In March of 1865, the union army of General Grant had the town of Richmond, Virginia, sewn up in siege, when a curious situation developed. Within the town were many Northern prisoners, Union officers and others whose burning desire was to escape and rejoin the North. But, while allowed certain liberties, the town was so strictly guarded that escape seemed impossible. However, just as their prisoners could not escape, the southern secessionists themselves were also trapped. And that's how Forster's balloon came to be manufactured, and inflated in the great square of Richmond waiting for a North wind...