Matt,
Of the two guns on display at Chickamauga only one of them is a genuine Tallassee. Those two guns were acquired out of the famous Fuller and Stuart Collection when it was sold off and one of them is an English Enfield Muskatoon with a Tallassee lock plate, or entire Tallassee lock. The chances of you finding a genuine Tallassee are about as great as your finding the Hope Diamond for .25 cents at a yard sale. It is one of the rarest of Confederate weapons, probably second only to the Columbus Carbine, which as far as I know, only one example has ever turned up.
There are about a dozen known examples of the Tallassee and all but about 2 or 3 of them are in museums. The last one that sold, that I'm aware of, was sold about about 10 years ago from one private collector to another at a price exceeding $50,000.00. So even if one turned up somewhere for sale a person would have to have awfully deep pockets, unless the seller was not aware of what he had. Not a very likely scenario.
The Tallassee Historical Preservation Society, is engaged in producing a hand crafted limited edition commemorative reproduction of the Tallassee and we have a proto-type about 90% completed, but it will be some time before we ever manage to get from the proto-type to having completed guns to sell. The reason I know all this is because I am the one who has done a great deal of the work on getting the proto-type built. I have researched the Carbine and the Armory for over 12 years, and have accumulated quite a file on the subject. I live in Tallassee and am a past member of the Board of Directors of the Tallassee Historical Preservation Society, and presently chairman of the Carbine committee. If you have any further questions regarding the history of the Armory or the Carbine feel free to email me at: csaisliberty@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Bill Anthony