<< Thaddeus Lowe & Civil War Ballooning
Resources
Overview | Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3 | Lesson 4 | Resources
Online Conference Session:
Comprehensive overview for teachers or really
interested students
Mr. Lincoln's Air Force
This is part of a larger online conference about President Lincoln.
It is almost one hour long and full of great information. (Hint, you can skip the first two minutes.)
Blog post:
On This Spot
Senior curator Tom Crouch writes about Thaddeus Lowe and the Army Balloon Corps.
Blog post:
Civil War Ballooning, Hallowed Air
Historians locate site of Civil War balloon launch.
Objects in the Smithsonian Collection about Thaddeus Lowe:
Objects relating to Thaddeus Lowe
Eyewitness Account:
Fitz John Porter Views the Confederates from a Balloon
Civil War Maps:
American Memory, Library of Congress
View Civil War maps that show battlefields, attack plans, troop movements, and fortifications.
Civil War Photographs:
American Memory, Library of Congress.
A searchable collection of more than a thousand images with information about the photographs and a Civil War timeline.
Timeline:
Civil War Timeline
American Memory, Library of Congress
Portal:
Civil War Ballooning
(Features Tom Crouch, senior curator of Aeronautics)
Just for fun:
The Ballad of Thaddeus Lowe
A short animated tribute to Civil War aeronaut Lowe, by Kelly Jones.
Books:
Gail Jarrow, Lincoln's Flying Spies: Thaddeus Lowe and the Civil War Balloon Corps
(Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills Press)
This book has curriculum connections to Social Studies/History, Language Arts, and Science in Grades 5-12 and supports the teaching of the National Standards. It contains timeline, notes, bibliography, and lists of recommended books, places to visit, and Web sites.
Charles M. Evans, War of the Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning in the Civil War
(Stackpole Books, 2002)
A good overview of the subject.
Frederick S. Haydon, Military Ballooning During the Early Civil War (with a new introduction by Tom Crouch)
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U., 2000)
Still the best general book on the subject, but does not cover the entire operational history of the Aeronautics Corps, or Confederate ballooning.
Tom Crouch, Lighter-Than-Air: An illustrated History of Balloons and Airships
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U., 2008)
Well-illustrated general history of lighter-than-air flight, puts the Civil War balloon story in perspective.
