This is the second and final part of the first adult novel to cover the Union Balloon Corps in the Civil War. At the start of the Civil War, Nathaniel Curry is a fifteen-year-old telegraph operator in Richmond. He travels to Washington to see a balloon demonstration and finds himself, entirely by accident, assisting Thaddeus Lowe in directing artillery fire on a Confederate emplacement - the first use of an aircraft in warfare. A pariah back in Virginia, Nathaniel joins the nascent Union Balloon Corps, the world's first air force. Nathaniel, a Southerner, is suspected of being a spy by both...

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Nathaniel Curry is a fifteen-year-old telegraph operator in Richmond. Entirely by accident, he helps direct Union artillery fire on a Confederate battery from a balloon, the first real use of an aircraft in warfare. A pariah back in Virginia, he flees to the North and joins the nascent Union Balloon Corps. The Corps, nearly forgotten today, revolutionized warfare, observing Rebel forces and communicating with the ground, and with Washington, by telegraph. The unruly aeronauts, however, are never embraced by the Army. Nathaniel, for his part, is suspected of...