1861 October 4th

October 4 1861 Thursday

Formation of the Union Army Balloon Corps

USA. Following the successful demonstration of an aerial reconnaissance before the battle of Bull Run on 21 July 1861, the Union Army Balloon Corps was formed as a branch of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. It was led by Chief Aeronaut, Professor Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, and comprised a civilian group of prominent American aeronauts with seven gas-filled balloons. The Balloon Corps subsequently served in campaigns across Virginia from October 1861 until the summer of 1863, when it was disbanded following Lowe’s resignation.
There were no clear plans or precedents for the establishment of the novel unit, nor whether it would even be a military or civilian operation. The use of balloons was left to the discretion of the commanding generals through a process of trial and error based on the best recommendations of the balloonists themselves. Only two men had real opportunities to perform aerial reconnaissance during active combat, Lowe himself and John La Mountain who acted independently as a rival to Lowe.
Lowe understood that military balloons needed to be better constructed than those used by civilian aeronauts. They also required special handling and care for use on the battlefield. At first, the balloons of the day were inflated at municipal coke gas supply stations and were towed to the field by ground crews when already inflated. Lowe recognised the need for the development of portable hydrogen gas generators, by which the balloons could be filled in the field. Two of the hydrogen gas generators were assigned to each balloon for inflating on the battlefield. The generators were built at the Washington Navy Yard by master joiners who fashioned a contraption of copper plumbing and tanks which, when filled with sulfuric acid and iron filings, would yield hydrogen gas. The generators were Lowe’s own design and were considered a marvel of engineering. They were designed to be loaded into box crates that could easily fit on a standard buckboard. The generators took more time to build than the balloons and were not as readily available as the first balloon.
Lowe eventually built seven balloons. Each balloon was accompanied by two gas-generating devices. Three small balloons were used in windy weather or for quick, one-man, low altitude ascents. They inflated quickly and required less gas. They were named Eagle, Constitution, and Washington. Four larger balloons were used for heavier loads, such as a telegraph key set and an additional man as an operator. They could also ascend higher. These were named Union, Intrepid, Excelsior, and United States. The latter two balloons were held in storage in a Washington warehouse. Eventually, the Excelsior was sent to Camp Lowe, a high altitude observation point, as a reserve for the Intrepid during harsh winter weather. The United States never entered service.
Lowe was offered $30 per day for each day his balloon was in use. Lowe offered to accept $10 gold per day (a Colonel’s pay) if he were to be allowed to build more suitable balloons. He was also allowed to hire as many men as he needed for $3 per day. Lowe was able to enlist his father, Clovis Lowe, an accomplished balloonist; Captain Dickinson, a seafaring volunteer from his days of transatlantic attempts; the Allen brothers, who had lost their own balloon when they were vying for the top job; two men the Allen brothers recommended, Eben Seaver and J B Starkweather; William Paullin, an older Philadelphia colleague; German balloonist John Steiner; and Ebenezer Mason, Lowe’s construction supervisor, who requested active duty.
Lowe set up several locations for the balloons: at Fort Monroe in Virginia, in Washington, DC, and at Camp Lowe near Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He operated in the Yorktown campaign and in several subsequent campaigns in Virginia. The heavily forested Virginia Peninsula forced him to employ a boat as his landing stage. Balloon service was requested elsewhere and Eben Seaver took the Eagle to the Mississippi River. Starkweather was sent to Port Royal with the Washington before the Peninsula Campaign.

Indian Territory. The Confederates concluded Peace Treaties with the Cherokee and Shawnee Indian Nations.

Kentucky. Skirmish at Buffalo Hill.

Louisiana. USS South Carolina, Commander James Alden, captured the Confederate schooners Ezilda and Joseph H Toone off the South West Pass of the Mississippi River, carrying four to five thousand stand of arms.

Maryland. Union Brigadier-General Charles Pomeroy Stone skirmished near Edwards Ferry, following the defeat two days earlier at Ball’s Bluff.

New Mexico Territory. Skirmish at Alamoosa near Fort Craig.

North Carolina. The Confederates probed Union positions at Chickacomico on the Outer Banks.

Virginia. Confederate Major-General Earl Van Dorn arrived from Texas to assume command of an unofficial Corps in the Army of the Potomac. The other Corps was assigned to Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith. The army remained in the hands of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston, assisted by his second-in-command (effectively acting as Chief of Staff) General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard.

Virginia. Incident at Cheat Mountain.

Union Organisation

USA: Brigadier-General George Wright arrived to command the District of Southern California.

Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln

Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin

Secretary of War: Simon Cameron

Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles

Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough
Gulf Blockading Squadron: William McKean
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery
Western Gunboat Flotilla: Andrew Hull Foote
Potomac Flotilla: Thomas Tingey Craven

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott

Department of the Cumberland: Robert Anderson

Department of the East: Vacant

Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of New England: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited

Department of the Ohio: Ormsby McKnight Mitchel

District of Grafton: Benjamin Franklin Kelley

Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner

District of Oregon: Benjamin Lloyd Beall
District of Southern California: George Wright

Department of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool

Western Department: John Charles Frémont

District of Western Kentucky: Charles Ferguson Smith
District of North Missouri: John Pope
District of Southeast Missouri: Ulysses Simpson Grant
Southern District of New Mexico: Benjamin Stone Roberts
Western Army: John Charles Frémont

Department of Western Virginia: William Starke Rosecrans awaited

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Brigadier-General Daniel Harvey Hill arrived to command the District of Pamlico.

CSA: Major-General Earl Van Dorn was appointed to command I Corps (Potomac), succeeding General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard who became the Second-in-Command or Chief of Staff to General Joseph Eggleston Johnston.

CSA: Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith arrived to command II Corps (Potomac).

Commander in Chief: President Jefferson Finis Davis

Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens

Secretary of War: Judah Philip Benjamin

Secretary of the Navy: Stephen Russell Mallory

Military Adviser to the President: Robert Edward Lee

Department No 1: David Emanuel Twiggs

District of Alabama: Jones Mitchell Withers

Department of Fredericksburg: Daniel Harvey Hill

District of Aquia: vacant

Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: John Breckinridge Grayson

Department of Norfolk: Benjamin Huger

Department of North Carolina: Richard Caswell Gatlin

District of Cape Fear: Joseph Reid Anderson
District of Pamlico: Daniel Harvey Hill

Department of the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

Army of the Peninsula: John Bankhead Magruder

Department of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Army of the Potomac: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
- I Corps Potomac: Earl Van Dorn
- II Corps Potomac: Gustavus Woodson Smith
Army of the Valley: Thomas Jonathan Jackson

Department of South Carolina: Roswell Sabine Ripley

Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring

Department of Texas: Paul Octave Hébert

District of Galveston: John Creed Moore

Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg

“Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg

Western Department: Albert Sidney Johnston

First Geographical Division: Leonidas Polk
District of Upper Arkansas: William Joseph Hardee
District of East Tennessee: Felix Kirk Zollicoffer
District of the Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch
Army of Central Kentucky: Simon Bolivar Buckner
Western Army: Benjamin McCulloch

District of Arizona: John Robert Baylor

Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton

Forces in Richmond: Charles Dimmock

Army of the Northwest: William Wing Loring

Union Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

Major-General USA

Winfield Scott
George Brinton McClellan
John Charles Frémont
Henry Wager Halleck

Major-General USV

John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
David Hunter
Edwin Denison Morgan

Brigadier-General USA

John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
Irvin McDowell
Robert Anderson
William Starke Rosecrans

Brigadier-General USV

Samuel Peter Heintzelman
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
William Tecumseh Sherman
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Don Carlos Buell
Thomas West Sherman
John Pope
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
Joseph Hooker
John Wolcott Phelps
Ulysses Simpson Grant
Joseph Jones Reynolds
Samuel Ryan Curtis
Charles Smith Hamilton
Darius Nash Couch
Rufus King
Jacob Dolson Cox
Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
Franz Sigel
Robert Cumming Schenck
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
Frederick West Lander
Benjamin Franklin Kelley
John Alexander McClernand
Alpheus Starkey Williams
Israel Bush Richardson
James Cooper
James Brewerton Ricketts
Orlando Bolivar Willcox
Michael Corcoran
George Henry Thomas
Ambrose Everett Burnside
Henry Hayes Lockwood
Louis Blenker
Henry Warner Slocum
James Samuel Wadsworth
John James Peck
Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
George Webb Morell
John Henry Martindale
Samuel Davis Sturgis
George Stoneman
Henry Washington Benham
William Farrar Smith
James William Denver
Egbert Ludovicus Vielé
James Shields
John Fulton Reynolds
William Farquhar Barry
John Joseph Abercrombie
John Sedgwick
Charles Ferguson Smith
Silas Casey
Lawrence Pike Graham
George Gordon Meade
Abram Duryée
Alexander McDowell McCook
Oliver Otis Howard
Eleazar Arthur Paine
Daniel Edgar Sickles
Charles Davis Jameson
Ebenezer Dumont
Robert Huston Milroy
Lewis Wallace
Willis Arnold Gorman
Daniel Butterfield
Horatio Gouverneur Wright
Edward Otho Cresap Ord
William Nelson
William Thomas Ward
John Gross Barnard
Innis Newton Palmer
Seth Williams
John Newton
Winfield Scott Hancock
Thomas Leonidas Crittenden
George Wright
Isaac Ingalls Stevens
Thomas Williams
George Sykes
William Henry French
William Thomas Harbaugh Brooks
John Milton Brannan
William Wallace Burns
John Porter Hatch
David Sloane Stanley
William Kerley Strong
Albin Francisco Schoepf
Lovell Harrison Rousseau
James Scott Negley

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (Quartermaster-General)
Henry Knox Craig
Lorenzo Thomas (Adjutant-General)
James Wolfe Ripley (Ordnance)

Confederate Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

General ACSA

Samuel Cooper
Albert Sidney Johnston
Robert Edward Lee
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Major-General PACS

David Emanuel Twiggs
Leonidas Polk
Braxton Bragg
Earl Van Dorn
Gustavus Woodson Smith

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Milledge Lake Bonham
Benjamin McCulloch
William Wing Loring
Charles Clark
John Buchanan Floyd
William Henry Talbot Walker
Henry Rootes Jackson
Theophilus Hunter Holmes
Henry Alexander Wise
William Joseph Hardee
Richard Stoddert Ewell
David Rumph Jones
Benjamin Huger
John Bankhead Magruder
James Longstreet
Edmund Kirby Smith
John Clifford Pemberton
Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Henry Hopkins Sibley
John Henry Winder
Richard Caswell Gatlin
Daniel Smith Donelson
Samuel Read Anderson
Gideon Johnson Pillow
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham
Felix Kirk Zollicoffer
Daniel Harvey Hill
Jones Mitchell Withers
Richard Heron Anderson
Robert Augustus Toombs
Samuel Jones
Arnold Elzey
William Henry Chase Whiting
Jubal Anderson Early
Isaac Ridgway Trimble
Daniel Ruggles
George Bibb Crittenden
John Breckinridge Grayson
Roswell Sabine Ripley
Albert Pike
Paul Octave Hébert
Joseph Reid Anderson
Simon Bolivar Buckner
Leroy Pope Walker
Albert Gallatin Blanchard
Gabriel James Rains
James Ewell Brown Stuart
Lafayette McLaws
Thomas Fenwick Drayton
Thomas Carmichael Hindman
Adley Hogan Gladden