The Tallassee Confederate Armory

The Tallassee Confederate Armory. . , Located twenty-seven miles northeast of Montgomery on the banks of the Tallapoosa River, Talisi, (Tallassee) was a major Creek Indian village prior to forced removal to Oklahoma in 1836, In January of 1844, two entrepreneurs named Thomas M. Barnett and William M. Marks had a small dam built adjacent to the falls on the Tallapoosa River and diverted water to be used as a power source for a small textile mill. The construction was done using slave labor with stones gathered from the river bed. In 1864, the Civil War had weakened the South and the capitol at Richmond, Virginia became more vulnerable to Union attack. Col. Josiah Gorgas Chief of the Confederate Ordinance Bureau wanted to move the Richmond Carbine factory to a more secure location. The little cotton mill town of Tallassee seemed to meet his criteria. Tallassee was considerably remote, making it less likely to be attacked by the enemy and Gorgas knew the nearby river could provide an unlimited power source. He ordered Lt. Col James A. Burton, Superintendent of Armories and his associate Captain C. P. Boles to travel to Tallassee to determine the feasibility of relocating the gun works to the isolated village. The 1844 stone structure was leased from property owner Benjamin Micou for the manufacture of the new .58 caliber, muzzle-loading carbine. A weapon recommended by General Robert E. Lee, and tested and modified by Major General J.E.B, Stuart. Throughout June, July, and August of 1864, metal working machinery, gunsmiths, and blacksmiths started arriving in Tallassee and production began. By the spring of 1865, five-hundred carbines were produced, however by this time "Wilson's Raiders," under the command of Union General James H. Wilson, were moving into west Alabama, destroying the arsenal at Selma. Confederate Major W.V.Taylor, the superintendent of operations at the Tallassee Armory, was ordered to load all machinery and the 500 Tallassee Carbines in wagons and haul them to Cowles Ferry for shipment by rail to Macon, Georgia. Many have speculated as to the fate of the 500 rifles, none of which were ever used in battle. Only about a dozen Tallassee Carbines are known to exist. The Tallassee Armory was the only armory not destroyed during the war.