JUNE 24, 1861:
Amid rumors that
Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard is set to surround and attack the capital
with a force 180,000 strong, General Irvin McDowell sends two topographical
engineers into a surveying balloon with aeronaut Professor Thaddeus T. Lowe in
order to scout the size and location of Confederate troops. The three men ascend into the sky near Falls
Church, Virginia, but the War Department did not release their findings to
Washington’s anxious residents. It is the first time that the new Balloon Corps
goes to war.
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