Those whom the hurricane had just thrown on this coast were neither aeronauts by profession nor amateurs.

They were prisoners of war whose boldness had induced them to escape in this extraordinary manner.
A hundred times they had almost perished! A hundred times had they almost fallen from their torn balloon into the depths of the ocean.

But Heaven had reserved them for a strange destiny, and after having, on the 20th of March, escaped from Richmond, besieged by the troops of General Ulysses Grant, they found themselves seven thousand miles from the capital of Virginia, which was the principal stronghold of the South, during the terrible War of Secession.

Their aerial voyage had lasted five days.
The curious circumstances which led to the escape of the prisoners were as follows: That same year, in the month of February, 1865, in one of the coups de main by which General Grant attempted, though in vain, to possess himself of Richmond, several of his officers fell into the power of the enemy and were detained in the town.

One of the most distinguished was Captain Cyrus Harding.