Military Ballooning during the Early Civil War by Haydon, F. Stansbury;

Short description:

Crouch, senior curator of the Aeronautics Division at the National Air and Space Museum.

Long description:

The definitive work on the creation of the United States Balloon Corps during the Civil War

More than half a century after its initial publication, F. Stansbury Haydon's well-researched book remains the definitive work on the creation of the United States Balloon Corps during the Civil War. Haydon explores his topic down to the last detail, from the amount of fabric used to manufacture every balloon that saw federal service, to the formula for varnish used to seal the envelopes. He explains the technical operation of mobile gas generators that T. S. C. Lowe designed to inflate balloons in the field and provides the precise cost of each rubber hose used in their construction.

Military Ballooning during the Early Civil War raises large and important questions about technological change within a military bureaucracy. The book begins with an introduction to the history of military ballooning since the wars of the French Revolution, with special attention to discussions of military aeronautics in the United States since the time of the Seminole Wars. Haydon also demonstrates the complicated maneuvering among American balloonists who sought to aid the army before the Battle of Bull Run and shows how the attitudes of various officers toward the balloons changed during the ensuing months of 1861-62.

First published in 1941 as Aeronautics in the Union and Confederate Armies, this volume received compliments in the London Times Literary Supplement for its exploration of "the attitude of soldiers toward innovations." A reviewer in the Military Engineer praised the book both for its extensive scholarship and "as a lesson to all military men of the difficulties and misunderstandings which arise whenever a new means of conducting war is introduced into army circles." This edition includes a new foreword by Tom D. Crouch, senior curator of the Aeronautics Division at the National Air and Space Museum.

Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations
Introduction to the 2000 Edition
Preface to the Originial Edition
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Symbols
Chapter 1. Military Aeronautics Prior to 1861
Chapter 2. James Allen: First Trial and Failure
Chapter 3. John Wise: Second Trial and Failure
Chapter 4. John La Mountain: Free Lance Balloonist of the Army of the Protomac
Chapter 5. The Early Career and Work of T.S.C. Lowe, Chief Aeronaut of the Army of the Potomac
Chapter 6. Two Months of Progress: Lowe's Operations, August-September, 1861
Chapter 7. The First American Air Froce: The Balloon Service of the Army of the Potomac, Part One: Material and Personnel
Chapter 8. The Balloon Service of the Army of the Potomac, Part Two: Administration
Chapter 9. The Balloon Service of the Army of the Potomac, Part Three: Operation
Chapter 10. First Organized Service: Operations of the Potomac Lines, November, 1861-March, 1862
Chapter 11. Operations in the Department of the South and the Western Department
Index