Reinforcing the Lower Potomac

In which we swing by Budd's Ferry and Evansport

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Not a long post today, just a quick stop by the opposite sides of the batteries on the Lower Potomac that were impeding traffic to Washington City. In Maryland, at Budd's Ferry, was the headquarters of Joe Hooker, nominally in command, but having a tough day, apparently:

Headquarters Hooker's Division, Camp Baker, Lower Potomac, Maryland, November 22, 1861. Brig. Gen. S. Williams, Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac: 

 General: An animated fire was kept up from the rebel batteries on two or three schooners descending the river this afternoon with no better success than heretofore. The rebels will certainly abandon their purpose of claiming the navigation of the Potomac by means of the batteries now in position ere long. They must see that it is labor in vain. Of late a large number of vessels have passed and repassed at night, and no effort has been made to check them. Thus far their labor has been equally fruitless during the day.

Professor Lowe has not returned from his mission to Washington. I see no effort making to inflate the balloon on shore, as was intended by him at the time of leaving.

The two companies of cavalry dispatched to the lower part of the Peninsula have not returned.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH HOOKER, Brigadier-General, Commanding Division. 

Hooker had been having trouble with his second-in-command, Dan Sickles, who would give orders without notifying him--if he was even present in Maryland. Thaddeus Lowe and his balloons happened to be Sickles' find, so it's probably not surprising that he was off on his own agenda. Hooker's mood would brighten the next day when McClellan announced that he would be adding a third brigade to his division, one of all New Jersey regiments that called itself the Second New Jersey Brigade, under Colonel Samuel Starr.

John Dahlgren and the Union Aircraft Carrier

Wherein we go afloat and end up aloft

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Map of Rebel batteries (left) on the Potomac River, beginning of November

"Between 9 and 11 o'clock a.m.," Brig. General Joe Hooker informed the Army of the Potomac headquarters on November 11, "some of the rebel batteries were in active operation."

Three schooners passed up the river under a six knot breeze without the slightest injury, although thirty-seven heavy guns were discharged to dispute their passage. The crews seemed to entertain a just appreciation of the batteries, for they sailed along with as much unconcern as they would to enter New York Harbor. They do fire wretchedly. Whether it is owing to the projectiles or to the guns I am not informed. Several of the pieces are rifled, but they seem to throw more wildly if possible than the smooth bores. From what was witnessed to day and on previous occasions, I am forced to the conclusion that the rebel batteries in this vicinity should not be a terror to any one.

Despite Hooker's conclusions, he had been sent there two weeks earlier in order to work with the U.S. Navy's Potomac Flotilla to eliminate the potential threat that the batteries caused to Union shipping. At the order of the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, river traffic had been reduced to a fraction of the usual shipping required to sustain the capital, and almost all supplies were coming down the B&O Railroad from Confederate-sympathizing Baltimore.

Hooker knew a good thing when he had it, though, and was content to ride out the winter with his division over a day's march from Washington and therefore from George McClellan, his staff, and anyone else who might outrank him. Not nearly as content with his situation was Commander Thomas Tingey Craven, the head of the Potomac Flotilla. As early as October 23, Craven had declared the mission of the flotilla to control the river a lost cause and suggested removing the guns from his ships and setting up batteries on the Maryland side that could exchange fire with the Confederates (his plan was partially put into action, the guns from the Pensacola had been used by Hooker to establish his one operating battery at Budd's Ferry).

"Feeling that my position here in command of the flotilla can be of no further benefit," Craven wrote Welles, "I most respectfully request to be detached from the command and appointed to some seagoing vessel."

Such An Accurate Fire

A balloonist nails his mark

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By the end of September, the war appeared that it might be heating up again. Maj. General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, had been saying for over a month that a massive Confederate attack was imminent. He predicted the attack would come from Leesburg, and drive up towards notoriously disloyal Baltimore, cutting Washington off from the rest of the country and trapping his newborn army.

And now, with an engagement at Lewinsville, and a series of skirmishes along the length of the Potomac River from Great Falls to Point of Rocks, it appeared that the Confederates might be feeling out the Union position to prepare for that big strike. His process of collecting the many brigades of the army into divisions so that they would be easier to handle in battle had certainly brought the most benefit to his friends and hand-picked proteges so far, but he had also given clear priority to defending the Potomac River line.

Thaddeus Lowe's Excellent Adventure

In which a balloonist convinces the President by nearly getting himself killed

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Colonel W. Tecumseh Sherman was dispirited on the morning of July 24 as the 79th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment marched away from Fort Corcoran to join a new commander. But he had another guest at Fort Corcoran he was ecstatic to see go.

T.S.C. Lowe, by Matthew Brady

Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe had taken up residence at 8:00 pm on July 22, drenched by the pouring rain, with his balloon in tow. Lowe had been cut out of McDowell's advance on Manassas Junction by a staffer who ordered him to let a competitor fill his balloon first. But the competitor's balloon had town on the trees on the Warrenton Turnpike near Centreville, and became useless for assisting with the battle.

Lowe attempted to bring his own balloon to Manassas, even though it was late in the day, but by the time he reached Fairfax Court House, McDowell's army was streaming past him. It was too dark to see further, and the next morning the storm started, so he reluctantly packed up to return to the capital, making it to Fort Corcoran before seeking shelter.

But at 5:30 am on July 24, he was ready to try again, acting on a rumor that the Confederates were marching on Washington to seize the capital. If he could bring back proof either way, it would be the boost he needed to get a lucrative government contract for aerial surveillance. Lowe's account from his memoirs:

The Manassas Campaign: Day Two

Fairfax Court-House in 1863, with Union soldiers posing.

"The general commanding the Army of the Potomac" sergeants throughout the Confederate army based on Manassas Junction read to the assembled men early on July 17, "Announces to his command that, at length, the enemy have advanced to subjugate a sovereign State, and to oppose upon a free people an odious government." The words were Brigadier General G.T. Beauregard's, and were contained in his General Orders No. 41 dictated to Assistant Adjutant General Thomas Jordan during the night to be read to the men at dawn. They referred to the march of the Federal government's army, the Army of Northeastern Virginia, which had marched from Alexandria County the previous afternoon.

The Confederate camps were a frenzy of excitement. At last, the Yankees were coming."Notwithstanding they're numerical superiority, they can be repelled," Beauregard boldly assured his men. "And the general commanding relies confidently on his command to do it, and to drive the invader back beyond his intrenched lines." This new found confidence in victory had to do with a decision made in Richmond in the early hours of the morning to order the Confederate Army of the Shenandoah under Brigadier General Joe Johnston in Winchester to load onto trains and move to Manassas Junction. Beauregard had been requesting the union of the two forces for over a month, to the great resistance of provisional President Jefferson Davis (not taking any chances, Beauregard went ahead and telegraphed Johnston himself to relay the news).

Thaddeus C. Lowe, Balloonmeister

While Stone was dealing with the Confederate cannon fire on the morning of June 17, President Abraham Lincoln was outside the Columbian Armory that Stone had done so much to protect from secessionists a few months earlier. He was there to meet with Professor Thaddeus C. Lowe, a fellow Ohioan and a friend of his Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase.

Lowe was hoping to convince Lincoln of the military applications for balloons, and was demonstrating it with a hot air balloon of his own design, the Enterprise. Lowe ascended 500 ft with a telegraph operator and sent this message back down to the President:

This point of observation commands an area nearly fifty miles in diameter. The city with its girdle of encampments presents a superb scene. I have pleasure in sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station and in acknowledging indebtedness to your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of the science of aeronautics in the service of the country. T.S.C. Lowe.

Lincoln was suitably impressed and commended Lowe to Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, commander of the troops immediately across the Potomac River.

A reenactment recently took place on the grounds of the Air and Space Museum, the site of the Columbian Armory.