ut the balloon was sheltered from
observation by reason of its position in the hollow.

Heretofore the ascensions had been made from remote places, for there
was good reason to believe that batteries lined the opposite hills; but
now, for the first time, Lowe intended to make an ascent whereby he
could look into Richmond, count the forts encircling it, and note the
number and position of the camps that intervened. The balloon was named
the "Constitution," and looked like a semi-distended boa-constrictor, as
it flapped with a jerking sound, and shook its oiled and painted folds.
It was anchored to the ground by stout ropes affixed to stakes, and also
by sand-bags which hooked to its netting. The basket lay alongside; the
generators were contained in blue wooden wagons, marked "U. S.;" and
the gas was fed to the balloon through rubber and metallic pipes. A tent
or two, a quantity of vitriol in green and wicker carboys, some horses
and transportation teams, and several men that assisted the inflation,
were the only objects to be remarked. As some time was to transpire
before the arrangements were completed, I resorted to one of the tents
and took a comfortable nap. The "Professor" aroused me at three o'clock,
when I found the canvas straining its bonds, and emitting a hollow
sound, as of escaping gas. The basket was made fast directly, the
telescopes tossed into place; the Professor climbed to the side, holding
by the network; and I coiled up in a rope at the bottom.

"Stand by your cables," he said, and the bags of ballast were at once
cut away. Twelve men took each a rope in hand, and played out slowly,
letting us glide gently upward. The earth seemed to be falling away, and
we poised motionless in the blue ether. The tree-tops sank downward, the
hills dropped noiselessly through space, and directly the Chickahominy
was visible beyond us, winding like a ribbon of silver through the ridgy
landscape.

Far and wide stretched the Federal camps. We saw faces turned upwards
gazing at our ascent, and heard clearly, as in a vacuum, the voices of
soldiers. At every second the prospect widened, the belt of horizon
enlarged, remote farmhouses came in view; the earth was like a perfectly
flat surface, painted with blue woods, and streaked with pictures of
roads, fields, fences, and streams. As we climbed higher, the river
seemed directly beneath us, the farms on the opposite bank were plainly
discernible, and Richmond lay only a l