Civil War Professor Lowe In His Balloon Fair Oaks VA D

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Cabinet view by Taylor & Huntington, 1861-1865, The War For the Union, Photographic War History, No. 2348 is titled "Professor Lowe in his Balloon." Description reads: "During the Peninsula Campaign in 1862 the army balloon was a valuable aid in the signal service. This view shows Professor Lowe up in his balloon watching the battle of Fair Oaks. He can easily discern the movements of the enemy's troops and give warning to our Generals how to head them off. The men at the ropes permit the balloon to rise to whatever elevation he desires and they then anchor it to a tree".This famous image shows Professor Thaddeus Lowe preparing to reconnoiter the Battle of Fair Oaks in his hot air balloon, "Intrepid" on May 31, 1862. On the evening of June 11, 1861 Lowe met President Lincoln and offered to perform a demonstration with the Enterprise and a telegraph set from a height some 500 feet (152.4 m.) above the White House. In the telegraph message Lowe asserted: "I have the pleasure of sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station..." Lowe was competing for the position with three other prominent balloonists, Mr. John Wise, Mr. John LaMountain, and the Allen Brothers, Ezra and James. Wise and LaMountain were old critics of Lowe, but were not able to obtain the assignment so easily. Lowe's first outing was performed at First Bull Run with General Irvin McDowell and the Army of the Potomac. His performance was impressive though he had the misfortune of having to land behind enemy lines. Fortunately he was found by members of the 31st New York Volunteers before the enemy could discover him, but after the landing he had twisted his ankle and was not able to walk out with them. They returned to Fort Corcoran to report his position. Eventually his wife Leontine, disguised as an old hag, came to his rescue with a buckboard and canvas covers and was able to extract him and his equipment safely. Word of his exploits got back to the President who ordered Gen. Winfield Scott to see to Lowe's formation of a Balloon Corps with Lowe as Chief Aeronaut. It was almost four months before Lowe received orders and provisions to construct four (eventually seven) balloons equipped with mobile hydrogen gas generators. At the same time he assembled a band of men whom he would instruct in the methodology of military ballooning. The newly formed Union Army Balloon Corps remained a civilian contract organization, never receiving military commissions, a dangerous position lest any one of the men be captured as spies and summarily executed. Lowe returned to the Army of the Potomac now under Gen. George McClellan with his new military balloon the Eagle, though his generators were not ready. He performed ascensions over Yorktown after which the Confederates retreated toward Richmond. Lowe was given use of a converted coal barge, the George Washington Parke Custis, onto which he loaded two new balloons and two new hydrogen gas generators, with which Lowe performed the first observations over water tby making the GWP Custis the first ever aircraft carrier. In Lowe's Report he stated: "I have the pleasure of reporting the complete success of the first balloon expedition by water ever attempted." Lowe went on to serve in the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, making observations over Mechanicsville, Virginia, and the ensuing Battle of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks. This stereoview depicts Lowe's ascent in the Intrepid over the Battle of Fair Oaks w his observations of the oncoming Confederate Army and the timely manner in which he reported troop movements saved the isolated army of General Heintzelman. Though he had used the hydrogen gas generators (each balloon camp was assigned two generator units), the inflation time was still another hour off. He quickly transferred the gas from the Constitution into the Intrepid by cutting a hole in the bottom of a camp kettle and connecting the balloons at the valve ends. The process took fifteen minutes, a time savings later valued at "a million dollars a m... read more

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