How Spy Balloons Changed the Civil War

[@truetuesday4]

The juxtaposition of the whimsicalness of a hot air balloon ride and the panic of being blown into enemy territory with no way to control yourself is a very funny mental image

[@merlapittman5034]

Most interesting - I didn't know how widespread the use of various types of balloons has been. Also, "and two chickens " - hilarious! 😂

[@bobohm21]

Being observed has just been a normal part of my existence since the 80's when I was in the air force and became aware of it. Being stationed on the coast, we were used to the idea of being watched/listened to from all quarters. By planes, satellites, and subs, and probably more. It's more so now, and by companies and the government.

[@danielland3767]

As a man that's been the army from 98-06...I definitely understand this comment

[@BZAKether]

It is indeed kind of scary to think that we are being observed all the time. When the internet was starting to gain popularity back in the 90's I remember this was discussed a lot, and many had the idea that we wouldn't be spied because there was no economic incentive for doing so. Man, they were so wrong...

[@killcavlry]

ROGUE HISTORY IS BACK

[@ldbarthel]

I'm a bit of a WWI aircraft buff. The trench warfare made observation balloons particularly effective because they were relatively stationary and could be winched down as needed. The turning point came with the availability of incendiary bullets - IIRC, it was Belgian ace Willy Coppens who first used them to great effect.

[@freelancejoel]

I've heard of Willie Coppens but I'll have to look into the incendiaries today. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@dramonmaster222]

Real life is always stranger than fiction.

[@wylinout2257]

And real life in 2023 is strange than strange 🤣🤣

[@adpirtle]

I live my life just assuming everything I say or do is being recorded by someone.

[@gregjeskeep4511]

I feel like I should but never get around to it.

[@MorriAelthyn]

If you have a smartphone and a Facebook account, definitely 🙃

[@freelancejoel]

My greatest fear (and millennial hope?) is becoming a meme on accident. 😅

[@hughgoffinet5418]

Joel ate with that 🤭

[@sarahwatts7152]

I do love the whimsy of a spy balloon. "What's that blocking out the moon??"

[@windlessoriginals1150]

Glad to see another season.

[@SergioMartinez-rg6xr]

Thank you for another outstanding Rogue History episode! And an outstanding tie as well.🙂

[@victoriaeads6126]

There is some fascinating history about ironclad ships and the development of early modern vessels during the Civil War, too.

[@floydthompson8668]

I love these PBS small documentaries, EXCELLENT JOB, as usual! THANK YOU PBS!!!

[@samwill7259]

Would have to be a braver man than me. I'm not going up in a wicker basket suspended from flammable gas while being shot at. I choose life.

[@freelancejoel]

Fair! I'd take the balloon over Civil War combat though. 😬

[@rohiko4433]

I love this series! I'm excited to learn more about spies through history now, thanks for the awesome video!

[@freelancejoel]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Poohze01]

Sorry I'm late! Loved this video! I learned a lot, and laughed uproariously at the 'Lost Cause'. Don't get much better than that. Thanks!

[@darthbee18]

I heard of some Union officers becoming afraid of balloon rides as it ascended (...Custer I think? 🤔) but Lowe's story of getting blown off all the way to SC from OH is just 😂😂🤣🤣🙈 ...maybe because we invented airplanes we ended up not really solving balloons' steering problems 😅🤪🙃

[@markg999]

The flag use for artillery is pretty cool and great use of that view.

[@raymarshall4809]

I wanna be a guest on the show so bad... just sit there and add my crazy to the mix... some funny history lovin Marine of color here.

[@lc3]

Welcome back! How did they transmit telegraphs from the balloons?

[@Chiantiandfriends]

I thoroughly enjoy this series and look forward to more!

[@jujutaylor2186]

Thank you for this fun and interesting video. I'm a new fan of Rogue History ❤

[@sirsplintfastthepungent1373]

"My balloons... He's taking my balloons." - Stonewall Jackson, probably

[@johnnyearp52]

Being from the city that hosts the largest hot air balloon festival in the world (Albuquerque, NM) I think of balloons as fun and tourism. It is very interesting to hear about the other types of balloons.

[@billy101cat]

That 'lost cause' reference, clever and funny. An outrage how few views these videos get

[@Beryllahawk]

Love the light humor to this script, haha And to be honest yeah, kind of numb to the whole "being watched" thing. Every so often I get into that dark humor mode that tells me to shock whoever is on shift to spy on me today. Look up awful things that aren't illegal just gross, etc. but honestly meh, let 'em be bored AF watching honest citizens do absolutely nothing of note, I guess.

[@mandyblush]

Ah, those balloon hobbyists!

[@Crowned_ladyd]

😅 okay Sokka I see you 5:49

[@johngoodin3445]

So it’s my understanding that if you’re at 1000 feet you can see 50 miles in any direction. Seems from what I’ve discovered sometimes they were tethered to the back of ships. Imagine during the civil war and being able to see enemy ships within 100 miles. 1000 ft when you think about it isn’t really all that high. It’s the distance of three football fields goal line to goal line. How far away could you see from 2000 ft up? And didn’t they use balloons during WW1 to escort convoys to help them spot U-boats? Makes sense tie one off to the back of a ship and survey a coastline. You can see enemy shipping out to 50 miles away. All you really need is a good pair of military grade binoculars.

[@user-tv1yz1pq9x]

... two chickens 😂😂

[@aprillowe2890]

Thank you! For your love of history! 🤣🤣 my 3x grat uncle makes me proud!!!! His grand daughter Florentine Lowe AKA Pancho Barnes and his brother Five Years a Dragoon 49-54 by Percivical Greene Lowe

[@samuraisecretary]

The 3D image at 3:48 is so fun. Get closer and look "through" your screen.

[@HairHoFla]

You missed mention of the town I grew up in..Falls. Church Va...and right down the hill from where the balloon was deployed...is a home that gave birth to the NAACP 54 years later

[@robertcoplin2830]

I learned a lot from this presentation. Thank you for the work you do. I don't like our surveillance culture. It is abusive by it's existence.

[@victoriaeads6126]

Some of the documents shown here are ones I've seen at the vars Smithsonian museums. Is there a reference list? It would be an excellent addition to the video description for those who haven't gotten to see such items.

[@chrish9698]

Excellent presentation of a very interesting topic!

[@scootertrash3807]

Thaddeus Sobienski Constantine Lowe went on to build a railroad up Rubio canyon out of Altadena and up towards Mount Lowe. Look up “Mount Lowe, railway in the sky” a great book that tells of his exploits in the civil war and ballooning as well as his creation in the mountains above Pasadena/Altadena area.

[@robertortiz-wilson1588]

Very well done episode!

[@Carl-ht7cg]

I have gotten use to when someone told me that the FBI was listening to are conversation on the phone and that was in the 60's😎

[@victoriaeads6126]

Mr Cook, you are an excellent host. I've been watching long enough to know you aren't just a pretty face, either. I look forward to following your work in future. You could probably find success in partnering with something like DFTBA to get some cool pirate or other historically relevant pins out there.

[@rickc2102]

that lost cause joke though hehe

[@baggieknight8411]

Hey "RE-RUN" what's up bro glad to see you got a sweet KZbin channel ... You should have told me about it before you started it!!!! AND IF YOU AREN'T RE-RUN THEN YOU ARE LITERALLY HIS DOPPELGANGER..... Same beard same uneven fro same everything right down to the voice.......

[@christopherhayes1478]

Great story🤝

[@kevinleecaster2698]

Great way to call out the lost cause crap

[@Pottery4Life]

Letting you know in the comments below.

[@kenfox22]

I'm from the South, but it had to lose to the unspeakable practice of slavery

[@TheRealSkeletor]

1:54 Well which was it, Louis XIV or Louis XVI?

[@siphonophore4]

A LOST CAUSE

[@beepboop204]

[@matthuck378]

I accept a certain level of government surveillance for the common good. Security cameras in public spaces and the TSA checkpoint before you fly, for example. I'm much more worried about corporations, TBH.

[@jankay8569]

Doc z sent me here

[@emilyrugburnn]

🐑🐐🐓🎈

[@robramsey5120]

Isn't this channel about pirates? This has nothing to do with pirates.

[@freelancejoel]

Hi! Rogue History is about outlaws and outliers in society. Last season was about pirates and this season is about spies.

[@robramsey5120]

@@freelancejoel I know, I was just being funny, great show, really enjoying what you are producing.

[@freelancejoel]

@@robramsey5120 ah, my apologies. I'm very literal and very helpful. 😂 Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate the support.

[@qwertyuiopgarth]

I did not care at all about the 'Chinese spy balloon', and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think you were overusing the word 'we'.

[@wylinout2257]

It should have NEVER been allowed to go through and across America period.

[@itsd0nk]

It was a rare opportunity to collect useful and meaningful intel on the exact nature and technology being employed by that Chinese balloon. Shooting it down immediately would have been short sighted, foolish, and dangerous to civilians below. Instead, nobody got hurt, a massive dossier was built on everything about that balloon, and its communications were jammed during its trip across our country while we studied it. It’s like chess; You don’t always just go straight for taking that pawn. It pays dividends to think further down the line. Or just forget all of that and shout “hulk smash!” instead. Nobody is forcing you to be smart.

[@wylinout2257]

@@itsd0nk Here is your logic applied to another situation. Do not stop the rapist allow the rapist to continue raping said subject until it is finished. And then we will see if we can collect it semen. Now do you see how foolish what was allowed?? The wreckage wasn't fully recovered and all the until collected with switch right back to China in real time. We can't decipher the encryption that was used or anyting so we actually have zero information on anyting

[@Raymond.Butler]

Do you have evidence of slaves building the Confedrate balloon?

[@Raymond.Butler]

@@katebowers8107 I'm not the one making the statement and he is the first person I have ever heard say that. You on the other hand are just being aholeish. I am trying to learn, you aren't trying to do anything but make points. This is my business please stick to yours.

[@i_a_r_n_a]

Given how the confederate economy functioned it would be very weird for enslaved people to not have been involved. It would have been so ordinary that it would be unlikely to be commented upon. The quote from the video "no doubt through the forced labor of enslaved people" is a very clearly an inference and not from direct evidence. Demanding evidence that a slave state used enslaved labor is the sort of action that will result in people assuming bad faith on your part. (And, frankly, I think that's fair, because it's a pretty weird thing to do.)

[@Raymond.Butler]

@@i_a_r_n_a I did not demand anything. I asked a question. However, your response is very telling. I study the military and try to understand the lives of my fellow soldiers through time. Historians I have spoken to, have stated it is not known who actually constructed it. I am simply trying to figure out who and how it was constructed. You just want to fight.

[@Raymond.Butler]

@@i_a_r_n_a I think it's weird that something so important isn't documented to the N'th degree. However, here we are.

[@i_a_r_n_a]

@@Raymond.Butler Darling, I really don't want a fight, my intent was just to explain why someone might assume your question was not in good faith. I'm not sure why you think who worked on the actual sewing of the balloon would be important enough for specific documentation. That's not the sort of thing that is ordinarily recorded, afaik. But we can infer that unless someone says otherwise that things will be produced in the same way most items in a time and place were produced -- in the confederacy that means the forced labor of enslaved people. Why would an inference like this be in a video? Because a lot of americans apparently need reminders of the state of the south in the confederacy. (No thanks to their abysmal education system.)