Reviewing history in the military, the Air Force and triumphs and misadventures in airpower. In October 1861, the Union Army Balloon Corps was activated as part of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The Balloon Corps was essentially an early form of reconnaissance conducted from a hot air balloon. How did this idea come about? Aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe was in the middle of experimenting a transatlantic crossing by hot air balloon. With the onset of the war, his attempts were interrupted. Instead, he was introduced to President Abraham Lincoln and offered his aviation expertise – he gave Lincoln…