Whether one is fighting a war or maintaining a III peace, knowing what the other side is up to can be more valuable than any amount of personnel or weaponry. Few techniques are more effective for this than observation from above. What we now call aerial reconnaissance dates from the beginning of the Civil War, when three professional balloonists—John Wise, John LaMountain, and Thaddeus Lowe—offered their services to the Union.

In June 1861, the same month that Lowe made his first aerial observations of the war, LaMountain was sent to the Union’s Fort Monroe, near Hampton Roads, Virginia, where he would ascend repeatedly and make detailed reports on the Rebels’ positions. Wise and Lowe stayed in Washington for the Battle of Bull Run. After the Confederates won that fight, Lowe’s aerial observations revealed that the Southern forces were too disorganized to follow up on their victory. His work helped convince officials that balloons could be useful in war, and he went on to set up an aeronautical corps that grew to include five observation balloons.

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