20th Annual Battles for the Armory Brings History to Life in Tallassee
The annual four-day celebration is put on by Tallassee Living History and Heritage Days
The thunder of cannons shook the grounds in Tallassee Saturday and Sunday for the annual Civil War reenactment.
“It’s really exciting for just about everybody,” said event organizer Randall Hughey. “It preserves our southern culture, our southern history.”
Hughey says nearly 500 reeanactors are taking part this year in the Battles for the Armory event.
“It’s a celebration of the two battles, or skirmishes just south of here, that prevented the Union raiders from destroying the Tallassee Armory.”
For reeaactors it’s about more than bringing 1860’s history to life.
“A lot of these people out here, some of them I’ve known for 18 years,” said Diane McKinstry, a Civil War reenactor. “It’s not just a friendship, you become a family.”
“It’s just a lot of fun to see everything and see the amount of work and money people put in to doing this,” said Bowye Blackwood, a Civil War reenactor.
New to the event this year, is an arts and crafts show filled with about 30 booths of vendors selling various items. Hughey says that’s one of the attractions that lures some 3,000 spectators.
“Most of them will filter on over to the historic side.”
He says learning from this history is important despite the recent uproar over Confederate monuments.
“It’s a history on how we should treat our fellow man, I think, and how we should try to get along with everybody as best we can.”
