Explore a collection of images highlighting life during the Civil War. The Union Army Balloon Corps was established to observe enemy positions from above, in balloons piloted by aeronauts like Professor Thaddeus S. Lowe. The U.S. Military Telegraph Corps was created to support the communications needed between officers on the battlefield and President Lincoln. More than a thousand operators sent and received messages across 4,000 miles of telegraph wires. Over 400,000 soldiers were held in Union and Confederate prison camps, an estimated 56,000 of whom died while emprisoned. The Civil War also created a refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes.