Information Fair: The Role of Navy Balloons During the Civil War

October 31, 2024 | 11:00 am—2:00 pm

11a.m. to 2p.m., Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, Maryland

 

Join museum educator, Mike Galloway and curator, Gordon Calhoun as they provide information on the U.S. Navy’s deployment of two balloons during the Maryland Campaign of 1862.  Learn about the U.S. Navy medical personnel who were on hand as well as the tractor guns similar to ones produced at the Washington Navy Yard. Calhoun will also give a presentation on the Navy’s airship program.   This program was developed in association with the Antietam National Battlefield Trust and the National Park Service and is presented in conjunction with the museum’s exhibit, The Future is Now: The Navy’s Lighter Than Airships.  

 

About the Speakers:  Gordon Calhoun is a historian and curator with the National Museum of the United States Navy. He has worked for the Naval History and Heritage Command for over 28 years as a curator, historian, and editor, where he has covered many different time-periods of U.S. naval history. He lives just north of Fredericksburg, Virginia where he and his family run a thoroughbred horse breeding operation. 

 

Michael Galloway is an education specialist with the National Museum of the United States Navy and a Marine Corps veteran. He has provided over 200 public tours at the museum, many of which focus on the history of the Washington Navy Yard. Most recently, he presented a paper at the Society of Civil War Historians and was selected to present at the Society for Military Historians. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Shepherd University in West Virginia. 

 

This program is free and open to everyone. No registration is required. For more information about the use of balloons during the American Civil War, visit the Antietam National Battlefield Trust website at

 https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-ballooning

 

Inflation of the balloon Intrepid to reconnoiter the Battle of Fair Oaks

Matthew Brady, 1823-1896, photographer

Library of Congress Control Number 2012649972

Reproduction Number LC-DIG-ppmsca-34751, LC-B816-2350 (b&w glass copy neg.)