19 
Later in the year, Black had the honor of presenting a set of 
his balloon photographs to the American Photographic Society. Less 
than a year later, members of this group were advocating military 
balloon photography. 
Directly after the outbreak of the Civil War, in April, 1861, 
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe went to Washington to offer the Government his ser 
vices in using balloons for military observations. In August, 1861, 
Lowe moved his balloon into the field and began operations with the 
15 
Army of the Potomac (Figure 10). 
16 
Some works on the history of aeronautics have asserted that 
Lowe's balloon corps did make aerial photographs. In her book, Air Spy, 
Constance Babbington Smith states that: 
"Two prints were made, and each marked into 64 squares. 
General McClellen had one, and the two balloonists took 
the other one and ascended to 1,500 feet over the battle 
field (Figure 11)* From this vantage point, they telegraphed 
17 
to the General the exact movements of enemy troops." 
The Old Records Section of the United States Adjutant General's 
Office contains the original "eyeball" sketch made on August 10, 1861, 
by the aeronaut, La Montain. A copy of his handwritten notes to Maj. 
General Butler appears with the sketch (Figure 12) A reproduction 
of this letter is shown on page 23*