The First Naval Aviator

Jim Klag

Ike the moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
May 12, 2019
Messages
3,690
Reaction score
2,296
August 3, 1861 - Off the coast of Virginia a Union naval officer, John LaMountain, ascends in a tethered balloon to look at Confederate controlled Hampton Roads. It is the first balloon ascent from a ship in naval history.
 

Attachments

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,626
Reaction score
4,544
Here is a article about ballooning in Charleston Harbor. It was led by a Captain Langdon Cheves...

https://markerhunter.wordpress.com/tag/confederate-balloons/

Snips...

The Charleston angle starts with Captain Langdon Cheves. In the spring of 1862, Cheves supervised the construction of a balloon in Savannah, Georgia. Cheves also organized a “corps” to operate the balloon. He turned to Charles Cevor, then serving as a private in the Georgia volunteers, who had earned his keep before the war piloting balloons. Cevor received a captains’ commission for this detail.

Snip..

A few days after this ascent, Brigadier-General Thomas Jordon, General P.G.T. Beauregard’s Chief-of-Staff, mentioned the balloon in correspondence with Lieutenant-Colonel D.B. Harris, Chief Engineer, “Whenever another balloon reconnaissance is made, the commanding general desires that some officer shall make the ascension who also knows the country to be reconnoitered; some engineer officer, if one can be found.” At that time Beauregard was not as much concerned about counting campfires as he was about charting the Federal fortifications going up on Morris Island and other locations.

At some point in October or November, the ballooning came to an abrupt halt. There is mention by Naval observers of a balloon operating at night over Fort Johnson on November 2, with lights strung underneath. But that report did not state if the balloon was for observation or used as a signal device. Some sources say the balloon was lost during a storm. Official records provide no direct conformation. But at that time Cevor was assigned to engineering details. Morse returned to his duties with the Chatham Artillery. Although a Pennsylvanian by birth, Morse served through the war with his Confederate battery. After the war he settled in Texas and is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery, Corsicana, Texa
 

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,626
Reaction score
4,544
I found this link to early balloon flights in America...

LINK: http://www.civilwarsignals.org/page...ly 2, 1859, Wise,drove them into Lake Ontario.

Snip...

The Atlantic Ocean presented an ongoing challenge to American aeronauts. Wise tried for more than ten years to raise funds for a balloon flight to Europe. He finally succeeded in 1859 when O.A. Gager, a wealthy balloon enthusiast, financed the building of the 50,000-cubic-foot (1,416 cubic-meter) Atlantic, which had a lifeboat suspended beneath it. On July 2, 1859, Wise, LaMountain, Gager, and a reporter left St. Louis and flew 809 miles (1,302 kilometers) in this balloon to Henderson in Jefferson County, New York. The flight, which lasted 19 hours 50 minutes, was threatened by a violent storm that almost drove them into Lake Ontario. Wisely, the aeronauts, instead of relying on their lifeboat, cut it adrift and gained the additional lift they needed. Wise also jettisoned a bag of mail consigned to the group by the United States Express Company. This was the earliest airmail delivery in the United States. The flight established an official world distance record for non-stop air flight that would stand until 1910.
 
Top