Macon’s Cannonball House pays tribute to history

Visitors to the Cannonball House in Macon Saturday felt a small bit of that presence.

A trip through the past tells us about a trip through a wall and into a home.

“The characters were dressed in period costumes to make it more real,” said visitor Cecil Daniels.

The Cannonball House is aptly named.

“The house gained its famed from being struck by one of those artillery shells,” said Dobson. “It was one of several locations that was struck here in Macon on that day, July 30th, 1864.”

As the 150-year anniversary of that day approaches, actors took to the stage.

“We are recreating here today, in a small skit, the time when Mrs. Holt, J. H the Holt’s wife comes home and has discovered the shell has hit her house and is in fact lying in the front hallway of her home,” said Dobson.

A few dozen people watched, including Cecil Daniels and his grandson, Daniel Odum.

“Most people don’t know how much there is to see and to do in Macon,” said Daniels. “Like this–it’s so historical, it predates the Civil War.”

And for actors like Wayne Dobson, it’s a chance to educate and entertain.

“That’s what we do here at the Cannonball House,” said Dobson. “We try to tell the history of what happened here at Macon during that time. Not only during the Civil War time, as you can imagine, the Cannonball House, this house was built in 1853 so it’s endured many periods of history here in Macon.”

The house has endured the sands of time and an artillery shell.

“Over 100 years, 150 years really,” said Daniels.

“Not really so much to say which was right and which was wrong, but just how it happened–you know, just history as is,” said Dobson.

Dobson encourages everyone to come out to the reenactment of the battle of Dunlap Hill next

Saturday.

It will be at the Ocmulgee National Monument from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.