Members and guests of Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 gathered on Thursday March 9th at the Prattville Masonic Lodge for their monthly meeting. Twenty four folks were in attendance and enjoyed 1st Rob Schwartz playing the guitar and singing in the lead up to the beginning of the meeting. Chaplain Brantley led everyone in an Invocation followed by Color Sgt Dennis leading the pledges and salutes to the flags. Commander Waldo recited the SCV Charge and compatriot Tyrone Crowley then played a n old radio spot featuring Brigade Cmdr Grooms telling of the exploits of Confederate General John Mosby, the Gray Ghost. The Dragoons plan on airing new radio ads during April for Confederate History and Heritage month. The camp then presented the nominees for the officers for the coming year and a voice vote confirmed these men into service. Reenactments at Tannehill Furnace and Janney Furnace highlighted upcoming events along with the planned setting of Battle Flags on the graves of Confederate veterans at Oak Hill and Confederate Memorial Park cemeteries.
Tallassee Camp 1921 Commander Randall Hughey was the guest speaker for this camp meeting. He complimented the Dragoons for their work for the SCV and the Cause including the I-65 Battle Flag and hosting the 2021 Division reunion. It was noted that former Dragoons' Camp Commander Wyatt Willis helped charter the Tallassee Armory Guards SCV camp. Camp 1921 originally met in the Hotel Talisi before it burned down. The overseer's house from the former Micou textile property was moved from Ann Street, formerly owned by the Talisi Historical Society overlooked the Tallapoosa River. It fell into disrepair and was condemned by the city. Members of Camp 1921 purchased the property and after a struggle to secure building permits for the renovation, were successful and have turned it into Fort Talisi complete with a 30 foot flagpole on which they fly a Confederate Battle Flag (after resistance from the city who sought to restrict thru an emergency resolution the height of any flags to 8 ft), signage displaying the SCV emblem and, a park complete with monuments, walkways and landscaping. Future plans call for additional statues of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Forrest, and Jefferson Davis.
The Tallassee Armory was part of the original textile mills founded in 1844 by Thomas Barnett. It is the second oldest stone structure in Alabama. The Historical Society has secured grants to restore several buildings on the site of the mill/armory and the bell tower which rang to signal the end of shifts at the mill is a future project. The main building was a two story structure but work moved earth up around the lower story and those windows were bricked in so it appears to be a one story structure with a basement today. The second floor is supported by 42 ft wooden beams, 2 ft on each side, hand hewn with axes. Poplar wood floors run throughout the building.
Commander Hughey then regaled everyone with the history of the Armory during the War Between the States. This account from the Tallassee Times (https://www.tallasseetimes.com/news_article_3b27.htm) provides a good history which Randall provided:
By 1864, Richmond had become vulnerable to attack and Colonel Josiah Gorgas, Chief of the Confederate Ordinance Bureau looked for a place in the deep south to move the rifle factory. The new .58 caliber, muzzle- loading carbine would be manufactured in the small hamlet of Tallassee, Alabama. This weapon was recommended by General Robert E. Lee and tested and modified by General J.E.B. Stuart. The factory was set up in the 1844 mill which was rented from the mill owner, Benjamin Micou. Captain C.P. Boles was assigned to oversee the operation and four-officer’s quarters, or houses were built on King Street in Tallassee. Three of the four still stand today.
In early summer of 1864 machinery, gunsmiths, blacksmiths and their apprentices all began to arrive in Tallassee. It wasn’t long before word got back to the Union that rifles were being manufactured in Tallassee. In mid-July, Union Major General Lovell H. Rousseau swept across Alabama with 2,500 cavalry, destroying any supplies intended for the Confederate war effort. They destroyed the depot at Dadeville, plus burned a locomotive and several box cars loaded with supplies likely headed for Tallassee. A warehouse of supplies was also burned along the railroad at Loachapoka.
Under the field command of Union Major Baird, the 5th Iowa and 4th Tennessee “Union” Cavalry headed south to destroy the Montgomery and Western Railroad of Alabama between Opelika and Chehaw station. Rousseau’s Raiders roamed East Alabama with orders to destroy any mills or bridges along the way, but as they neared the railroad trestle over Uphapee Creek, they encountered a group of old men of the Tuskegee Home Guard. A skirmish ensued which is now called the “Battle of Chehaw Station.” About the same time, a train arrived from the west, carrying a battalion of cadets from the University of Alabama who had been training for a short time in Selma. The cadets had old flintlock muzzle-loading muskets and one small cannon. Baird’s troops had Spencer Repeating Rifles. The cadets joined into the fray when suddenly a mounted militia from Tuskegee, clad in the finest brown linen and riding fine horses appeared to assist the Home Guard and the cadets. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements caused Major Baird to withdraw.
General Rousseau’s report to General Sherman claims the Confederate dead were six, and wounded were approximately twenty. Three Union soldiers were killed and ten were wounded. Even though the Confederate’s lost the battle, their brave stand at Chehaw Station kept Union forces from advancing further to discover the Confederate Armory at Tallassee.
By February 1865, Captain Boles was replaced by Major W.V. Taylor as overseer of the armory at Tallassee. By March of 1865, Union Major General James H. Wilson with 13,000 troops advanced into Western Alabama, cutting a path of devastation through Central Alabama, similar to Sherman’s advance on Georgia. At Selma, he destroyed as much as he could, but encountered General Nathan Bedford Forrest and decided to move on toward Montgomery. On April 14th, Wilson left Montgomery enroute to Columbus, Georgia with orders to destroy some mills and bridges on the Tallapoosa River at Tallassee.
When he got to Cowles Station down river, the officer in charge asked a local negro to guide him to Tallassee. Legend says that the black man told Wilson that he was looking on the wrong side of the river and he would have to cross over to the west side to reach Tallassee. The Union Commander’s outdated map had shown Tallassee, (the old Creek Indian Village) on the east side of the river. Thinking the black man was trying to mislead him, Wilson ordered him to be shot!
So, Wilson’s forces continued up the wrong side of the Tallapoosa River, (the east side) when he encountered what he called in his report, “A Superior Force” of Tallassee and Tuskegee Militia. Actually, it is thought that General Forrest had already reached the area in hot pursuit, so Wilson chose to continue toward Columbus and never had the chance to fire on the Confederate Armory at Tallassee.
Fearing sure destruction of the Tallassee Armory, Major Taylor was instructed to ship all machinery and the 500-completed rifles to Macon, Georgia. No one knows the fate of the 500-Tallassee Carbines. Only about 12-are known to exist today. Four of those are at museums at Chickamauga, Columbus, Georgia, The Smithsonian and Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury/Mountain Creek. Macon had been captured by the time the rifles arrived and the Union troops had orders to destroy all ordinance that could be used by the Confederacy to make war. The rifles were likely burned or thrown into the Oakmulgee River. The ones that survived were likely taken as souvenirs by Yankee officers.
Randall showed a reproduction 58 caliber carbine of the design which was manufactured at the Tallassee Armory. A heavy gun with a shorter barrel meant to be a cavalry weapon, this was one of fifteen commissioned as exact replicas of the original guns produced during the WBTS. Following the presentation, Randall fielded a few questions and then Commander Waldo recited the SCV Closing and Chaplain Brantley saw everyone off with a Benediction.
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