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| Tuesday June 18, 1861 |
The equipment of privateers by the Confederates was
commenced soon after the beginning of the war, sailing vessels
were used at first. June 18, 1861, the Confederate privateer, C.S.
S. Sumter, a steamer commanded by Raphael Semmes, sailed
from New Orleans.
Thaddeus S. Lowe, a 29-year-old balloon enthusiast, went up
about 500 feet on June 18, 1861, looked down upon Washington,
and, via a cable linking his balloon gondola to the War
Department, telegraphed a message to President Lincoln: “The
city, with its girdle of encampments, presents a superb scene….”
It was the first wartime air-to-ground communication ever recorded
in America. By linking the balloon to the telegraph, Lowe
transformed what had been a novel contraption at country fairs
into a tool for a new kind of intelligence gathering: real-time aerial
reconnaissance. The demonstration had been arranged, not by
military officers, but by Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, and an enthusiastic supporter of the use
of balloons in war.