U.S. Civil War Balloon Corps

[sarongsong]

Sure don't recall this subject (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Civil_War_balloons/LTA5.htm) from school:
"Both the Union and Confederate armies used balloons for reconnaissance during the American Civil War..."

[paulie jay]

I must admit an almost complete ignorance of much of the USA's history :oops: , but the notion of balloons being used in the Civil War is a strangely familiar one to me.

[Enzp]

Don't feel bad, the vast majority of us here are ignorant of it as well. And going back the other way, for most of us in the USA, all we know about Australia is what we saw on Crocodile Dundee. Oh, and that you are all convicts - we learned that in school. The movie was kinder.

[Argos]

Interesting. That site is a good warm up for the 100 years of flight, to be celebrated next year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont). 8)

[Rich]

Sure don't recall this subject (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Civil_War_balloons/LTA5.htm) from school:
"Both the Union and Confederate armies used balloons for reconnaissance during the American Civil War..."

They weren't even the first ones. (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/timeline/search_timeline_result.cfm) And check this out: 1794! (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Napoleon's_wars/LTA3.htm)

And reconnaissance balloons saw extensive use in the Franco-Prussian war as well.

These uses were generally considered part of the intelligence or communications wings of an army. American aviators from the Civil War on until well into WWI were actually a part of the Signal Corps. That would be communications basically. Neat stuff!

[The Supreme Canuck]

And reconnaissance balloons saw extensive use in the Franco-Prussian war as well.

Yep. I seem to recall as the Prussians were on the cusp of taking one French city, the French governor escaped in a balloon, laughing the whole way. The Prussian cavalry chased the balloon with lances, but to no avail. And, no, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. :)

[Krel]

Sure don't recall this subject (http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/Civil_War_balloons/LTA5.htm) from school:
"Both the Union and Confederate armies used balloons for reconnaissance during the American Civil War..."

What? You mean to say that you have never seen the movie "Mysterious Island" by Ray Harryhausen? :o

David.

[Sammy]

There are some interesting pix of Civil War battlefields taken from observation ballons, including (if my memories are correct) some by the famous Matthew Brady.

During the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussians surrounded and laid seige to Paris. The French used ballons quite a few times to get people out carrying messages and info. They used night launches to avoid getting shot up by the Prussians.

[Gillianren]

as a side note, Sammy, Mathew Brady didn't take a lot of the pictures attributed to him. he was nearly blind. however, I'm sure he sent one of his flunkies up in a balloon, especially if he thought it'd make a good shot.

[Swift]

I found this picture (http://www.seva.net/~smithsch/Balloon_Ascending.html) from the Matthew Brady Studios of a balloon beginning its ascent.

[Melusine]

Interesting. That site is a good warm up for the 100 years of flight, to be celebrated next year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont). 8)
That is interesting information to know; it seems his life ended with a bitter note after all those accomplishments. Of course, I don't recall our history books mentioning Santos-Dumont, but then our history books tend to be boring synopses anyway, most often excluding many issues up for debate. Thanks for the enlightenment. :)

edit typos

[Melusine]

as a side note, Sammy, Mathew Brady didn't take a lot of the pictures attributed to him. he was nearly blind. however, I'm sure he sent one of his flunkies up in a balloon, especially if he thought it'd make a good shot.
I have a book of Civil War photography, many of the pictures attributed to Brady (or his collection), but I wasn't aware of any blindness. Wikipedia mentions he died penniless and an alcoholic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Brady). Hmm, learn something new every day.

This site says:
It has been estimated that Brady took more than 3,500 photographs during the war years. Actually there were thousands taken during the war, on the field of battle or in the camps, but Brady himself took very few. Although not realized by most, Brady was secretly almost blind. Consequently, his best efforts came in his studio, or those taken of still subjects, such as his wonderful portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant and General Robert E. Lee.

Although Brady did not actually shoot the thousands of photographs attributed to him, he did spend most of the war years as a project manager, supervising his corps of photographers, and preserving their negatives. Brady also purchased many other images from other photographers not on his staff. However, whether taken by Brady, his staff, or others, they all were credited with "Photograph by Brady." A great number of the war time photographs were taken by Alexander Gardner and Timothy O'Sullivan.
http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1043.html


Another link says:
Mathew Brady did not actually shoot many of the Civil War photographs attributed to him. More of a project manager, he spent most of his time supervising his corps of traveling photographers, preserving their negatives and buying others from private photographers freshly returned from the battlefield, so that his collection would be as comprehensive as possible. When photographs from his collection were published, whether printed by Brady or adapted as engravings in publications, they were credited "Photograph by Brady," although they were actually the work of many people.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwbrady.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html

Anyway, from the link above, here are two photos of "Fair Oaks, Va. Prof. Thaddeus S. Lowe observing the battle from his balloon "Intrepid." (the same as the OP pictures, but a good site for pics)
See here. (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?cwar:2:./temp/~ammem_Lxra::)

Edit fix url

[vonmazur]

I was aware of this, but I really got a shock when someone showed me a picture of the harbor in Bridgeport Connecticut, and it was clearly before the Wright Bros or even Gustav Weisskopf flew.....

The picture was of the area where the Harbor Power Plant now is located, there are square rigged ships at the docks, and the railroad rolling stock was all circa 1870. In addition the New Haven Main Line was 2 tracks, not 4 and not elevated above street level, this was done circa 1900, so, since I was at the time, a telegrapher for the Metro Region of the Penn Central, I was interested in the old interlockings and tracks, I was avid to see this picture. It was intersting to see that the alignment of the main line was totally different from where it is now, and all the ancient equipment sitting there was a real suprise. The photo was very clear and obviously taken from at least 300 feet above sea level, if not higher, and from a point over Long Island Sound.......The owner said that in the 1870's, the New Haven Rail Road comissioned a series of aerial photos of their operations, an that hydrogen balloons were used for this, invented or developed by Professor Lowell during the late war. He used some kind of acid on zinc metal and some sort of filter the purify the resulting hydrogen gas......

I saw some other pictures made at the time, with similar resolution and angles, all of various railroad scenes, so I have to admit that the science of photography and ballooning was fairly advanced in those days......


Dale in Ala

[Melusine]

Vonmazur, I did a quick search, and this list of www.irelandinformationguide.com/List_of_years_in_aviation+thaddeus+lowe+pictures+o f+bridgeport&hl=en]Years (http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:_4PdkILPYhwJ: points out:

1861
First telegraph message is sent from the air, by Thaddeus Lowe in the balloon Enterprise.
The American Army Balloon Corps is formed under Lowe's command, for observation and artillery direction. Balloons would see major use in the U.S. Civil War over the next four years.

Also:

1901
Royal Aero Club founded.
Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his airship Number 6 from the Parc Saint Cloud around the Eiffel Tower and back in under 30 minutes.
July 31, German meteorologists Berson and Süring climb to 10,800 m in a free balloon.
August 14, German-American Gustav Weißkopf reportedly achieves the first stable engine flight over a half a mile in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The flight is disputed, and did not effect development of engine flight.
October 19, Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont flies airship "Nr. 6" from St. Cloud, around the Eiffel Tower and back to his starting point within 30 minutes to win the Deutsch-Award, and 100,000 Francs.
The seaplane of the Austrian W. Kress is destroyed at take-off.
First flights of a power-driven model aeroplane with a petrol engine (Prof. Langley, USA).
The Wright brothers optimise their wing design with the help of wind tunnel measurements.

Another Aviation Timeline site:
[url]http://www.masterliness.com/a/Timeline.of.aviation.history.htm

I could not find specific aerial photos of railroads in CT in the late 1880's, though there are plenty of sites out there that reference photos of railroads.

[Sammy]

Interesting. That site is a good warm up for the 100 years of flight, to be celebrated next year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont). 8)

Not to stir up old disagreements, Argos, but the statements about the 14Bis in the link are not correct. It claims that the 14Bis was the first heavier than air craft to take off without assistence--high winds or a launching catapult.

The Wright 1903 Flyer, contrary to popular opinion. did not use a catapult,and was flown in calm air. The Wrights originally used Kitty Hawk because of the winds, since they started with kites and tethered models. They did use a catapault later, when they were flying in Ohio

[Melusine]

Interesting. That site is a good warm up for the 100 years of flight, to be celebrated next year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont). 8)

Not to stir up old disagreements, Argos, but the statements about the 14Bis in the link are not correct. It claims that the 14Bis was the first heavier than air craft to take off without assistence--high winds or a launching catapult.

The Wright 1903 Flyer, contrary to popular opinion. did not use a catapult,and was flown in calm air. The Wrights originally used Kitty Hawk because of the winds, since they started with kites and tethered models. They did use a catapault later, when they were flying in Ohio
It appears, from reading above links, that the debate regarding "first" in aviation goes on; someone devoted a whole page in Wikipedia to the matter. The problem with the Wright Brothers, is that they had only four witnesses to the 1903 Flyer, and subsequent failures that made their claim seem dubious. It seems from the timelines that "firsts" are questionable, as people were expounding on others' ideas and techniques, and some got more public attention than others.

Many people are certain about who invented the first flying machine, and are surprised to learn there are contrary views as adamantly asserted in other cultures. Some of these claims, when carefully compared, are found not to actually conflict, as different parts of the challenges of flight are claimed. But many claims do conflict, and are debated on either technical details of the definition of the invention or accomplishments, or the vague area of the relative importance of different achievements. Some claims are simply disbelieved. A few of the claims have been mistakes, intentional or not.

This kind of controversy of invention is not limited to flight. For example, debates over the tallest building tend to break into debates around what constitutes a building and what is the most important measure of such structures' height. In the same way some records of flying machines can come down to the exact definition of what, for example, constitutes a "flying machine", or "flight", or even "first".

No one single-handedly invented all of aviation. Early inventors made only partial progress, while later ones built on their work. Most of these claims are one that people can be justifiable proud of, but attempting to exclude all others' claims often leads to nothing but accusations of bias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_flying_machine

[Argos]

Ok, Sammy and Melusine, that question will never be solved, as hazy cultural aspects are involved. I personally think airplane was a collective development, and that question is merely academic.

Taking a handle from Melusines post to be back on topic, that talk about Santos Dummont being upset by the use of "his invention" in warfare is inconsistent, because he met president Roosevelt in 1904 to talk about a possible use of his dirigibles in the US army. He was not a saint.

(*) Some Brazilian historians now argue that he was upset because of the use of one of his projects, the "Demoiselle", in commercial scale, without his consent. Follow the trail of money. :)

[Sammy]

Talk about "popular misconceptions!" I consider myself fairly well informed on aviation history, but never came across the info on Santos Dumont meeting TR. I would have bet the mortgage on the "sorrow over war use" story.

Thanks, Argos.