Trojan rose to the occasion

By Don Rittner

I remember being amazed watching drone aircraft being flown over Afghanistan during the war against terrorism. Not only did they visually monitor the landscape for miles, but also delivered surprise payloads on unsuspecting terrorists. Fellow Troy lover Jim Shepard pointed out to me last week, not surprisingly, the advent of military reconnaissance had a Troy hand in it.

John LaMountain was born in Canada in 1830 but moved to Lansingburgh in 1858 with his brothers Charles and Edward and his wife Mary. While it isn’t known when LaMountain developed an interest in ballooning, he did go up that year and got due publicity in the Troy Times.

LaMountain had high ambitions and built a larger balloon the "Atlantic," in 1858 for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Over 60 feet in diameter and constructed with Chinese silk, it had a wicker basket for the crew and below that a lifeboat with propellers. Teaming up with financer and Vermont potter Oliver A Gager, and John Wise, already a veteran of air ascents since 1835 and LaMountain's mentor, he was ready to fly. On July 1st, his team along with a newspaper reporter left St Louis on a test run to the east. They traveled 1150 miles in some 20 hours at 57 miles per hour eventually crashing into a tree in Jefferson County, NY. It was publicized as the greatest aerial voyage in history. It set an official world distance record for non-stop air flight that would not be broken until 1910 and was the first airmail delivery as Wise literally "dropped" off a bag of mail consigned by the US Express Company.

LaMountain ditched his team and tried again in September in Watertown with another reporter, but hit fast winds at 100 miles per hour. They ended up in the Canadian wilderness and went a week without food, finally being rescued by a lumber party. LaMountain took a break and built some smaller balloons at his factory in the Burgh. He attempted an ascent at the Washington County Fair in 1860, but due to high winds and lack of suitable gas, he couldn’t get up after several attempts. He and his balloon barely got out of the fair grounds alive and in one piece. Not good to get farmers in that area mad at you.

Because of his associations with newspapermen, he developed a national reputation for his exploits. At the outbreak of the Civil War, LaMountain thought that he could engage his balloons to spy on confederate locations. He wrote directly to the Secretary of War outlining his plan to observe enemy troops from the air and had endorsements from many local Troy big wigs, but he was ignored. LaMountain had competition in the form of T.S. C. Lowe, another famous aeronaut who was attempting the same thing. Lowe had the political connections and met with Lincoln with his air ship the "Enterprise." On June 17, 1861 Lowe demonstrated the first telegraphic transmission from the air. At 500 feet high, he was rigged with telegraph wire from the American Telegraph Company and the cables and equipment on the ship were attached to the ground.

LaMountain was given a chance however to prove his stuff by Major General Benjamin F Butler, in command of Union forces at Fort Monroe, Virginia. LaMountain beat Lowe to the punch in July 1861 when he made two successful ascensions at Fort Monroe going up to 3000 feet finding a confederate encampment about 3 miles beyond and a large force on the James River, 8 miles above Newport News. He also noticed cannon positions. LaMountain became the first to successfully use a balloon in military service. However, Lincoln gave Lowe control of his newly formed Balloon Corps, a civilian group. Ironically, a year later, another Trojan, General John Wool, and the Troy built ironclad Monitor would turn the war in favor of the Union at the same location.

Both LaMountain and Lowe introduced the use of aircraft carriers. Lowe directed the construction in 1861 of the fist aircraft carrier, the George Washington Parke Custis, a rebuilt coal barge. On Aug 3, 1861, LaMountain used the deck of a small vessel Fanny over the James River, and the Union Tugboat Adriatic for the same purpose.

Hostilities arose between LaMountain and Lowe and on Feb 19, 1862, General McClelland dismissed LaMountain from service. Lowe was forced to resign on May 8 1863, accused of financial impropriety. The balloon corps was abandoned by August 1863.

When LaMountain came back to Troy, he lost his wife and daughter. In 1864, he married his cousin and ended in divorce in 1866. He moved to South Bend, Indiana, where he died at the age of 40 on Feb 14, 1870.