Balloon Corps, civilian aeronautical unit (1861–63) created during the American Civil War to provide aerial surveillance of Confederate troops for the Union army. Balloons supported Union campaigns from ground stations and naval vessels in the Peninsular Campaign, the capture of Island Number Ten, the Savannah Campaign, and the Battle of Chancellorsville. Most balloonists before 1861 made their living as carnival performers and itinerant “professors” of chemistry. Both Thaddeus S.C. Lowe of New Hampshire and John La Mountain of New York combined entertainment with long-distance test flights. Both men also employed balloons as aerial observation platforms for the Union army. Aeronauts