Scenario For Combat Aircraft To Be Available During the U.S. Civil War?

I've been interested in doing a highly illustrated book where the American Civil War (1861-65) had a couple of hundred heavier than air combat aircraft available on both sides along with a substantial number of combat balloons and battle blimps.

Given that the time between the run up to the Civil War (1855-60) and the flight of the Wright Brothers (1903) was not all that great and that lots of heavier than air combat aircraft were available in World War One only a little more than a decade after the Wright brothers, are there any kind of scenarios that allow for availability in 1861?
 
Could balloons be actually weaponized, not just used for recon? Otherwise, no. We didn't even know how to make gliders yet, at least, beyond the experimental phase.
 
ASBs. The most realistic possibility would be blimps/rigid airships. Having said that there are several major roadblocks. There are no internal combustion engines, and the steam engines of the day are way too heavy. There is no aluminum, so you would have to use laminated wood (say bamboo) but the technology for strong enough laminates/glues is not there. Finally you'll be using hydrogen for a lifting gas - so even if you manage to make a light enough (and powerful enough) steam engine the fire risk is huge. Heavier than air flight, even more than ASB. I'll give you more use of balloons for observation, and potentially gliders but controlled/powered flight, no way.
 
Maybe the utilization of the Ketchum grenade is a possibility. The plunger on it was a contact explosive and they came in three different weights. However, I am not sure of the effects if they were air dropped.
 
Without a valid lightweight ( relative ) engine then the best is probably a tethered blimp for recon and artillery spotting. Otherwise its like the Japanese in ww2 , releasing balloons with some payload when the wind is right and hoping it comes down somewhere interesting.
 
[…] you would have to use laminated wood (say bamboo) but the technology for strong enough laminates/glues is not there.
Given my limited knowledge of woodworking techniques, I would have thought that the 1860's would have had much the same technologies as the 1910's. What developments occurred in the intervening period?
 
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