 Thaddeus S. C. Lowe soon took over the church as a base of operations, and a garrison stationed at the site began to use the building as quarters.The men left graffiti behind on the church doorposts, quoins, and walls; much of it is still visible today, as are bullet holes in the exterior walls.From this location Lowe repeatedly launched his balloon, "Intrepid", to track Confederate troop movements along the Occoquan River, and here he saw the earliest successes of his short-lived Federal Balloon Corps.