Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer (Sorrel)
Chapter X—Second Battle Of Manassas, August 29 And 30, 1862
[excerpt]
At this date, July and August, 1862, food was plentiful and good. No variety, but fresh beef or bacon, flour, coffee and sugar were issued in full rations. There was an abundance of whiskey, but comparatively little drunkenness. Encouragement and incentives to good conduct came from the General-in-Chief down through the officers. Previous to the Chickahominy Campaign a balloon had been constructed for reconnoitering. The enemy had several and we also wanted one, so the women—Heaven bless them!—came to the front with, it may be, tearful eyes but willing hearts and chipped in all their pretty silk frocks and gowns. It was a wonderfully picturesque balloon and at first did some little service, captive to a locomotive pushed far to the front. Then it was packed on a little steamboat ill an adventurous cruise down the James. She ran aground, was gobbled up, with the bright ball-dress balloon, by the delighted Yankees, and that was the last of the pretty things of our sisters, sweethearts, and wives.
(General Longstreet's staff officer G. Moxley Sorrel wrote this, and Sorrel would rise up to be a General in his own right.)
Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer (Sorrel)
Introduction--By John W. Daniel
[excerpt]
General Sorrel has not attempted a military history. He has simply related the things he saw and of which he was a part. He says of his writings, "that they are rough jottings from memory without access to any data or books of reference and with little attempt at sequence." What his book will therefore lack in the precision and detail as to military strategy or movement, will be compensated for by the naturalness and freshness which are found in the free, picturesque, and salient character of his work.
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Southern Historical Society Papers.
Vol. XXXIII. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1905
Balloon Used For Scout Duty.
Terrible Experiences of a Confederate Officer who saw the Enemy from Dizzy Heights.
ROPE CUT AS HE ASCENDED.
An Ascent That Completely Unnerved the Aeronaut, But He Finally Came Down Safely.
From the Times-Dispatch, September 20th, 1905.
uring the war between the North and the South many events of absorbing interest occurred, and it has been the object of the Times-Dispatch to record as many as possible of these in the Confederate column of this paper.
The following account of Capt. John Randolph Bryan's trips in a war balloon, while attached to General J. B. Magruder's head-quarter's before Yorktown, we consider as well deserving publication, as it was (so far as known to us) the first time a balloon was used by the Confederates in order to ascertain the position and strength of the Union forces.
It will add to the interest of this narrative to know that at the time Capt. Bryan was making his ascensions from the Confederate lines General Fitz John Porter was performing the same service for the Union army which lay facing the Confederates. His experience was similar to that of Captain Bryan's, in that his balloon rope broke and his balloon also drifted aimlessly in the air.
General Porter's balloon was a much more expensive affair than the one the Confederates could afford, and was attached to the ground by a silken rope. Although General Porter escaped without injury in this adventure, the exploit is now recorded in bronze upon a monument to him.
Capt. Randolph Bryan at present resides in Birmingham, Ala. He is the eldest brother of Mr. Joseph Bryan of this city, of Mr. St. George T. C. Bryan, and of the Rev. Braxton Bryan, of Petersburg.