Lincoln Aerial reconnaissance

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OTD - June 18, 1861President Lincoln receives a telegram from Prof. Lowe in the balloon "Enterprise" over Columbia Armory grounds: "This point of observation commands an area near fifty miles in diameter. . . . I have the pleasure of sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station."
N.Y. Tribune, 19 June 1861.

 

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Lincoln appointed Thaddeus Lowe as the Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army the following month. He received funding to obtain seven balloons, twelve field gas generators, and a flat topped balloon barge ( the first aircraft carrier?).

 

[Missouri Swampfox]

Used at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi too.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Civil War Ballooning | 19th Century Invention & Innovation

Interesting Facts and Frequently Asked Questions Fair Oaks, Virginia. Prof. Thaddeus S. Lowe replenishing balloon INTREPID from balloon CONSTITUTION - May 1862 (Library of Congress) Were balloons used by world militaries before the American Civil War? The French Committee of Public Safety...

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Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Rhea Cole]

An interesting side bar:

You might wonder why there were no balloons used by the Army of the Cumberland? It sounds exactly like something those highly inventive folks would have gravitated to. Fort Transit Signal Station atop Pilot Knob 8, 9 or 10 miles east of Murfreesboro TN ( The contemporary sources differ. ) To this day, Pilot Knob is the only bald hill on the skyline.

You can just barely make out the slanting road & the ditch in front of the palisade that surrounded the summit. The top of the knob was leveled off. The signal station was a treehouse 60' up an enormous tree.

I have very amusing account an officer wrote to his daughter about he & a friend visiting the station. About halfway up the boards nailed to the trunk of the tree that was the only access to the platform his knees shook too bad to continue without a pause. That was nothing compared to climbing down while wearing knee high riding boots. The tulip poplar is gone, but when I was in college this was a favorite spot from which to watch the sun go down.

About 40 miles away the landing & runway lights at Nashville's airport were clearly visible. On cold clear nights, turpentine torches were used to signal directly to the Fort Negley Station in downtown Nashville. That 41 miles transmission is considered the longest visual signal of the war.

My great granddaughter assures me that Pilot Knob is the highest point between there & somewhere in New Mexico. It certainly looks that way from there.

Fifteen miles west of the Courthouse Station in Murfreesboro was the Works at Triune. The highest point was surrounded by three miles of rifle pits. Set inside a stone faced star shaped bastion, the signal station surveyed an enormous swath of territory.

One of the little understood intel resources that facilitated Rosecrans completely overwhelming the Army of Tennessee during the June 1863 Tullahoma Campaign was what amounted to 19th Century spy satellites. 24/7 signalists in these stations of observation had Bragg's entire fifty mile wide front under constant view. Via visual & telegraphic communication, the HQ in the Rutherford County Courthouse received reports in real time. Rosecrans had a form of situational awareness that was unprecedented. Hardly anything moved for a thousand square miles that he did not know about.