NF Spy Balloons

[TSCLowe]

With recent attention focused on the "China Spy Balloon" Phil Gast wrote a very interesting and informative article for his blog "Civil War Picket" discussing how aerial observation has progressed from Thaddeus Lowe's application in the American Civil War to today. Well done! Thank you Phil! Huzzah

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.c...YulExvqSnMHVPnAwaHJ0ephDyJAXdHYTeUH7ZaKluH3Ps

Respectfully Submitted

TSC Lowe
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

 

[Tom Elmore]

Back in the day, you didn't need an F22 to down a balloon - a rifled cannon would suffice:

June 12 (1863). A balloon ascended in Stafford this morning and was fired at by our batteries on this side of the river. It descended at the double quick. (Diary of Robert Douglass, Company F, 47th Virginia)

 

[DixieRifles]

Back in the day, you didn't need an F22 to down a balloon - a rifled cannon would suffice:

Try both: a rifle and a rifled cannon.

Interesting how they had to elevate the cannon by placing fence rails under the wheels.

 

[R. Porter]

I was thinking that the cannon was placed on some uneven ground, and then I thought, "that's how the elevated the barrel!" I hadn't even noticed the fence rails

 

[TSCLowe]

Confederates also dug under the cannon's trail to raise it's elevation and added powder in their attempts to shoot down the Union's Spy Balloons. Unfortunately for them, several cannon barrels were breached in their attempts.

That said, while they may have been forced to descend because artillery rounds were landing too close to Soldiers on the ground, NO Union Balloon was ever shot out of the sky.

Shooting up at the balloons rounds could and did hit the lower half of balloon fabric causing minor damage that was easily repaired. Those holes would not bring the balloon out of the sky because the hydrogen gas lifted the aircraft from it's top half. Also, knowing they would be used in a field environment, Thaddeus Lowe built a balloon inside of each balloon - making them double walled.

Respectfully Submitted,
TSC Lowe, Aeronaut
Civil War Balloon Corps Living History

"I never understood why the enemy abandoned the use of military balloons … Even if the observers never saw anything, they would have been worth all they cost for the annoyance and delays they caused us in trying to keep our movement out of sight."
EP Alexander

"The Federals had been using balloons in examining out positions and we watched with envious eyes their beautiful observations as they floated high up in the air, and well out of the range of our guns. We longed for the balloons that our poverty denied us."
General James Longstreet

"A hawk hovering over a chicken yard could hardly cause more commotion."
Thaddeus S.C. Lowe

 

[Jim in Wisconsin]

What a great picture! The soldiers appear to be Federal, did the southern side have balloons also?