Potus Geeks Photo: Abraham Lincoln and Balloon Warfare

No the man in the stovepipe hat standing up in the gas balloon in this Matthew Brady photo is not the 16th President. But the photo has some historic significance today because it was on June 17, 1861 (151 years ago today) that President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a gas balloon, and Dr. Lowe is the man we see standing inside the balloon in the photo. In the photo Dr. Lowe is observing Confederate positions during the Peninsula Campaign.

Dr. Lowe, a 29-year-old New Hampshire native, convinced both Lincoln and General George McClellan that balloons could be of great value in aerial reconnaissance. Lowe had built and ascended in his first balloon in 1857 at the age of 25. In spite of his youth, Lincoln made him chief of army aeronautics in August 1861, and the young professor went to work creating a fleet of balloons, the most famous of which was the Intrepid. He worked out a way to get portable gas generators into the field and took them to the Peninsula, where he immediately proved valuable. He and army officers made ascents to gather intelligence on Confederate positions on nearly a daily basis. Lowe became the first person to communicate with the ground from a balloon via telegraph. Brigadier General Fitz John Porter went aloft to observe Confederate activity at Yorktown when a tether line failed and winds bore the balloon westward over enemy lines. Southern marksmen tried to shoot the airship down, but the wind shifted and took Porter back to the safety of Union Lines.

Below is a note that Lincoln sent to General Winfield Scott asking him to meet with Dr. Lowe.