What was the most significant event on April 11 during the U.S. Civil War - updated 2022?

To me the most significant event was on April 11, 1865 when the Confederate government was forced to leave Virginia after Robert E. Lee's surrender and it evacuated to North Carolina while Maj Gen William T Sherman was advancing from the south.

Images
1. Confederate government fled Virginia after Robert E Lee's surrender on April 11, 1865 and traveled to Bennett's Farmhouse in North Carolina
2. Federal Colonel Abel D. Streight, in command of 1,700 men and a caravan of 700 mules, set out from Nashville, TN on a raid across Alabama to Georgia with the intent of destroying the industrial capacity of Rome.
3. U.S. Army Federal Uniforms, collar badges, sleeve badges, chevrons, caps, buttons
4. Confederate States of America Uniforms, collar badges, sleeve badges, chevrons, caps, buttons




1862: The Winds of War. General Fitz-John Porter [US] decides to ride in an observation balloon alone when inventor Thaddeus Lowe takes a sick-day. In flight, the balloon tether breaks, and Porter nearly crosses into enemy territory. A last minute change in wind direction returned him to Union lines.
1863: 12th Pa. Calvary trooper’s arms consist of 1 saber, 2 Colt revolvers, 1 carbine. His issued clothing: 1 coat-(short), 1 vest, overcoat 1 pair of pants, 2 pair drawers, 2 shirts, wool, cap, and shoes.
1864: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Federal artilleryman, writes in his journal of a tragic episode in camp: Huntsville, Alabama. In the quiet of alone I lay down, a few yearning thoughts of home, mother, etc. and all is oblivion till reveille calls me forth from the land of nod. A little after noon we were startled by a terrible explosion near the depot. A caisson of the Illinois Battery had exploded while returning from drill, killing six cannoneers instantly and wounding two. A very sad affair. Bodies torn to shreds.
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. Friday, April 11, 1862: The Winds of War. General Fitz-John Porter [US] decides to ride in an observation balloon alone and Porter nearly crosses into enemy territory. A last minute change in wind direction returned him to Union lines.
General Fitz-John Porter [US] adventure started around 5 am. He had told James Allen the previous day that he wished to make a pre-dawn reconnoiter to gauge Confederate activity in the area. Allen was aware that a greater observation point could be obtained by gaining more altitude with the Intrepid. Although Lowe always insisted that three, and sometimes four tethers be used on ascensions, Allen reasoned that by going with a single tether the weight of the additional ropes could be eliminated, thus allowing the balloon to achieve greater heights.
Unknown to Allen, however, was the fact that acid from one of the hydrogen generators was "accidentally" spilled on the single tether rope prior to the ascent that morning. The exact nature of the spillage was never determined, although Confederate sabotage was considered a strong possibility. Regardless, General Porter was already in the Intrepid's control basket as Allen was making final preparations to join him. Suddenly, a loud crack - like the sound of a pistol shot - rang out as the single mooring rope snapped. The Intrepid was aloft and out of control.
General Fitz-John Porter [US] adventure started around 5 am. He had told James Allen the previous day that he wished to make a pre-dawn reconnoiter to gauge Confederate activity in the area. Allen was aware that a greater observation point could be obtained by gaining more altitude with the Intrepid. Although Lowe always insisted that three, and sometimes four tethers be used on ascensions, Allen reasoned that by going with a single tether the weight of the additional ropes could be eliminated, thus allowing the balloon to achieve greater heights.
Unknown to Allen, however, was the fact that acid from one of the hydrogen generators was "accidentally" spilled on the single tether rope prior to the ascent that morning. The exact nature of the spillage was never determined, although Confederate sabotage was considered a strong possibility. Regardless, General Porter was already in the Intrepid's control basket as Allen was making final preparations to join him. Suddenly, a loud crack - like the sound of a pistol shot - rang out as the single mooring rope snapped. The Intrepid was aloft and out of control.
B. Saturday, April 11, 1863: Federal Colonel Abel D. Streight, in command of 1,700 men and a caravan of 700 mules, set out from Nashville, TN on a raid across Alabama to Georgia with the intent of destroying the industrial capacity of Rome.
Situated at the convergence of the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers and at the headwaters of the Coosa River in northwest Georgia, Rome was a prime site for water-powered factories that produced artillery, munitions, haversacks and other goods for the Confederate war effort. Because of its importance as a supply center, Rome became the target of several Federal offensives during the Civil War.
In late April and early May 1863, Federal Colonel Abel D. Streight, in command of 1,700 men and a caravan of 700 mules, set out on a raid across Alabama to Georgia with the intent of destroying the industrial capacity of Rome. Traveling through the frontier wilderness of northern Alabama, Streight and his men engaged in a five-day running battle with Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry. Though outnumbered by Streight's force, Forrest and his battalion of 500 mounted soldiers captured the Federals and their mule train in eastern Alabama not far from the Georgia border, thus saving Rome from destruction. Forrest received a hero's welcome when he arrived in Rome on May 3, 1863.
Streight's raid brought the reality of the perils of war to the people of Rome. The city appropriated $3,000 for the construction of fortifications on three of the seven hills around the city. On August 21, 1863, the Rome Weekly Courier wrote, "The fort in Desoto shall be known as Fort Attaway. The fort in Hillsboro (Myrtle Hill) shall be known as Fort Stovall. The fort between Rome and Woodville shall be known as Fort Norton on Jackson Hill."
http://www.gacivilwar.org/story/abel-streights-raid
C. 1864: Monday, April 11, 1864 --- Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Federal artilleryman, writes in his journal of a tragic episode in camp: Huntsville, Monday, April 11. Spent the day in the usual way. Two hours’ gun drill in the morning, then game of ball; an hour company drill in the afternoon; a game or two of chess, then parade 4 P. M.; reading, writing, the remainder of the time till retreat at 8 P. M. when I made down my cot. In the quiet of alone I lay down, a few yearning thoughts of home, mother, etc. and all is oblivion till reveille calls me forth from the land of nod. A little after noon we were startled by a terrible explosion near the depot. A caisson of the Illinois Battery had exploded while returning from drill, killing six cannoneers instantly and wounding two. A very sad affair. Bodies torn to shreds. Jenkin Lloyd Jones
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1864
D. Tuesday, April 11, 1865: Confederate government withdraws to North Carolina
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186504
1. Thursday, April 11, 1861: on the afternoon of April 11, 1861, a small open boat flying a white flag pushed off from the tip of the narrow peninsula surrounding the city of Charleston. The vessel carried three envoys representing the Confederate States government, established in Montgomery, Alabama, two months before. Slaves rowed the passengers the nearly three and a half miles across the harbor to the looming hulk of Fort Sumter, where Lt. Jefferson C. Davis of the U.S. Army—no relation to the newly installed president of the Confederacy—met the arriving delegation. Davis led the envoys to the fort’s commander, Maj. Robert Anderson, who had been holed up there since just after Christmas with a tiny garrison of 87 officers and enlisted men—the last precarious symbol of federal power in passionately secessionist South Carolina.
The Confederates demanded immediate evacuation of the fort. However, they promised safe transport out of Charleston for Anderson and his men, who would be permitted to carry their weapons and personal property and to salute the Stars and Stripes, which, the Confederates acknowledged, “You have upheld so long under the most trying circumstances.” Anderson thanked them for such “fair, manly, and courteous terms.” Yet he stated, “It is a demand with which I regret that my sense of honor, and of my obligation to my Government, prevent my compliance.” Anderson added grimly that he would be starved out in a few days—if the Confederate cannon that ringed the harbor didn’t batter him to pieces first. As the envoys departed and the sound of their oars faded away across the gunmetal-gray water, Anderson knew that civil war was probably only hours away.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fort-sumter-the-civil-war-begins-1018791/?no-ist
2. Friday, April 11, 1862: Battle of Fort Pulaski, Georgia. Quincy Gillmore uses rifled cannon to effectively end the use of palisaded forts world-wide
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186204
3. Friday, April 11, 1862: Ft. Pulaski, Day 2 – The bombardment of the previous day has blown a large breach in the southwestern corner of the fort. The shelling continues, and although the Confederate gunners give back accurate fire, the breach in the wall will soon allow Federal shells to land on the poorly-sited magazine, with over 40,000 barrels of powder there. As the Union forces begin to prepare boats for an assault, Col. Oolmstead surrenders the fort to Gen. Gillmore. Savannah is now closed off to blockade running. Union Victory.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1862
4. Friday, April 11, 1862 --- In the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson brings in the division of Gen. Richard Ewell to add to his Army of the Shenandoah, near Mt. Jackson, Virginia.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1862
5. Friday, April 11, 1862 --- In London, Henry Adams, son of the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Charles Francis Adams, Sr., writes to his brother Charles, Jr., an officer in the U.S. Cavalry about the reactions among the British to recent events in the American war. He also offers some marvelously prescient predictions about the future: I have no doubt that if I were to stay here another year, I should become extremely fond of the place and the life. There is, too, a certain grim satisfaction in the idea that this people who have worn and irritated and exasperated us for months, and among whom we have lived nearly a year of what was, till lately, a slow torture, should now be innocently dancing and smiling on the volcano, utterly unconscious of the extent of hatred and the greediness for revenge that they’ve raised. When the storm does finally burst on them, they will have one of their panics and be as astonished as if they ‘d never heard of anything but brotherly love and affection between the two nations. . . Only a fortnight ago they discovered that their whole wooden navy was useless; rather a weakness than a strength. Yesterday it was formally announced and acknowledged by Government, people and press, that the Warrior and their other new iron ships, are no better than wood, nor can any shot-proof sea-going vessel be made. . . .
To me, they seem to be bewildered by all this. I don’t think as yet they have dared to look their position in the face. People begin to talk vaguely about the end of war and eternal peace, just as though human nature was changed by the fact that Great Britain’s sea-power is knocked in the head. But for my private part, I think I see a thing or two. And one of these things is that the military power of France is nearly doubled by having the seas free; and that our good country the United States is left to a career that is positively unlimited except by the powers of the imagination. And for England there is still greatness and safety, if she will draw her colonies around her, and turn her hegemony into a Confederation of British nations.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1862
6. Friday, April 11, 1862 --- In a Seneca County newspaper is reported this story about the Federals troops in front of Yorktown, Virginia, where they and the Rebels on the picket lines would taunt one another’s, quoted from the letter of a 1st Lieut. Robert H. Brett: The rebel battery had been silenced the day before but they favored us with an occasional shell. One struck a limber within six rods of my 2d platoon, and all of the cartridges attached to the shells in the limber exploded, blowing it to atoms. It contained forty-five shells and most of the fuzes were ignited, but someone with a good deal of presence of mind, after the first one exploded caught up a bucket of water which the gunner had used to wet his swab in, and threw on them, and prevented further disaster. This was a fortunate escape, as the gunners as well as our boys had time to throw themselves upon their faces and not a man was injured. the rebels jumped upon the parapet, yelled and danced at the prospect, undoubtedly, of a great extermination of the Yankees. They soon changed their tune, however, for Capt. Ayres sent four shells, one after another, among them, which seemed to settle their tea for that day.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1862
7. Friday, April 11, 1862: Halleck assumes personal command of the forces at Pittsburg Landing, the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Ohio
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186204
8. Saturday, April 11, 1863 --- On this date, having just returned from his inspection tour of Hooker’s army, Pres. Lincoln calls a meeting with secretaries Welles, Stanton, Chase, and Seward, plus Asst. Sec. of the Navy Gustavus Fox and Gen. Halleck. to discuss the military situation. Later in the evening, the White House holds a dinner for all members of the President’s party that had gone on the tour.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1863
9. Saturday, April 11, 1863 --- Young Edwin Eldridge Mason, having just enlisted at the tender age of 16, sends home a letter to his family in Erie, PA, April 11, 1863: Dear Mother, I improve the first opportunity to write to you. I am well this morning and hope this finds you enjoying the same blessing. the morning after I came here, I enlisted in the 12th Pa. Calvary, 1st Lieut Hammer and Sergeant Boardman. They are detailed on detachment duty. I am on duty with them, that is arresting deserters and taking them to Harrisburg for trial. I also have as my special duty, the charge of the enlisting office, which is fun. I am writing in the office now.
Our arms consist of 1 saber, 2 Colt revolvers, 1 carbine. Cloths: 1 coat-(short), 1 vest, Overcoat 1 pair of pants 2 pair drawers 2 shirts, wool. (also cap and shoes.)
The Lieut's name is G.B. Hammer. One of his papers was on the desk, the other day with his name on it. I wrote instead of GB, Great Big Hammer. He came along and seeing this said: "Humph! who wrote that"? I told him "Some of the boys, I guess." I had a deal of fun with the boys after his Lordship went out. Write -- so I will get the letter Monday. Send it to the station by Charley, Sunday. How is Charley, Ellen, Sis, Pa, Ma, in short, all of ya. Your Loving Son; E.E. Mason.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1863
10. Monday, April 11, 1864 --- Mary Boykin Chestnut writes in her diary: Mrs. Ould gave me a luncheon on Saturday. I felt that this was my last sad farewell to Richmond and the people there I love so well. Mrs. Davis sent her carriage for me, and we went to the Oulds’ together. Such good things were served—oranges, guava jelly, etc. The Examiner says Mr. Ould, when he goes to Fortress Monroe, replenishes his larder; why not? . . .
My husband is now brigadier-general and is sent to South Carolina to organize and take command of the reserve troops. C. C. Clay and L. Q. C. Lamar are both spoken of to fill the vacancy made among Mr. Davis's aides by this promotion.
To-day, Captain Smith Lee spent the morning here and gave a review of past Washington gossip. I am having such a busy, happy life, with so many friends, and my friends are so clever, so charming. But the change to that weary, dreary Camden! Mary Preston said: "I do think Mrs. Chesnut deserves to be canonized; she agrees to go back to Camden." The Prestons gave me a farewell dinner; my twenty-fourth wedding day, and the very pleasantest day I have spent in Richmond.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1864
11. Monday, April 11, 1864 --- Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Federal artilleryman, writes in his journal of a tragic episode in camp: Huntsville, Monday, April 11. Spent the day in the usual way. Two hours’ gun drill in the morning, then game of ball; an hour company drill in the afternoon; a game or two of chess, then parade 4 P. M.; reading, writing, the remainder of the time till retreat at 8 P. M. when I made down my cot. In the quiet of alone I lay down, a few yearning thoughts of home, mother, etc. and all is oblivion till reveille calls me forth from the land of nod. A little after noon we were startled by a terrible explosion near the depot. A caisson of the Illinois Battery had exploded while returning from drill, killing six cannoneers instantly and wounding two. A very sad affair. Bodies torn to shreds. Jenkin Lloyd Jones
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1864
12. Monday, April 11, 1864 --- The Mobile News prints this editorial reproving loose moral conduct between the women of Mobile and the army officers: We can hope no good results from trivial and light conduct on the part of our women. Instead of adorning their persons for seductive purposes, and tempting our officers to a course alike disgraceful and unworthy of women, whose husbands and brothers are in our armies, they had better exhort them to well-doing, then act as instruments of destruction to both parties. The demoralization among our women is becoming fearful. Before the war, no woman dared to demean herself lightly; but now a refined and pure woman can scarcely travel without seeing some of our officers with fine-looking ladies as companions. You are forced to sit at the tables with them; you meet them wherever you go. Is it that we, too, are as wild as our enemies, scoffing at God and at all rules of social morality? For heaven’s sake, let us frown down this growing evil, unless all mothers and fathers would have their daughters grow up in a pestilential atmosphere, which but to breathe is death.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1864
13. Monday, April 11, 1864 --- The Mobile News prints this editorial reproving loose moral conduct between the women of Mobile and the army officers: We can hope no good results from trivial and light conduct on the part of our women. Instead of adorning their persons for seductive purposes, and tempting our officers to a course alike disgraceful and unworthy of women, whose husbands and brothers are in our armies, they had better exhort them to well-doing, then act as instruments of destruction to both parties. The demoralization among our women is becoming fearful. Before the war, no woman dared to demean herself lightly; but now a refined and pure woman can scarcely travel without seeing some of our officers with fine-looking ladies as companions. You are forced to sit at the tables with them; you meet them wherever you go. Is it that we, too, are as wild as our enemies, scoffing at God and at all rules of social morality? For heaven’s sake, let us frown down this growing evil, unless all mothers and fathers would have their daughters grow up in a pestilential atmosphere, which but to breathe is death.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1864
14. Monday, April 11, 1864 --- Mary Boykin Chestnut writes in her diary: Mrs. Ould gave me a luncheon on Saturday. I felt that this was my last sad farewell to Richmond and the people there I love so well. Mrs. Davis sent her carriage for me, and we went to the Oulds’ together. Such good things were served—oranges, guava jelly, etc. The Examiner says Mr. Ould, when he goes to Fortress Monroe, replenishes his larder; why not? . . .
My husband is now brigadier-general and is sent to South Carolina to organize and take command of the reserve troops. C. C. Clay and L. Q. C. Lamar are both spoken of to fill the vacancy made among Mr. Davis's aides by this promotion.
To-day, Captain Smith Lee spent the morning here and gave a review of past Washington gossip. I am having such a busy, happy life, with so many friends, and my friends are so clever, so charming. But the change to that weary, dreary Camden! Mary Preston said: "I do think Mrs. Chesnut deserves to be canonized; she agrees to go back to Camden." The Prestons gave me a farewell dinner; my twenty-fourth wedding day, and the very pleasantest day I have spent in Richmond.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=April+11%2C+1864
15.

A. Friday, April 11, 1862: General Fitz-John Porter [US] decides to ride in an observation balloon alone when inventor Thaddeus Lowe takes a sick-day. In flight, the balloon tether breaks, and Porter nearly crosses into enemy territory. A last minute change in wind direction returned him to Union lines.
http://blueandgraytrail.com/year/186204
A. Porter's adventure actually started around 5 am. He had told James Allen the previous day that he wished to make a pre-dawn reconnoiter to gauge Confederate activity in the area. Allen was aware that a greater observation point could be obtained by gaining more altitude with the Intrepid. Although Lowe always insisted that three, and sometimes four tethers be used on ascensions, Allen reasoned that by going with a single tether the weight of the additional ropes could be eliminated, thus allowing the balloon to achieve greater heights.
Unknown to Allen, however, was the fact that acid from one of the hydrogen generators was "accidentally" spilled on the single tether rope prior to the ascent that morning. The exact nature of the spillage was never determined, although Confederate sabotage was considered a strong possibility. Regardless, General Porter was already in the Intrepid's control basket as Allen was making final preparations to join him. Suddenly, a loud crack - like the sound of a pistol shot - rang out as the single mooring rope snapped. The Intrepid was aloft and out of control.
Those on the ground were helpless to do anything as Porter and Intrepid rapidly rose into the air. But the general himself was hardly fazed. While he realized the predicament he was in, he had also ascended dozens of times with Lowe and his assistants and was familiar with the sensations and mechanics of a balloon. Even as the Intrepid began to drift over Confederate lines, Porter remained calm.
"I took good observations, some notes, but mainly instantaneous impressions like a photographic instrument," he said. "I had the enemy's position and defenses so grafted on my mind that when I descended I was able to give a good sketch of everything."
Gradually the balloon began to drift over Union lines once again, where Porter was able to determine a safe spot to land. Although he had often witnessed Lowe and his assistants prepare for a landing, his lack of experience in aeronautics almost proved to be his undoing. Reaching for the rope that lead to the control valve, Porter started to bleed off hydrogen gas in order to make a landing. However, the general bled off too much gas all at once.
"The general in his eagerness to come to the ground had opened the valve until all the gas escaped," Lowe observed. "The balloon was constantly falling but the silk was kept extended, and presented so large a surface to the atmosphere that it served the purpose of a parachute, and consequently the descent was not rapid enough to be dangerous."
Lowe went on to remark that, "a balloon suddenly relieved of its gas will always form a half sphere, provided it has a sufficient distance to fall in, to condense a column of air under it. A thousand feet, I presume, would be sufficiently high to effect this and to make the descent in safety."
Porter was no worse for wear when Lowe and Union pickets caught up with him. The Intrepid was also fortunately spared any damage. Still, as Lowe was to learn, the main injury that had occurred was not physical in nature, but more psychological.
General McClellan, who was one of Lowe's most ardent supporters, summed up the feeling that many Union officers had in the aftermath of the accident, in a letter written to his wife that same day: I am just recovering from a terrible scare. Early this morning I was awakened by a dispatch from Fitz Johns Hd Qtrs, stating that Fitz had made an ascension in the balloon & that the balloon had broken away & come to ground some 3 miles SW - 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, & try to do something to save him - but the order had no sooner gone, than in walks Mr. Fitz just as cool as casual - he had luckily come down near my own camp after actually passing over that of the enemy!! You may rest assured of one thing: you won't catch me in the confounded balloon nor will I allow any other Generals to go up in it!
http://www.thaddeuslowe.name/CWPorterFlight.htm
A+ Lowe immediately recognized the reluctance on the part of the officers to have anything more to do with ballooning. "I found it difficult to restore confidence among the officers as to the safety of this means of observation on account of this accident," he said. "But the explanations and the personal ascensions I made, gradually secured a return of their favor."
In mid-March 1862 McClellan finally decided to move the Union army onto the Confederate Capitol, Richmond. He first enlisted Lowe to scout on ahead. Lowe sent one of his aeronauts, Ebenezer Seaver to Fortress Monroe with the balloon Constitution but due to weather problems no ascensions were accomplished until after most of McClellan’s forces had arrived in early April. With many of his aeronauts dispersed, sometime in March Lowe hired the famous New England aeronaut, James Allen as another assistant aeronaut asking Allen to follow the army to the Peninsula and arrive as soon as possible.
Lowe arrived at Hampton, Virginia on the Peninsula on March 28 with several balloons, gas generators, and all necessary inflation materials aboard his flat topped aircraft carrier the George Washington Park Custis.
With four army wagons and two gas generators in tow Lowe’s wagon train was then escorted to the Yorktown area by the 13th New York in Martindale’s brigade arriving at about noon on April 5. A detail of about 30 men from the 4th Maine was then created with two or sometimes three men per company assigned. Lowe, with the help of his few assistants, immediately started to train the new detailees and by the afternoon of the 5th one of Lowe’s smaller balloons was launched skyward. Lowe soon set up his permanent balloon camp near a steam driven sawmill that was the location of Heintzelman’s headquarters just two miles from Yorktown.
In the evening of April 6, Lowe received orders from McClellan to set up another balloon station at General Keyes’ Headquarters at Warwick Court House near the James River. Lowe left the sawmill camp in command of assistant Ebenezer Mason and rushed back to Fortress Monroe to obtain the balloon Constitution. In the meantime, James Allen arrived at Yorktown in time to continue the daily ascensions that Lowe had started.
After struggling to obtain the support he needed to move a balloon train to Warwick Court House from Fortress Monroe, Lowe completed his task and returned to Yorktown near mid-April personally taking control of the sawmill balloon camp and sending Allen to Warwick Court House to help Seaver get the balloon Constitution fully inflated and into operations. In support of the Warwick Court House balloon station a detail of 35 men from Company A of the 85th Pennsylvania Infantry were assigned. By April 19th the balloon Constitution was taking as many as four officers aloft to view the Confederate fortifications in front of them and to be on the lookout for the CSS Virginia which was expected to cruise up and down the James River at almost any time shelling the Union position.
Lowe’s nearly daily balloon ascensions at Yorktown attracted much attention from the Confederates with the balloon being a constant target for their guns. Lowe stated, “the enemy opened upon it with their heavy siege guns or rifled field pieces, until it had attained an altitude to be out of reach, and repeated this fire when the balloon descended, until it was concealed by the woods.” This begins a period of regular balloon observations of Yorktown in which Lowe would take officers and, later in the month of April, even reporters up for a view of the fortifications. On April 29, Lowe switched out the small balloon that he was using at Yorktown with the large balloon Intrepid also called the McClellan by some soldiers since it had a huge picture of McClellan painted on its surface. This balloon could take up as many as five observes or four observers and a telegraph.
Balloon observations of Yorktown on May 3rd showed the Confederate troops were in “unusual motion” and then they significantly stepped up the artillery firing on Lowe’s balloon keeping it down most of the day. Sometime in the early morning the next day, as observed by the balloon at the Warwick balloon station, the Confederates had abandoned their fortress. McClellan’s troops followed in pursuit. Soon after, Lowe was ordered to pack up and move up the York River with Franklin’s Division loaded on a flotilla. Lowe’s balloon barge, the George Washington Parke Custis with all his balloons and equipment, were towed up the York and then the Pamunkey Rivers reaching the Confederate “White House” in mid-May. The rest of McClellan’s army moving up the Richmond Peninsula by land reached the Confederate White House by May 17th. Lowe’s Yorktown detail of the 4th Maine soldiers arrived with the army and was reassigned to Lowe. From this base on the Pamunkey, McClellan moved onto Richmond with Lowe setting up his next balloon station on the Gaines farm.
On May 22nd Lowe had his small one-man balloon, the Excelsior, quickly inflated by the 4th Maine and began taking officers up, one at a time, for a look at the new surroundings. Lowe himself reported having a fine view of Richmond seeing the streets, churches, and people moving about the town. Although the area was heavily wooded, maps of the roads leading into Richmond and the location of the observed Rebel positions and fortifications were made and continually updated with new information. Large troop movements in and out of Richmond were easily observed. Lowe soon inflated the larger balloon, Constitution, and was ordered to set up another balloon station at Mechanicsville a few miles north-west of the Gaines farm. Lowe moved the balloons Union and later the Excelsior to the new Mechanicsville location and put the experienced aeronaut James Allen in charge. A detail from the 20th Massachusetts under Lieutenant Messer was arranged to support the Mechanicsville balloon station.
B Saturday, April 11, 1863: Situated at the convergence of the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers and at the headwaters of the Coosa River in northwest Georgia, Rome was a prime site for water-powered factories that produced artillery, munitions, haversacks and other goods for the Confederate war effort. Because of its importance as a supply center, Rome became the target of several Federal offensives during the Civil War.
In late April and early May 1863, Federal Colonel Abel D. Streight, in command of 1,700 men and a caravan of 700 mules, set out on a raid across Alabama to Georgia with the intent of destroying the industrial capacity of Rome. Traveling through the frontier wilderness of northern Alabama, Streight and his men engaged in a five-day running battle with Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry. Though outnumbered by Streight's force, Forrest and his battalion of 500 mounted soldiers captured the Federals and their mule train in eastern Alabama not far from the Georgia border, thus saving Rome from destruction. Forrest received a hero's welcome when he arrived in Rome on May 3, 1863.
Streight's raid brought the reality of the perils of war to the people of Rome. The city appropriated $3,000 for the construction of fortifications on three of the seven hills around the city. On August 21, 1863, the Rome Weekly Courier wrote, "The fort in Desoto shall be known as Fort Attaway. The fort in Hillsboro (Myrtle Hill) shall be known as Fort Stovall. The fort between Rome and Woodville shall be known as Fort Norton on Jackson Hill."
gacivilwar.org/story/abel-streights-raid
MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. SGM Major Stroupe COL (Join to see) MAJ Roland McDonald MAJ Bob MiyagishimaSPC (Join to see)1stSgt Eugene HarlessMSG Andrew WhiteSGM Hilbert Christensen1SG Steven Imerman1SG Dan Capri SSG Michael Noll PO3 Edward Riddle SPC Lyle MontgomeryCPO William Glen (W.G.) Powell MSgt Gloria Vance PO3 Lynn Spalding CPT Richard Trione SPC Terry Page Cpl Samuel Pope Sr

LTC Stephen F. great post from the Civil War era. I am going with this one.
1865: Confederate government withdraws from Richmond, VA to North Carolina

LTC Stephen F. I chose all of the above simply because the balloon was the first use of military aviation. Though there were no weapons aboard, and no controls save for the wind, it showed that the sky is the limit when it comes to controlling the battle space. The other reason for choosing all was the CSA withdraw from VA to NC. Anytime you can force an enemy to withdraw their seat of government, you are one step closer to an end in hostilities.