The Union Army Balloon Corps was a branch of the Union Army during the American Civil War, established by presidential appointee Thaddeus S. C. Lowe. It was organized as a civilian operation, which employed a group of prominent American aeronauts and seven specially built, gas-filled balloons to perform aerial reconnaissance on the Confederate States Army.
Woodblock sketch of Lowe's balloon with McClellan's Army of the Potomac as depicted in Harper's Weekly.
Thaddeus Lowe as Union Army Balloon Corps' Chief Aeronaut
Two of the hydrogen gas generators assigned to each balloon for inflating on the battlefield
Chain Bridge as it appeared during the Civil War
Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, was an American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor, mostly self-educated in the fields of chemistry, meteorology, and aeronautics, and the father of military aerial reconnaissance in the United States. By the late 1850s he was well known for his advanced theories in the meteorological sciences as well as his balloon building. Among his aspirations were plans for a transatlantic flight.
Thaddeus Lowe, c. 1890
Lowe's mammoth balloon the City of New York, later named Great Western, to be used in a transatlantic flight
Lowe's intended flight from Cincinnati shown in red. Actual flight in blue.
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, c. 1865
