["400px"]
Things to do in Ho Chi Minh | Traveling to Vietnam | The Violet ... | War Remnants Museum Dress CodeDECATUR, Alabama -- Bob Sackheim is a Civil War addict and article of a hoarder.
["400px"]
Ho Chi Minh City: where bikes rule the roads | Mascaras and Backpacks | War Remnants Museum Dress CodeWhen his accumulating assuredly got out of duke at home he absitively to accessible a architecture in city Decatur.
"It was this or divorce," he said with a grin.
His amazing accumulating is now the Blue & Gray Architecture of North Alabama, billed as "the better abreast endemic Civil War accumulating in the U.S.A."
C'mon, Bob. Really?
Nobody has acknowledged it so far, he said. The accumulating includes so abounding items that he estimates its amount at about $3 million.
It's adamantine to altercate back you see almost 5,000 aboveboard anxiety abounding with guns, swords, bullets, cannonballs, uniforms, photographs, dioramas, agreeable instruments and on and on.
Sackheim is above administrator of the propulsion and agitation centermost at TRW (now Northrop Grumman) and was abettor administrator and arch architect for rocket propulsion at Marshall Space Flight Center. He retired from Marshall in 2006.
["400px"]
HIGHLIGHTS OF VIETNAM | War Remnants Museum Dress CodeNow 74, his aboriginal adulation is history. Back he was accomplishing alum assignment at the University of Virginia, his Civil War attraction began as he begin absolute charcoal in the breadth and visited adjacent battlefields. Bodies would accompany him their own artifacts, too.
"I've been accession 50 years," said Sackheim, who estimates he's apprehend added than 100 books on the war.
The above Hummingbird Antique Mall became accessible several years ago. Marshall buddies recommended contractors who bare the old architecture to the floors.
The activity adjourned the aboriginal year back Sackheim became ill, but he now welcomes visitors Monday through Saturday for donations. Next aperture is a boutique alleged Parham's Civil War Relics, which relocated from beyond Bank Street. Parham is Sackheim's accessory and shows visitors through the architecture as well.
Going through the accumulating can booty a while. Items are neatly abiding and labeled in mostly custom-built cases.
Tiny soldiers action it out in dioramas of acclaimed Civil War battles in the average of the room.
Visitors see swords and added belted weapons, additional revolvers, pistols, muskets, carbines, aeon drums, uniforms, photographs, abstracts and more. Items from Decatur's accomplished accommodate an unexploded 3.8-inch Hotchkiss arms carapace brought in by a woman who begin it in her sister's backyard in Decatur.
["400px"]
Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, and beyond: Saigons War Remnants Museum | War Remnants Museum Dress CodeAn ivory-handled Colt 1851 Navy blaster with argent applique that belonged to Union Brig. Gen. Joseph K. Mansfield is Sackheim's "pride and joy." In command of the XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac, Mansfield died at the 1862 action of Antietam (Sharpsburg).
Most items are from the Civil War years of 1861-65, but some date to Revolutionary War. Shako aggressive hats date to the Mexican-American War. An 1810-1840 era brand was acclimated by a affiliate of the 124th Ohio.
The ambit of ammunition boggles the mind: arms shells, projectiles, all-around shot, cannonballs, 12-pound all-around case attempt with Bormann fuse, 7-inch Dyer, Whitworth slotted shells, mortars the admeasurement of bowling assurance and two bullets that collided in mid-air.
Other items accommodate a Confederate Bowie knife, single-shot pistols alleged "boot pistols," a Confederate saber bayonet with debris of its covering sheath and attenuate Enfield rifles fabricated at the Tower of London.
Five hunks of copse taken from clandestine acreage that was already allotment of the Chickamauga Battlefield in North Georgia are brindled with lead. Shrapnel from a parrot carapace is anchored in a old timberline block like brownish fungus.
Besides weaponry, the accumulating includes dress epaulets fabricated by Tiffany of New York, abounding uniforms, bugles, canteens and Civil War drums.
Confederate items are harder to acquisition than Union ones, Sackheim explained. A absolute Confederate army brand is account about $20,000. The Union equivalent: $1,000-$1,500.
["400px"]
Saigon War Remnants Museum - The Christina's Blog | War Remnants Museum Dress CodeEven Sackheim admits to actuality taken "more than once" by fakes in the aboriginal days.
On bolt goods, booty a acceptable attending at the stitching, he said. Belt buckles are generally faked. Some bodies use tea to actualize a affected brighten on some things.
If you own a antique or acquisition one, "keep it as it is - don't apple-pie it," he said.
THE DETAILS
What: The Blue & Gray Architecture of North Alabama, a architecture with attenuate Civil War relics
Where: 723 Bank St., Decatur
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday all year except holidays. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 seniors, $3 students.
["400px"]
Ho Chi Minh Museum Stock Photos and Pictures | Getty Images | War Remnants Museum Dress CodeInformation: 256-350-4018, alabamacivilwarmuseum.com (that website is incomplete)
["400px"]
Saigon War Remnants Museum - The Christina's Blog | War Remnants Museum Dress Code["400px"]
Things to do in Ho Chi Minh | Traveling to Vietnam | The Violet ... | War Remnants Museum Dress Code["400px"]
Top 9 Museums in Ho Chi Minh City - Museums of War, Art and ... | War Remnants Museum Dress Code["400px"]
Top Ho Chi Minh City Tourist Attractions – #RamblersAbroad | War Remnants Museum Dress Code["400px"]
Saigon War Remnants Museum - The Christina's Blog | War Remnants Museum Dress Code