Porter's simple phrase on his headstone aptly reads: "I fought the good fight." No grand statements but resolute as he was in
life. His beloved Harriet Pierson Cook Porter, lies by his side.
www.findagrave.com
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
General Porter Sums It All Up
Porter's simple phrase on his headstone aptly reads: "I fought the good fight." No grand statements but resolute as he was in
life. His beloved Harriet Pierson Cook Porter, lies by his side.
www.findagrave.com
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Dr. Rick Schubart, Phillips Exeter, Consulting Curator
A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Rick Schubart earned his BA in history at Kenyon College and subsequently his MA and PhD in American history at the State University of New York, Binghamton. Rick was appointed to the faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy in 1973 where he has taught in the history department, been the head of Amen and Dunbar Hall dormitories, and coached the varsity boys tennis team and girls varsity basketball teams. Rick has also served as the Dean of Admissions, Director of the Exeter Humanities Program, head of the Exeter Elderhostel Academy, the chair of the History Department, as well as Director of the Washington Intern Program on Capitol Hill during his years at Phillips Exeter. Rick is also the founder of the on-going Academy Summer Alumni program at the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. Most recently Rick was named to the Bates-Russell Distinguished Faculty Professorship that has him working on new model schools in the US as well as abroad that feature the Harkness table method of seminar teaching and learning.
A scholar of early American and Civil War history, Rick was named a Madison Fellow in Constitutional Studies and has worked with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Endowment for Humanities, the New Hampshire Humanities Council, the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, the Gilder-Lehrman Institute, the Gettysburg Visitor Center and Foundation, as well as the Strawbery Banke Museum and American Independence Museum in New Hampshire. In 2008 Rick became a founding trustee of the New Hampshire Supreme Court Society and Governor John Lynch appointed Rick to the NH Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
Strawbery Banke Museum is honored that Rick has agreed to be Consulting Curator for the Fitz John Porter project.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Dr. Rick Schubart presents at AHA
Dr. Rick Schubart, consulting curator for "Fitz John Porter: Hero or Coward? Find the Answers at Strawbery Banke Museum," Strawbery Banke Trustee and the Bates-Russell Distinguished Faculty Professor
Department of History, Phillips Exeter Academy will present "Abraham Lincoln’s Expressions of Faith: Spirituality in War and Peace" at the American History Association Annual Meeting in Boston this weekend. Hope you can join us.
AHA Session 151
Saturday, January 8, 2011: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Room 208 (Hynes Convention Center)
Chair:
Orville Vernon Burton, Coastal Carolina University
Sponsored by the AHA Working Group on Religion, Peace, and Violence
Topics:
Providential History on Trial: Memories of Andersonville Prison and the Civil War
Kent Alan McConnell ,Phillips Exeter Academy
Abraham Lincoln’s Expressions of Faith: Spirituality in War and Peace
Richard Schubart ,Phillips Exeter Academy
“Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”: Songs of War and Peace in the United States, 1860–80
Barbara L. Tischler ,Horace Mann School
Comment:
Orville Vernon Burton, Coastal Carolina University
Department of History, Phillips Exeter Academy will present "Abraham Lincoln’s Expressions of Faith: Spirituality in War and Peace" at the American History Association Annual Meeting in Boston this weekend. Hope you can join us.
AHA Session 151
Saturday, January 8, 2011: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Room 208 (Hynes Convention Center)
Chair:
Orville Vernon Burton, Coastal Carolina University
Sponsored by the AHA Working Group on Religion, Peace, and Violence
Topics:
Providential History on Trial: Memories of Andersonville Prison and the Civil War
Kent Alan McConnell ,Phillips Exeter Academy
Abraham Lincoln’s Expressions of Faith: Spirituality in War and Peace
Richard Schubart ,Phillips Exeter Academy
“Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”: Songs of War and Peace in the United States, 1860–80
Barbara L. Tischler ,Horace Mann School
Comment:
Orville Vernon Burton, Coastal Carolina University
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Porter and the U.S. Army Balloon Corps, 1862
Among the subjects discussed in the upcoming Porter exhibition will be his early and significant role in "aerial reconnaissance." See below an extract from the CIA's online publication "Civil War: New Intelligence Tools." Very interesting reading, especially in terms of technology, espionage and counter intelligence. And Porter is in the forefront of this innovation with his drafting skills and field glasses, creating a map of Confederate locations and movements at Yorktown.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/additional-publications/civil-war/index.html
Intelligence's New Tools
Thaddeus S. Lowe, a 29-year-old balloon enthusiast, went up about 500 feet on June 18, 1861, looked down upon Washington, and, via a cable linking his balloon gondola to the War Department, telegraphed a message to President Lincoln: “The city, with its girdle of encampments, presents a superb scene….” It was the first wartime air-to-ground communication ever recorded in America. By linking the balloon to the telegraph, Lowe transformed what had been a novel contraption at country fairs into a tool for a new kind of intelligence gathering: real-time aerial reconnaissance.
The demonstration had been arranged, not by military officers, but by Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and an enthusiastic supporter of the use of balloons in war. With a note introducing Lowe, Lincoln nudged Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army. The army soon accepted the new tool, forming the U.S. Army Balloon Corps. In March 1862, when Major General George B. McClellan began his campaign up the Virginia peninsula, Thaddeus Lowe, bearing the title Chief Aeronaut, went along. He had three balloons and what he described as an “aeronautic train, consisting of four army wagons and two gas generators.”
Thaddeus S. Lowe
At 3 o’clock one morning, Lowe went up and stayed aloft until daybreak, “observing the camp-fires and noting the movements of the enemy” around Yorktown. Brigadier General Fitz John Porter went up next, getting, from 1,000 feet, an unprecedented view of an American battlefield. As soon as he landed, Porter rounded up generals and mapmakers and drew up maps showing the Confederates’ fortifications, based on what he and Lowe had seen while aloft.
Lowe made frequent flights to obtain tactical intelligence. On June 14, 1862, for instance, he went aloft near Richmond carrying a map on which he noted, in red, “some of the most important earth works seen this morning.” The map had been prepared by John C. Babcock and “E.J. Allen S.S.U.S”—the cover name of Allan Pinkerton. The initials stand for “Secret Service, United States,” Pinkerton’s name for the organization he formed while working for McClellan.
As the Union began to make routine use of the new surveillance system, the Confederates reacted. They shot cannons at the balloons, but artillery, aimed by formulas involving trajectory from cannon to land target, could not easily become antiaircraft guns. Confederate artillery officers soon learned that when they shot their guns, they became targets of fire directed by Union artillery spotters in the balloons.
Then, in the age-old rhythm of intelligence, an espionage innovation produced a counter innovation: The Confederates started camouflaging encampments and blacking out their camps after learning that Union balloonists counted campfires for estimates of troop strength. To fool daytime observers, Confederates painted logs black and arranged them to look like cannons jutting from defenses. They were dubbed “Quaker guns” and “wooden ordnance.”
Lowe replenishing the balloon “Intrepid” from the balloon “Constitution” at Fair Oaks, Virginia
The Confederates raised balloons a few times. But the South did not have adequate equipment for producing large amounts of hydrogen gas or rubber. The first Confederate balloon was made of varnish- covered cotton and was filled with hot air. An observer drew a map of Union positions near Yorktown, but had trouble controlling the balloon. The next Confederate balloon was made of colorful swaths of silk (inspiring the legend that the balloon’s fabric consisted of ball gowns donated by patriotic Southern belles). Filled at Richmond’s municipal gas works, the balloon was tethered to a locomotive, which took it to an observation site. The balloon later was moved by a tugboat and taken down the James River. The tug ran aground, and Union troops captured the balloon.
Richmond map used by Lowe on June 14, 1862, prepared by John C. Babcock and “E.J. Allen”
Allan Pinkerton). Lowe’s note at the bottom states “The red lines represent some of the most
important earth works seen this morning and are located as near as possible, as is also the
camps in black ink. As soon as I can get an observation from the Mechanicsville balloon, I
can make many additions to this map.”
Both sides soon gave up the use of balloons: the South because of the lack of resources, and the North primarily because Lowe and his balloons could not find a bureaucratic niche in the U.S. Army. Lowe resigned in May 1863, and the U.S. Army Balloon Corps was disbanded soon after.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/additional-publications/civil-war/index.html
Intelligence's New Tools
Thaddeus S. Lowe, a 29-year-old balloon enthusiast, went up about 500 feet on June 18, 1861, looked down upon Washington, and, via a cable linking his balloon gondola to the War Department, telegraphed a message to President Lincoln: “The city, with its girdle of encampments, presents a superb scene….” It was the first wartime air-to-ground communication ever recorded in America. By linking the balloon to the telegraph, Lowe transformed what had been a novel contraption at country fairs into a tool for a new kind of intelligence gathering: real-time aerial reconnaissance.
The demonstration had been arranged, not by military officers, but by Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and an enthusiastic supporter of the use of balloons in war. With a note introducing Lowe, Lincoln nudged Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army. The army soon accepted the new tool, forming the U.S. Army Balloon Corps. In March 1862, when Major General George B. McClellan began his campaign up the Virginia peninsula, Thaddeus Lowe, bearing the title Chief Aeronaut, went along. He had three balloons and what he described as an “aeronautic train, consisting of four army wagons and two gas generators.”
Thaddeus S. Lowe
At 3 o’clock one morning, Lowe went up and stayed aloft until daybreak, “observing the camp-fires and noting the movements of the enemy” around Yorktown. Brigadier General Fitz John Porter went up next, getting, from 1,000 feet, an unprecedented view of an American battlefield. As soon as he landed, Porter rounded up generals and mapmakers and drew up maps showing the Confederates’ fortifications, based on what he and Lowe had seen while aloft.
Lowe made frequent flights to obtain tactical intelligence. On June 14, 1862, for instance, he went aloft near Richmond carrying a map on which he noted, in red, “some of the most important earth works seen this morning.” The map had been prepared by John C. Babcock and “E.J. Allen S.S.U.S”—the cover name of Allan Pinkerton. The initials stand for “Secret Service, United States,” Pinkerton’s name for the organization he formed while working for McClellan.
As the Union began to make routine use of the new surveillance system, the Confederates reacted. They shot cannons at the balloons, but artillery, aimed by formulas involving trajectory from cannon to land target, could not easily become antiaircraft guns. Confederate artillery officers soon learned that when they shot their guns, they became targets of fire directed by Union artillery spotters in the balloons.
Then, in the age-old rhythm of intelligence, an espionage innovation produced a counter innovation: The Confederates started camouflaging encampments and blacking out their camps after learning that Union balloonists counted campfires for estimates of troop strength. To fool daytime observers, Confederates painted logs black and arranged them to look like cannons jutting from defenses. They were dubbed “Quaker guns” and “wooden ordnance.”
Lowe replenishing the balloon “Intrepid” from the balloon “Constitution” at Fair Oaks, Virginia
The Confederates raised balloons a few times. But the South did not have adequate equipment for producing large amounts of hydrogen gas or rubber. The first Confederate balloon was made of varnish- covered cotton and was filled with hot air. An observer drew a map of Union positions near Yorktown, but had trouble controlling the balloon. The next Confederate balloon was made of colorful swaths of silk (inspiring the legend that the balloon’s fabric consisted of ball gowns donated by patriotic Southern belles). Filled at Richmond’s municipal gas works, the balloon was tethered to a locomotive, which took it to an observation site. The balloon later was moved by a tugboat and taken down the James River. The tug ran aground, and Union troops captured the balloon.
Richmond map used by Lowe on June 14, 1862, prepared by John C. Babcock and “E.J. Allen”
Allan Pinkerton). Lowe’s note at the bottom states “The red lines represent some of the most
important earth works seen this morning and are located as near as possible, as is also the
camps in black ink. As soon as I can get an observation from the Mechanicsville balloon, I
can make many additions to this map.”
Both sides soon gave up the use of balloons: the South because of the lack of resources, and the North primarily because Lowe and his balloons could not find a bureaucratic niche in the U.S. Army. Lowe resigned in May 1863, and the U.S. Army Balloon Corps was disbanded soon after.
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