ground crew being assigned whenever a balloon was moved–which meant the crew members had to be trained all over again. An aeronaut was lucky if he had the same crew for a few weeks.

An additional complication centered on the question of who was in charge. Lowe felt that the corps should be commanded by a commissioned officer, and he had himself in mind as that person, but in reality the aeronauts retained their civilian status throughout the war. That meant that had any of them been captured by the enemy, they could well have been charged as spies. Lowe was subject to the control of various field commanders as well as officious Washington administrators, and he often was unsure who was in charge. The balloon corps went from control by the Bureau of Topographical Engineers to the Quartermaster Corps, the Corps of Engineers and the Signal Corps. The constant shifting could not help but lead to problems.

Still another problem was officers who refused to use the balloon as a war machine. Conversely, those officers with firsthand experience with the balloons seemed to favor using them. Lowe took several generals aloft for flights, including McClellan, Irvin McDowell, Fitz-John Porter, William Smith and Samuel P. Heintzelman. All of them endorsed the use of balloons.

Lowe’s civilian status worked against him in terms of his inability to do things the ‘Army way.’ His account books and inventory procedures were frequently questioned by the War Department. In April 1863, Captain Cyrus B. Comstock was assigned to take charge of aeronautical activities. It was an assignment he took seriously, as he later wrote to Assistant Secretary of War P.H. Waterman concerning the balloon corps. ‘I found it as I thought, an unsuccessful experiment,’ Comstock wrote, adding that Lowe had been ‘acting without the knowledge or authority of anyone connected with the Army of which he is an employee.’ Comstock reduced Lowe’s salary from $10 to $6 a day and summarily dismissed his father from the staff. Lowe submitted a letter of resignation on April 12, 1863, but continued flying without pay until he left the service on May 6.

Lowe’s resignation left James and Ezra Allen as the sole remaining members of the corps. They continued flying but complained about the poor condition of their balloons in the weeks that followed. In June, they noted movement by the Confederates from Fredericksburg toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, the first steps of the campaign that culminated in the fight at Gettysburg.

There is no exact date marking the official end of the balloon corps, but there does not appear to have been any activity past the summer of 1863. Confederate artillery officer E.P. Alexander later said: ‘I have never understood why the enemy abandoned the use of military balloons early in 1863, after having used them extensively up to that time. Even if the observers never saw anything, they would have been worth all they cost for the annoyance and delays they caused us in trying to keep our movement out of their sight.’

After the corps was disbanded, its members went their various ways. Some continued their aeronautical activities, while others did not. John La Mountain flew for a time, but died in 1878. William Paulin took up photography full time.

John Wise pursued his goal of crossing the Atlantic–but without success. In the autumn of 1879, at age 71, he took off from Sterling, Ill., with a passenger, George Burr. Wise was never seen again, but Burr’s body washed up on the Indiana shore of Lake Michigan.

The only balloonists who flew again in a military capacity were the Allen brothers. As for Lowe, he was offered an opportunity to head up an aeronautical corps for Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil to aid in that country’s ongoing war with Paraguay. Lowe declined but passed along the offer to the Allens, who flew reconnaissance missions for Brazil in 1867 and 1868. They returned to New England and, with other members of their family, continued flying until the early 20th century.

Thaddeus Lowe stopped flying in 1866. The pioneering balloonist made and lost several fortunes in the course of his life, but he died impoverished in 1913. Fittingly, the Lowe Astronomical Observatory in California is named after him.

This article was written by Ben Fanton and originally appeared in the September 2001 issue of America’s Civil War magazine.

For more great articles be sure to subscribe to America’s Civil War magazine today!

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to

Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Flight Technology, Historical Conflicts, Military Technology