How often do we have to call out the military to shoot down balloons? More often than you might think. Some notable stories of balloons gone rogue, drawing military and/or police responses, deserve to be remembered.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.