<text id=00he0100><title>The Army's Balloons and Dirigibles: Introduction</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>The Army's Balloons and Dirigibles: Introduction</hdr><body>
<p>"Ballooning can be made a very useful implement in warfare. All depends on the encouragement it receives."
</p>
<p>John La Mountain's words were in a letter to Major General Benjamin F. Butler, Commander of the Department of Virginia for the Union in the summer of 1861.
</p>
<p>"I am well convinced in my mind," La Mountain had written, "that at an expense not to exceed $8,000-9,000, I can build a balloon in a month's time, and with it shell, burn or destroy Norfolk or any city near our camps."
</p>
<p>He was optimistic about the specific details, but accurate about the concept. Ballooning was to become a very useful implement in warfare, and John La Mountain was one of four men who introduced the new weapon in the field with the Union armies.
</p>
<p>Observation balloons were not new to war when the Civil War broke out 12 April 1861. The French had used them successfully in campaigns against the Austrians at the end of the 18th century. During the intervening years, balloons had been considered for military use by US forces at least twice, first in the Seminole War of 1840.
</p>
<p>The Seminole Indians were to be deported from their homeland in Florida to a remote Western reservation. Masters of movement through Florida's swamps, they evaded troops under Colonel John H. Sherburne for several years. But Sherburne conceived the idea of equipping his infantry with hot-air balloons for night observations when enemy campfires would be visible for long distances. By plotting and triangulation, the positions of the Seminoles could be determined. Sherburne unofficially wrote to balloonist Charles Durant, who offered to sell a new balloon for $900 and a used one for $600. That is as far as Sherburne got, because his official request for balloon support was rejected.
