Saluting America's First Aeronaut

The Civil War marked the beginning of modern warfare, at least in terms of communications and reconnaissance. We've already looked at the 150th anniversary of the telegraph, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of the use of aerial observers in American warfare. Professor Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe was an inventor who proposed using balloons to observe Confederate positions and troop movements to President Lincoln on June 11, 1861. Lincoln approved the plan, and Lowe first flew his balloon, the Intrepid, over the First Battle of Bull Run. After his success, Lincoln ordered the formation of the Union Army Balloon Corps and named Lowe chief aeronaut.

The first photo shows his balloon camp at Gaines Mills, Virginia, in 1862. He is in the balloon basket as it's about to lift off. The second photo shows Lowe in camp in 1861. After the war, he and his family moved to Pasadena, California, where he opened several ice plants, founded the Citizen's Bank of Los Angeles and became involved in the Mount Lowe Railway, a line designed to transport people to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains. (Photos from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)