Military
13
From this vantage point the Chickahominy Valley opens in front of you. Before June 27, McClellan’s engineers built 10 different bridges across the Chickahominy River connecting the two wings of the Union army. Porter’s reinforcements crossed three of those bridges: Woodbury’s, Alexander’s, and the more famous Grapevine Bridge. On June 27, a historical first unfolded here. Near the Union headquarters at Trent House, two miles to the south, Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe launched his balloon and observed Lee massing to attack Porter here, then hurried down to report what he had seen to Genl. McClellan. Closer to Richmond another balloon rose above the horizon carrying Confederate artilleryman E. Porter Alexander, who reported the crossing of Porter’s Union reinforcements and signalled the crossing of Slocum’s division to reinforce Porter during the terrible battle of Gaines’s Mill. For the first and only time during the war, both sides used aerial reconnaissance at the same time.
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