Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-12
FTTZ JOHN PORTER.
How He Made an Ascension During the
War and How He Came Down.

How He Made an Ascension During the
War and How He Came Down.
President Lincoln was much interested.
saysBen ;PerleyPoOre in "Reminiscences,
in the account of a perilous balloon as
censiOn by Gen. Fitz John Porter on
April u, 1862, near Yorktown, Va. About
5 O'Clock in the morning he stepped into
the car of Prof. loves balloon to 90 up
and make a recOnnois sance, then to be
pulled back to terra firma. He supposed
that the usual number of ropes were at
tached to ii, whereas there was only one.
and place in this, it was afterwards as
certained, had been burned by vitriol.
used in generating the gas. Taking his
seat in the car, unaccOmpanied by any
one, the rope was let out to nearly its
full length-the length was about 900
yards-when suddenly snap went the
cord and up went the balloon. This was
an unexpected part of the programme.
The men below looked up with astOnish-
ment, and the General looked down with
equal bewilderment.
"Open the valve," shouted one of the
men below"
'srll manage it, responded the General.
Up went the balloon, higher, higher. 1t
rose with great rapidity. Its huge form
lessened as il mounted into the regions of
the upper air. 1t became a speck in the
sky. The wind was taking it in the di.
rectiOn of the enemy's territory. By this
time every staff officer and hundreds of
others were looking at the moving speck.
1t is impossible to describe the anxiety
felt and expressed for the fate of him, the
central object of thought, in that far
away moving speck, every moment be-
coming less visible. 1t seemed to move
toward the Union army, and the cOunte-
nances there frightened with hope. 1t
passed over the heads of the Union men.
Soon it began to descend, but with ra-
pidity that aroused renewed apprehen-
sion. Quickly squad of cavalry plunged
spurs INTO their horses and dashed away
in the direction of the descending balloon.
The rest of the story is as received from
the Generals own lips. While the rope
was being played out, he adjusted his
glass in readiness for his proposed view
| of the enemy's territory. A sudden bound
of the balloon told him in a moment that
the rope had given way. He dropped the
glass, heard the call, '0pen the valve, -
made the response given above, and set
about looking for the valve. He was
sensible of being f1ighty (the General
loves pun as well as the next one }, but
was not at all nervous. He saw the wind
had taken him over the line of Confederate
iutrenchments. Having no wish to drop
in among them, he let the valve take care
of itself, and proceeded to take advantage
| of his position to note the aspect of Con-
federate objects below. Crowds of sol
diers rushed from the woods, and he heard
| their shouts distinctly. Luckily, he was
above the reach of their bullets, so he was
not afraid on this score.
The man of the country was distinctly
discernible. He saw Yorktown and it's
works, York river and its windings, and
Norfolk and its smoky chimneys. A
| counter current Of air struck the balloon,
and its course was reversed. Its retreat
from over the COnfederacy was rapid. He
opened the valve, the gas escaped, and
down he came. He could not say how
fast he came down, but it was with a "a
pidity he would not care to have repeated.
The car struck the top of a shelter tent,
under which, luckily, no one happened to
be at the time, knocked the tent into pi,
and left him enveloped in a mass of col
lapsed oil silk. He crawled out and
| found himself in the middle of a camp,
not 100 yards from Gen. McClellan's head
quarters.