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From: "Maggie Stewart" <>
Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know your Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War -- Pt 6
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 23:28:30 -0500


----- Original Message -----
From: kathi kelley <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 1999 3:51 PM
Subject: Bio History -- Know your Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War -- Pt 6


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Historical Collections of Ohio
>From the Diaries of S.L.Kelly
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
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Ohio in the Civil War --
part 6

Balloons and The Civil War--
Continuation of previous article --

The new authority did not solve all Lowe's problems, however. Since the
Balloon Corps was essentially a civilian organization, it ranked low on
the bureau's list of priorities, and Lowe had difficulty getting the
materials and money he needed. For a time, he was forced to use his own
balloon and pay his aides out of his own pocket. Also, Lowe had under
his command many of the amature aerialists who had volunteered their
services to the Union. Without the benefits of the military's rigid
heirarchy, controlling the resulting clash of monstrous egos would prove
to be one of Lowe's greatest challenges. Lowe finally received funds to
build a balloon on Aug 2, and the first American aeostat designd for
military use was ready for deployment on the 28th. He also requested a
portable apparatus for generating hydrogen gas in the field, but that
expenditure was not yet approved, so he was forced to inflate the
balloon with gas from municipal lines in Washington, D.C. The filled
balloon could not be transported a great distance, so balloon operations
were limited to that city and its outskirts. Lowe made a number of
ascensions to observe the positions and movements of Confederate Troops
near the Union capital and on, Sept 24, provided the most dramatic proof
yet of the balloon's effectiveness. On that date, he ascended to an
altitude of more than 1,000 feet near Arlington, Va. Securely cabled to
earth, and with telegraphic equipment in place, he was soon transmitting
the presence and position of Confederate infantry and heavy artillery at
Falls Church, more than three miles away. In what became a first in the
annals of warfare, Federal gun batteries directed their fire toward
unseen opponents based solely on information provided by Lowe from his
aerial station. The results, in the words of Lowe, " made such an
accurate fire that the enemy was demoralized." The effect of this
adventure on the fate of the Balloon Corps was equally dramatic. The
next day, the Army's quartermaster general imformed Lowe, " the
Secretary of War has directed that four additional balloons be at once
constructed under your direction, together with such inflating apparutus
as may be necessary for them and the one now in use. It is desirable
that they be completed with the least possible delay." Meanwhile,
LaMountain was capitalizing on his own exploits. He was a firm believer
in the advantages of intelligence gathered by free flight, rather than
go by ground tethering. He also believed in good publicity. An entry in
the Rebellion Record newspaper, dated Oct 4,1861, reflcted such beliefs;
" A balloon was seen passing over Washington ---[and] proved to be the
airship of LaMountain, which had ascended from the Union Camp of the
Potomac. It appears that when LaMountain rose to a certain distance he
cut the rope which connected his balloon with the earth regardless of
danger, and soared up a mile and a half, and got directly over rebel
lines. Here he was enabled to make a perfect observation of their
positions and all their movements, the results of which he communicated
to head-quarters, and which are said to be of utmost imporance. When
LaMountain completed his observation, he threw out sufficient ballast to
enable him to a height of three miles, when he fell in with a counter
current which carried him back in the direction of Maryland, thus
passing over Washington." LaMountain was acting as a free-lance
balloonist, not as a member of Lowe's Balloon Corps. His problems with
equipment continued to dog him. He had been able to procure a newer
airship, the "Saratoga", to complement the " Atlantic", but an
inexperienced ground crew lost the Saratoga in a high wind on Nov
16,1861. Left with only one, well-worn aerostat, LaMountain cast a
coveteous eye toward the equipment Lowe was amassing in Washington. The
rivalry between the two men heated up wen Lowe refused to grant
LaMountain use of any of his new ships. Lowe had a personal aversion to
the manner in which LaMountain conducted himself, and was this that
accounted for the Balloon Corps leader's refusal to cooperate.
LaMountain, for his part, never acknowledged Lowe's command of the corps
and even went so far as to exert his own influence with the press to
challenge Lowe. An article that appeared in the New York Herald extolled
the military use of balloons and suggested that Major General George B.
McClellan, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, would name
LaMountain commander of the Balloon Corps. Lowe rightly perceived
LaMountain as a rival and felt that, by denying him access to Balloon
Corps resources, he was simply defending a position he had fought hard
to obtain. LaMountain continued to assault Lowe, making free-flight
ascensions with the Atlantic and playing up his own exploits in flagrant
self-promotion. He plainly understood not only the military advantages
of balloons, but also their entertainment value, as this " tall tale"
from Rebellion Record reveals;
" LaMountain had been up in his balloon, and went so high that he
could see all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and observe what they had
for dinner at Fort Pickens
[ Florida ]. He made discoveries of an important character, my boy, and
says that the rebels have concentrated several troops at Manassas. A
reporter of the [New York] Tribune asked if he could see any negro
insurrections, and he said he could see black spots moving near the
South Caroline, but found out afterwards that they were only ants which
got into his telescope."
Lowe would point out to LaMountain's garrulous nature, scurrilous
remarks, and extravagant stunts as evidence that the rival aeronaut was
a detriment to the Balloon Corps. As the controversy built, both
balloonists began summoning influential allies to their corners. After
Benjamin Butler was transferred away from Fortress Monroe, LaMountain
was able to gain support of a Bureau of Topographical Engineers officer
by the name of McComb. McComb ordered Lowe to release one of his
balloons for LaMountain's use. Lowe, in turn, appealed directly to
McClelan, who had, over time, become a firm admirer of the Balloon Corps
chief's efforts.
Charges and counter-charges flew furiously between the two camps.
LaMountain obtained information tat two newly constucted balloons lay
unused in storage in Washington and claimed that Lowe was deliberately
keeping these balloons out of service so he could purchase them for
himself after the war. Lowe responded to LaMountain's accusations with a
lengthy letter to McClellan which called LaMountain " a man who is known
to be unscrupulous. and--- has assailed me without cause through the
press and otherwise--- He has tampered with my men, tending to a
demoralization of them, and in short, has stopped at nothing to injure
me."
" This man LaMountain has told my men that he is my superior, and is
considered to be the Commanding General --- I do not think that I should
serve this man by giving him possession of my improved balloons--- I
submit that I should not be interfered with in the management of this
matter."
In the end, McClellan decided in Lowe's favor. Already impressed with
Lowe's reconnaissamce work, as well as with his skill in organizing the
Balloon Corps, McClellan ordered, on Feb 19,1862, that the disruptive
LaMountain be dismissed from any further service with the military.
LaMountain's dismissal was not an end to the problems the Balloon Corps
faced. While Lowe wa now clearly in charge of his unit, the infighting
between himself and LaMountain had done serious damage to the Corp's
morale. Moreover,other Military commanders were given to question just
how much help a group of civilians, who were prone to outbursts of
egotistical temperament, would be in the future.
During these operations, as with most Northern balloon ascents, enemy
artillery was constantly trained on the fragile vessels. Despite this
relentless bombardment, however, man and equipment rarely suffered
injury. 19th century artillerists found it nearly impossible to hit the
relatively small targets suspended in mid-air.
Neverless, the end of the Balloon Corps came well before the end of the
war itself. The corps had chaulked up a number of impressive firsts and
proved itself to be of tactical value, but a series of changes in Army
command began to shunt Lowe and his unit deeper into obscurity. By 1863,
one of Lowe's most important supporters, George McClellan was relieved
of command. In April 1863, Capt Cyrus Comstock was the military attache
assigned to oversee the organization. Comstock ordered immediate
cutbacks in supplies and personnel, leaving Lowe incresingly hampered in
his operations.
In addition, new charges of improprieties were being leveled at Lowe.
One charge asserted that he was not keeping adeqate records of the
Corp's expenses. He countered that his first priority was not record
keeping, but meeting the needs of commanders in the field. He was also
having personal finacial problems, however, and was receiving letters
almost weekly from his long- suffering wife, pleading for money to make
ends meet. When Comstock informed him that his pay, $ 10.00 per day
since the beginning of the war, was being reduced to $ 6.00 per day.
Lowe had enough. After stuggling in vain to have the pay cut revoked,
Lowe reluctantly tendered his resignation from the Balloon Corps on May
8, 1863.
The Corps itself continued on for a few more months under the direction
of the brothers Ezra and James Allen, but the spirit that had driven the
aerialists had been lost. By August 1863, the organization was quiely
disbanded.
The Balloon Corps was phased out at a time when many had just to begun
to repect its value in the field of warfare. The rivalry among the
bickering aeronauts had cast a negative shadow on the corps, to be sure,
but the intelligence gathered about Confederate troops would seem to
have made up for that. A Confederate artillery chief pointed out another
aspect o the balloonists' threat; " I have never understood why the
enemy abandoned the use of military balloons in 1863, after using them
extensively up to that time. Even if the observers never saw anything,
they would have been worth it all they cost by the annoyance and delays
they caused us trying to keep our movements out of their sight."
The Union's Civil War aeronauts pioneered a number of techniques that
would later become indispensible elements of warfare. Aerial observation
and telegraphy were only two of their accomplishments; Lowes
experimental ascents from the deck of the U.S.S G.W. Parke-Custis on the
Potomic River in Nov 1861 forshadowed the aircraft carriers of the 20th
century, and the corps' wartime experiments in aerial photography and
cartography provided a startling glimpse into future direction of
warfare.
It may seem strange to modern historians that civil war commanders
failed to recognize and exploit the full potential of balloon flight.
Here was an opportunity to seize the ultimate high ground; the sky above
the battlefield. Officers had not been trained to see novel technologies
like balloons as solutions to military problems, and the stanchest
traditionalist fostered a general suspicion and mistrust of the few
civilian aeroonauts who knew in the future the real potential of balloon
reconnaissance. The civil war " air force" was finally grounded in 1863,
the record suggests it was because of this ingrained short-sightedness.
In the end, balloons were simply ahead of their time.
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To be continued in part 7--

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