Did You Know: 'Aeronaut' Thaddeus Lowe Spied on Confederate Positions in Lorton During the Civil War?

(Editor's Note: In case you missed it, Lorton's Pohick Church is deeply rooted in history, and we highlighted a certain part of it for you earlier in the week. Here's that story again. Enjoy!)

Too few are aware of Lorton's significance in the world of secrets and intelligence aviation. On March 5, 1862, Professor Thaddeus Lowe, the father of aerial reconnaissance, stood 2,000 feet from the green grounds of Lorton's Pohick Church courtyard, and reported Confederate troops retreating to Yorktown and Hampton Roads. 

Here is what Lowe reported in a dispatch to Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman, commander of the 2nd Michigan Volunteers: 

"Have just made two ascensions with the balloon. It is fully inflated, and will take up two persons with all the ropes. If to-morrow is a fine day it would be a good time for the general to go up. I can see camp-fires on the Occoquan. T. S. C. LOWE, Chief Aeronaut, U. S. Army." 

Pohick Church will install a plaque this month to commemorate the event, and there will be a dedication this summer. 

Lorton's Shep Crow, who recently worked to get a new welcome sign erected in Lorton along Richmond Highway, is spearheading the effort to get the plaque erected.

"We're also trying to get some people from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (which is in Springfield) to be at the dedication, and they've expressed interest," said Crow. 

But Pohick Church's history during the war isn't completely rosy. The 18th century church was attended by George Washington, and that fact alone made it subject to looting by Union troops, who ran the Confederates from the scene two months before Lowe took flight. The 2nd Michigan ended up using the church as a stables, and the scars of the war can still be seen on the church's walls.  

"Pohick Church was in southern territory in Virginia, and was captured by the Union in Nov. 1861, and unfortunately the Union Army stripped the church of relics," said Rev. Donald Binder, the rector of Pohick Church. "They tore out parts of the pews, mostly for souvenirs they could keep from Washington's church."

The looting was worthy of remembrance for a bewildered Lt. Charles B. Haydon.

"I have long known that the Mich 2nd had no fear or reverence as a general thing for God or the places where he is worshiped but I had hoped that the memory of Gen. Washington might protect almost anything with which it was associated.

"I believe our soldiers would have torn the church down in 2 days. They were all over it in less than 10 minutes tearing off the ornaments, splitting the woodwork and pews, knocking the brick to pieces & everything else they could get at. They wanted pieces to carry away... A more absolute set of vandals than our men can not be found on the face of the earth. As true as I am living I believe they would steal Washington's coffin if they could get to it."

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