Aeronautics in the Union and Confederate Armies: With a Survey of Military Aeronautics Prior To 1861

by Frederick Stansbury Haydon

An illuminating study of the history of the development of air weapons for reconnaissance and offensive operations, usually thought to have only begun with WWI but which, the author shows, go back well before the American Civil War but saw important developments during that war. The book studies the work of such pioneers as James Allen, John Wise, John La Mountain, and T.S.C. Lowe, their failures and, in the case of Lowe, important successes in the creation of the Balloon Service of the Army of the Potomac. The book traces in detail the materiel and personnel, its administration and operation, and operations during the war. 55 plates including a fold-out map. Index. Reprint edition. 1941: 443 pages + plates. Softcover. (Scholar's Bookshelf)

Genres: History, Civil War

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Educated at the Boy's Latin School of Baltimore, Frederick Stansbury Haydon earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1930. After two years at the Johns Hopkins University College of Teachers, Haydon was admitted as a doctoral student to their history department, from which he earned his Ph.D. in 1940 with his dissertation "Aeronautics in the American Civil War, With a Survey of Military Aeronautics Prior to 1861."

Haydon's efforts to expand his dissertation into a work covering the entire conflict were interrupted by the Second World War. An officer in the National Guard, Haydon was called to active duty in September 1940. After serving as an instructor in a variety of posts, he was deployed overseas, seeing combat in the North African, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns. Discharged as a colonel, Haydon taught briefly at the University of Maine before joining the U.S. Army Historical Branch. Recalled to active duty during the Korean War, Haydon was assigned to ROTC programs until his retirement in 1959.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traditionally associated with the use of heavier-than-air craft, the military use of airpower long predates the Wright brothers’ 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In fact, it was little more than a decade after the Montgolfiers first took to the skies in 1783 that the first air force, the French Aerostatic Corps was formed to provide reconnaissance for the armies of Revolutionary France. Yet as remarkable as they were these early efforts proved fitful, with the Directory disbanding the Aerostatic Corps just five years after its formation and subsequent efforts over the next half century to militarize lighter-than-air craft failing to live up to their advocates’ hopes.

Military ballooning came into its own only with the American Civil War. Soon after the start of the conflict, a number of aeronauts offered their services to the United States government. In response, the Union Army Balloon Corps was formed to provide airborne reconnaissance on behalf of Union forces. Though balloons were employed successfully by Union forces in the east for a variety of observation and artillery-spotting efforts (and inspired less-successful efforts by their Confederate forces to field their own balloons), they were often treated with skepticism and disdain by many officers, and the Balloon Corps withered from neglect by the end of 1863.

The story of military ballooning during the Civil War is one that is often dealt with only in passing, or told through the lives of the remarkable individuals who took to the skies and championed the cause of flight. This is one of the reasons why F. Stansbury Haydon’s book is such a valuable study of its subject. Intended as the first volume of a two-part survey of ballooning during the war, it is a remarkably thorough work that employs an impressive range of archival materials to tell the history of his subject. Beginning with the prewar history of military ballooning, he chronicles the various attempts to use balloons in warfare prior to 1861, most of which provided only a limited return on the effort involved.

The impetus for military ballooning came not from the army, but from patriotic civilian aeronauts. As Haydon demonstrates, there were a number of individuals who were attempting to realize the promise of lighter-than-air flight. The war gave them an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of using balloons for observation. Though a number of individuals approached the government independently, the key figure proved to be Thaddeus Lowe, an amateur scientist who before the war began was attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean by balloon. Lowe’s determination and organizational skills proved essential to the early success of the Union Army Balloon Corps, which by the autumn of 1861 was conducting regular observation of Confederate forces for the Army of the Potomac. Haydon makes clear that the use of balloons was largely dependent on the enthusiasm of individual army commanders, particularly George McClellan, for the new technology, with the skepticism of generals elsewhere limiting the use of balloons on other fronts.

Haydon describes all of this in a work rich in detail. Throughout it he chronicles the ascents by Lowe and the other airborne observers, using the details to demonstrate the accuracy of their observations. Nor is his narrative confined to the operations of the aeronauts, as he also describes the technical aspects of balloons themselves, including how they were constructed and the methods used to inflate them. The range of information in the text is impressive, yet Haydon demonstrates throughout his text a sure command of his subject, never getting bogged down in trivia or distracted by tangents. It’s a masterful work, and one that makes the lack of the promised second volume all the more regrettable. Despite being published eighty years ago, it has yet to be surpassed as a history of military ballooning during the Civil War – and given the high quality of Haydon’s scholarship, it is difficult to imagine anyone how anyone could improve on it.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book several time and have found it just fascinating. I am delighted it has been reprinted and is currently available to more modern readers since it was originally published in the 1940's. It is, without a doubt, the best book on the subject.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being British, I have no real interest in the American Civil War, but it was the start of modern warfare. The first military use of a Submarine, the H L Hunley & the first organised use of aerial warfare via the Union Army Balloon Corps. If the American Civil War, Military History, or the history flying interests you, then this is the book to buy.
This is not the easiest read, but it was originally published with the intention of it being a two volume book & volume two was never published. Packed with informative footnotes, this book is a treasure trove of information about a sadly forgotten part of military history.