Civil War Airpower during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862

By J. Michael Moore, M.A.

The American Civil War foreshadowed the modern warfare of the 20th century with many technological innovations, including machine guns, submarines, land mines, and ironclad warships. The observation balloon was another scientific advancement deployed for the first time in U.S. military history.

The French pioneered the use of balloons with the first untethered, manned flight on Nov. 21, 1783, and launched the first observation balloon in military history at the Battle of Fleury on June 26, 1794. The American Civil War, however, saw their deployment on both sides and from both land and sea launching platforms.

In the summer of 1861, Union aeronaut John La Mountain made several ascents from Hampton Roads on board the USS Fanny and the USS Adriatic. La Mountain observed the Confederate defenses at Sewell’s Point and the Lower Peninsula but lacked official support from the War Department. Moreover, Professor Thaddeus Lowe had been appointed the Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army in July 1861, and La Mountain faded into history. 

In April and May 1862, the Federals and Confederates operated observation balloons during the Peninsula Campaign. In spring 1862, Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan wanted to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond by a rapid overland and riverine advance from Fort Monroe up the Virginia Peninsula. Deployed behind the Warwick River, the Confederate Army of the Peninsula blocked his advance with a 12-mile defensive line resulting in a three-week siege.

Professor Lowe provided Gen. McClellan intelligence on the Confederate positions that he and Brig. Gen. Fitz-John Porter gathered from the hydrogen balloons Constitution and Intrepid. The Constitution was launched from the Warwick Courthouse, which served as the headquarters for Brig. Gen. Erasmus Keyes’ IV Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The Intrepid was based near Howe’s Saw Mill on the Hampton-Yorktown Highway near Confederate-occupied Yorktown.

This nascent form of aerial observation was matched by John Randolph Bryan in a Confederate hot-air balloon launched from Lee Hall Mansion (in present-day Newport News, Virginia). The Union and Confederate balloons were natural targets for artillery and small arms fire, but neither side scored a direct hit. They did, however, cause uneasiness for the operators and observers. Bryan noted the anxiety felt when the balloon rose over the forest and the Union troops began firing:

“For some minutes shells and bullets from the shrapnel whistled and sang around me with a most unpleasant music, but my balloon and I escaped.”

Furthermore, Bryan and Gen. Porter both had accidental free-flight experiences when their tethered ropes broke. The two early aeronauts narrowly escaped serious injury or capture underscoring the dangerous nature of their work. 

Despite their efforts, neither the Union nor the Confederate high commands ever really adequately supported balloon operations. Balloon observation also did not alter the strategic situation on the Peninsula.

On May 3, 1862, the Confederates abandoned the Warwick-Yorktown Line due to the Union superiority in heavy artillery rather than being observed by the Union balloons. Balloons were, however, an important technological development that led to the rise of fixed-winged military aircraft in the 20^th century and another important chapter in the Peninsula’s rich military history.