War of the Aeronauts - Hardcover

Evans, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811713954 ISBN 13: 9780811713955

Publisher: UNKNO, 2002

Synopsis

The Union Army Balloon Corps holds a significant place in the annals of Civil War and military history. From 1861 to 1863 the corps contributed invaluable surveillance and reconnaissance information to the Union Army's war effort during the Virginia campaign. It also accomplished such significant military feats as the initial air-to-ground communication by telegraph, the first use of the "aircraft carrier" for launch of the balloon, and the first artillery barrage directed by an aerial observer where gun batteries were unable to see their targets from the ground. This book traces the history of the intrepid airborne force, from its creation by pioneer balloonist Thaddeus Lowe to its unceremonious disbanding in 1863.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles M. Evans has written several articles about ballooning and the history of flight for such publications as Civil War Times Illustrated, American History, and Aviation. He was the founding curator of the Hiller Air Museum in Redwood City, California, where he served from 1990 to 1995. He currently resides in Reno, Nevada.

From Publishers Weekly:

This is the first book since F. Stansbury Haydon's 1941 Aeronautics in the Union and Confederate Armies to treat extensively the brief but important contributions of ballooning to the war efforts of both sides. The chief man behind the push to use balloons as military reconnaissance weapons was Prof. Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, one of America's premier early aeronauts. Working against a hidebound military uninterested in balloons, Lowe managed to convince President Lincoln of their possible military uses and became the head of a small group of aeronauts who worked with the Union Army of the Potomac. The group surveyed by air the Confederate defenses and troops in northern Virginia during the fall of 1861 through the spring of 1862 and proved of some use during the siege of Yorktown. Lowe persevered with his balloons until the late spring of 1863, when the balloon corps was shunted aside by officers not interested in this innovation; it ceased to exist after Lowe resigned and went home. Evans, founding curator of California's Hillier Air Museum, describes Lowe's introduction of air to ground communications (via telegraph), successful launchings of balloons from ships and an air-directed artillery barrage. The brief operations of a Confederate balloon corps in 1862 is also covered. With Haydon's book long out-of-print, Evans's insightfully written volume, which includes 60 illustrations and three maps, helps fill a gap in existing Civil War literature, but will excite only Civil War and aeronautics buffs.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: UNKNO
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0811713954
• ISBN 13: 9780811713955
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 2