A paragraph which I read in the Court Society Review, was to this effect.
“I have very little faith in military balloons for the purposes of observation. In the Soudan no atmospheric conditions, and many were tried, were found to be suitable, for even when the air was dead-still, and brilliantly clear, the balloon waggled to such an extent as to make telescopic observation impossible, or, at any rate, practically useless. At the Easter Monday fight, an infinitely more futile attempt was made to employ the balloon in a stiffish breeze, and the result was, of course, as worthless as the experiment was dangerous.
“All the same, for signalling, especially at night, captive balloons might be made of immense use.”
Secondly, we have another rather discouraging experience, which ought not to be forgotten or omitted in these pages.
It is in McClellan’s own story, about their doings on April 11th, 1862, and is rather amusing than complimentary to the cause I have so long advocated.
“I am just recovering,” the writer observes, “from a terrible scare. Early this morning I was awakened by a despatch from Fitz-John’s head-quarters, stating that Fitz had made an ascension in the balloon this morning, and that it had broken away and come to the ground some three miles south-west, which would be within the enemy’s lines.
“You can imagine how I felt. I at once sent off to the various pickets to find out what they knew, and tried to do something to save him, but the order had no sooner gone, than in walks Fitz, just as cool as usual. He had luckily come down near my own camp, after actually passing over that of the enemy.
“You may rest assured of one thing,” was the remark: “you won’t catch me in the confounded balloon, nor will I allow any other General in it.”
On the converse side, it should be mentioned that in a telegram received at Washington during the Civil War, it was stated, “that all the information received from balloons, deserters, prisoners, &c., agrees in the statement that the mass of the rebel troops were still in the immediate vicinity of Richmond, ready to defend it.”
As a pioneer myself in the service of military ballooning, I heartily wish that something more had been carried out in the decidedly important neighbourhood of Suakim.