<P> The balloon, under flight direction of Prof. Lowe, was also used to direct artillery fire from an unseen location onto a Confederate encampment . The balloon, Eagle, was ascended with tether and telegraph from Fort Corcoran north of Falls Church, Virginia . (The use of a telegraph to a balloon was previously successfully tested by Lowe on June 18, 1861 .) An artillery battery was located at the easterly Camp Advance . With a series of predetermined flag signals, Lowe directed fire onto the Rebel encampment until the shots were landing on target . This first - used concept was the predecessor to the Forward Artillery Observer (FAO) and revolutionized the use of artillery even to modern day . </P> <P> Prof. Lowe was once approached by the young Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1863, who was at the time acting as a then - civilian observer for the Union Army, about possibly serving as an aerial observer with Lowe, but this was forbidden by Union military authorities during the Civil War years, due to von Zeppelin's then - civilian status . The future rigid airship pioneer was instead directed to the camp of John Steiner, a German aeronaut already in the United States, to get his first flight experience in a balloon, which von Zeppelin was able to do at a slightly later time while he still was in the US . </P> <P> Balloons and generators were loaded onto the USS George Washington Parke Custis, a converted coal barge . The balloons were towed down the Potomac River and were able to ascend and make observations of the battle front as it moved toward Richmond . On November 11, 1861, Lowe made the first observations from a balloon based from a ship . This is the first ever recorded observation from an aerial station by water, essentially the first - ever aircraft carrier (balloon tender). </P> <P> Lowe went on to make observations at Fair Oaks, Sharpsburg, Vicksburg and Fredericksburg before political ambush both from within the military and in Congress forced him to resign in April 1863 at which point he returned to the private sector . The Balloon Corps all but ceased to exist by August 1863 . </P>

Who invented the hot air balloon in the civil war and when it was invented