Sometimes info can come through strange channels. I recently read in an AL Dept of Enviro Mgn (ADEM) mailing an interesting article about an environmental contamination cleanup of barrels of oil and old electrical transformers at a CSA site.

Apparently the Tallassee Armory at 1844 Old Mill Road in Tallassee, AL on the west bank of the Tallapoosa River at Thurlow Dam is the only Confederate armory not destroyed during the CW. It was originally a textile facility built in the mid-1840's for the available water power and the CSA Armory was housed in the original mill building. CSA ordinance chief, Col. Gorgas had the carbine shop moved there in 1864 as war threatened Richmond but the war ended before the plant neared the goal of 6,000 carbines per year. It had turbines for the mill operation located in an almost subterranean chasm carved out of the granite extrusion on which the mill is built. The "chunnel" as it was called allowed outflow from the mill's turbines to the Tallapossa River. The chunnel is 270 feet long and made of granite block arches 10 to 15 feet in diameter and carved granite block walls. It is now owned by the Tallassee Historical Preservation Society and is a wintering home for a population of bats.

Rouseou's raid bypassed it in 1864 and Wilson missed it by 10 miles in 1865 due to a faulty map and was barred from return by threat of Forrest.

So, was this the only armory not destroyed in the entire Confederacy, or just in Alabama?

Interesting stuff to come from ADEM.