The Confederate Air Force: Balloon Reconnaissance in the Civil War

This video, produced by the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, discusses aerial reconnaissance and the use of balloons during the Civil War. Museum staff members discuss Confederate aeronauts John Randolph Bryan and Edward Porter Alexander and their missions during the First Battle of Manassas (1861) and the Seven Days' Battles (1862). The artifact highlighted in this vodcast is a piece of the famed Confederate "Silk Dress" balloon.