It ended up paving the way for aerial reconnaissance and tactics. ... Published Mar 24, 2025 8:30 AM EDT. Crews inflate a balloon ahead of a Civil War battle in 1862. U.S. Army photo by Matthew ...

No longer were soldiers safe from enemy reconnaissance on the ground. They could now be watched from the air! From the French Revolution to the Civil War, balloons loomed over battlefields.

The American Civil War saw the formation of the Balloon Corps for Federal Army, ... How could there be an aerial reconnaissance platform, let alone an aircraft carrier, ...

Both satellites and balloons have played a role in reconnaissance, ... In the Civil War, prominent aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe and the U.S. Balloon Corps used floating spies, ...

Army History No. 93, Fall 2014 The Infernal Balloon: Union Aeronautics During the American Civil War This is the metadata section. Skip to content viewer ... 20 Jun 1861; photocopy of newspaper ...

A Chinese balloon seen floating over the northwestern United States this week was a reminder of how governments have used balloons for reconnaissance for more than a century.

During the Civil War, the Union Army got a leg up (way up) on the Confederates by taking to the skies. Hot air balloons had been around since the first manned flight in 1783. In less than a decade ...

Lincoln was impressed and he hired Lowe to operate a fleet of aerial reconnaissance balloons known as the Union Army Balloon Corps. ... None of Lowe’s Civil War aerial photos have been located, ...

The Civil War Balloonist Who Invented Aerial Recon; ... Nineteenth-century armies also relied on cavalry for reconnaissance, ... “The balloons became high-value targets,” Linick said.

When the war started in April 1861, Lowe was preparing for a balloon flight that would take him from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. Winds blew him off course, and he landed in South ...