While hot air balloons were not new technology in the 1860s, they were put into practical operation during the Civil War by providing aerial reconnaissance for commanders on the ground. The best known aeronaut of the war, Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, made frequent ascents on behalf of the North during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, where he observed enemy positions and fortifications, and reported on troop movements. Despite its success, the Union’s Balloon Corps disbanded in 1863. Aerial reconnaissance was but one of the new technologies put to a military purpose on both sides.