OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Ohio in the Civil War Pt 5 *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 October 15, 1999 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Diaries of S. J. Kelly Plains Dealer Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************************************** Ohio in the Civil War -- part 5 Balloons and The Civil War On April 20, 1861, an enormous apparition decended gently upon a sparsely populated village, nine miles west of Unionville, South Carolina. A cautious. well-armed group of men carefully ventured out to the open field where the 50-foot-high monstrosity had landed, fully expecting to meet the devil himself. Rifles cocked and trained dead ahead, the men approached the rapidly deflating sperical craft. As they neared it, a young man sporting a tall silk hat and formal Prince Albert coat leapt out of the attached wicker basket and frantically waved salutations. The man, who identified himself as Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, told the incredulous crowd that he had just completed an aerial journey from Cincinnati, Ohio -- more than 500 miles away -- in just nine hours. The purpose of the trip, Lowe explained, was to test the nature of atmospheric wind currents before embarking on a much grander scheme, the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to Europe by way of passenger Balloon. The rural crowd was not concerned with the merits of Lowe's scientific quest. Given the state of political affairs then prevailing in South Carolina, it is little surprise that Lowe was summarily branded a Yankee spy. Only through a combination of persuasive oratory and good luck, did Lowe escape bodily harm and incarceration. He was able to convince his audience to let him gather up his contraption and transport it in a wagon train to Columbia, the state capital. There, Lowe's reputation as an aerialist was well enough known to secure his return to the North via railroad. An unexpected side effect of Lowe's journey was the insight it gave him into conditions in the South on the eve of the Civil War. Military encampments were clustered near rail junctions, with volunteers mustering for the coming conflict. Train cars loaded with Confederate regiments were heading northward, and the tension in the air was palpable to the young aeronaut. Lowe later recorded in his memoirs, " I was fully convinced that my country was facing a severe struggle, and I would offer the breadth of my body and resources to its service." Upon returning to Ohio on April 26, Lowe turned to one of his financial supporters, Murat Halstead, the influential editor of the Cincinnati Daily Commercial. Halstead had originally agreed to sponsor the transatlantic balloon flight, pledging unwavering faith in Lowe's abilities. Lowe persuaded him to abandon that plan and instead write a letter to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, suggesting that the Federal governmet establish a balloon corps under Lowe's command to provide aerial reconnaissance for Northern armies. While Lowe waited for an official response from Wasington, another aerialist, John LaMountain, was actively working along the same lines. LaMountain, of Troy, New York, had been born in 1830 and had spent a great deal of his adult life as a merchant seaman prior to his apprenticeship to America's " grand old man" of ballooning, John Wise, in the late 1850s. Wise, who had made his first aerial ascent in 1835 in a craft of his own invention, also had his eyes on the elusive conquest of the Atlantc. Little is known of the exact circumstances that brought the two men together, though Wise would later recall LaMountain as " an apt pupil" whose experience as a seaman " made him proficient in the management of sailing paraphernalia, and --- in the prognostication of weather." In 1859, Wise had raised enough money to construct an aerostat of more than 50,000 cubic feet, complete with a lifeboat gondola slung under the gas bag. He christened the craft " Atlantic," after the obstacle he intended to cross. Because a portion of the funding for the Atlantic had come from St.Louis, Missouri, the completed aerostat was shipped to that city in June 1859. Wise planned to launch it there on a shakedown flight to Boston and then to embark from that city for Europe. Wise, LaMountain, and an investor named Gager ceremoniously departed from St.Louis on the evening of July 2,1859, quickly rising upward into the eastern jet stream. They progressed well enough at first, and the Atlantic reached Fort Wayne, Indiana, by the next morning. As the ship approached the Eastern seaboard, however, it was caught up in a tremendous storm and floundered over Lake Ontario. The aeronauts sighted land and executed an emergency landing in a grove of elms near Henderson, New York, barely escaping with their lives. The failed expedition brought about the end of the association between Wise and LaMountain. Despite nearly ending in disaster, the 809-- mile trip was significant in that it established an official world distance record for non-stop air flight that would stand until 1910. In the aftermath of the voyage, LaMountain became something of a media celebrity. He voiced outspoken criticism of Wise's behavior, portraying his mentor as being " close to panic" at various points of the trip. Though it was believed that LaMountain was prompted in his opinions by a reporter trying to fuel a controversy, the incident portended the contentious behavior that would characterize LaMountain during the Civil War. After the partnership beteen LaMountain, Wise, and Gager was dissolved, LaMountain took possession of what was left of the Atlantic and made repairs to it. With the assistance of John Haddock, editor of the Watertown, New York, "Reformer," LaMountain ascended from Watertown in Sept. 1859 for what was supposed to be a " short experimental flight." As it turned out, the weather again conspired against LaMountain, as strong winds unexpectedly thrust the balloon far to the north. LaMountain and Haddock were finally able to land safely, but found themselves stranded in the wilderness of Canada, some 300 miles from their point of departure. They were forced to live off the land for four days until they were finally rescued by a party of lumbermen and returned to New York. LaMountain, with the help of some embellishment on the part of newspaperman Haddock, achieved widespread reknown for this demonstration of daring. When hostilities broke out between the North and South in the spring of 1861, LaMuntain was not far behind Thaddeus Lowe in offering his services as an aeronaut to the Union. LaMountain wrote directly to the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, on two occasions in May 1861, outlining his plan for using a balloon to observe enemy troop dispositions from the air. He included a long list of endorsements from prominent individuals of Troy and asked to be awarded a commission and placed in charge of tactical aeronautics. LaMountain never received a reply from the Secretary, perhaps because he lacked the support of a politically influential man like Lowe's sponsor, Murat Halstead. Secretary Chase had received Halstead's letter and, on the strength of the newspaper editor's endorsement, had arranged a meeting between Lowe and President Abraham Lincoln for June 11, 1861. Transporting the balloon-ship " Enterprise" with him to the capitol, Lowe met with Lincoln and outlined his vision for the military use of observation balloons. In that conversation, Lowe proposed to demonstrate his balloon for the President. He also raised the possibility of a new dimension to reconnaissance aerial telegraphy. On June 17, on the grounds of the Columbia Armory in Washington, the specially equipped " Enterprise" ascended on tethers to a height of 500 feet, carrying Lowe and representatives of the American Telegraph Company. Using telegraph equipmet aboard the ship and cables that ran along one of the rigging wires to the ground and from there to the War Department and the White House, Lowe sent the world's first telegraphic transmission from the air; " Balloon Enterprise, Washington, June 17,1861-- To the President of the United States; " Sir; "This point of observation commands an area nearly fifty miles in diameter. The city, with its girdle of encampments, presents a superb scene. I take great pleasure in sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial Station, and in acknowledging my indebtness to your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of the science of aeronautics in the military service of this country." Yours respectfully, T.S.C. Lowe. The ingenuity of this demostration was not lost on the commander in chief. Lowe had firmly cemented his relationship with Lincoln. For the rest of the evening of the 17th, the Enterprise was moored on the South Lawn of the White House, while Lowe remained as a guest in the executive mansion. Meanwhile, back at Troy, New York, LaMountain was preparing to accept an offer from another quarter. He had been waiting in vain for word from the War Department, when, on June 5, he received a letter from Major General Benjamin F. Butler, in command of Union Forces at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Butler had learned of LaMountain's offer of service and requeted that the aeronaut make preparations to journey to Fort Monroe and demonstrate his balloon. LaMountain encountered a number of delays, ranging from financial shortages to the lack of a hydrogen gas generator suitable for se in the field, but he finally arrived in Virginia late in June. He had already heard of Lowe's telegraphic ascent in Washington and publicly dismissed the feat as having " nether value nor advantage." Upon his arrival at Fort Monroe, LaMountain asked Butler to procure 60 gallons of sulfuric acid, three and one-half tons of metal filings, and the apparatus necessary to produce hydrogen gas using those ingredients. When all was readied, LaMountain, still relying on the heavily used Atlantic, was prepared to make the first true aerial reconnaissance of the war. On August 13th, the New York Times reported; " Professor LaMountain made two sucessful balloon ascensions at Fortress Monroe, having attained an altitude of three thousand feet. He found the encampment of the Confederate forces to be about 3 miles beyond Newmarket Bridge, Va. There were no trace of the rebels near Hampton. A considerable force is also encamped on the east side of James River, some eight miles above Newport News. The two cannons mounted at Sewall's Point toward Old Point, he thinks, are only large field pieces. There are, perhaps, one thousand Confederates at Sewall's Point." On the stength of that report, LaMountain could justly claim to be the first to effectively use a balloon in actual military service. That placed the balance of the military aeronautical one-upmanship squarely in LaMountain's favor. But Lowe was hardly resting on his laurels. That summer he had accepted control of the Balloon Corps, a civilian organization established by President Lincoln. The corps would serve under the auspices of the Union's Bureau of Topographical Engineers, and Lowe was authorized to requisition equipment and manpower from that bureau. *********************************************** To be continued in part 6.