What were the air balloons in the american civil war used for?
I tried googling but i found results of them being used for spying, dropping bombs, flying soldiers into battle. What were they really used for? I can’t find an accurate one. This is for a civil war project where i have to make a 3d visual so I need to know what the air ballon’s purpose. Thanks so much! 
Also, did they make a big impact on the war? And were they useful in the war?
They were used for observation of enemy troop dispositions.
Their impact was minimal; the time taken to get them into the air and their obvious visibility meant it was hard to deploy them effectively, and they were vulnerable to artillery fire and, as they had to be moored in position to prevent them drifting off in the wind they weren’t very mobile.There were also problems in transmitting the information gained to ground level and then along the chain of command to someone who could make use of it – by which time, of course, the intelligence gathered could well be out of date.
