Hampton Roads Naval Museum

28. G.W.P. Custis

Norfolk, VA

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George Washington Parke Custis, a coal barge built in the mid 1850s, was purchased by the Navy in August 1861; fitted out with a gas-generating apparatus developed by Thaddeus Lowe; and modified by John A. Dahlgren at the Washington Navy Yard for her service as a balloon boat. Early on the morning of November 10, 1861, steamer Coeur de Lion towed George Washington Parke Custis out of the Navy Yard and down the Potomac. The next day Lowe, accompanied by General Daniel E. Sickles and others, ascended in his trial balloon from the barge off Mattawoman Creek to observe Confederate forces on the Virginia shore some 3 miles away. On the 12th Lowe reported: "We had a fine view of the enemy camp fires during the evening and saw the rebels constructing batteries at Freestone Point." This operation and John La Mountain's earlier ascension from the boat Fanny began the widespread use of balloons for reconnaissance work during the Civil War and foreshadowed the Navy's future use of the air to extend its effective use of sea power.