Thomas M. Walls, formerly of Salem, and his brother-in-law Todd Huerta stopped in to visit Thomas R. and Patricia Walls of Salem on their way to Manassas for the 150^th commemoration of the Civil War Battle Bull Run in Manassas, a humiliating defeat for the Union Army and triumph for the Confederates. An estimated 8,700 re-enactors and 11,000 spectators gathered that weekend in farm fields in Gainesville, VA.

Thomas and Todd, now living near Fort Mill in South Carolina, are part of the Palmetto Battalion 6^th Regiment of SC. They’ve been re-enacting Civil War battles for almost three years.

Walls is a 1993 grad of Salem High School and a 1998 grad of Longwood College. He now teaches high school science and computer technology in Charlotte, NC. He is married to Courtney Radesky Walls and they have three children: Savannah, 6, Sadie, 4, and Sawyer, 2. Huerta works for the University of Phoenix in Charlotte and is married to the former Carly Radesky. They have one daughter, Michaela, 4.

This picture was taken July 22 when Thomas, left, and Todd visited the grave sites of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in Lexington on their way to Manassas.

Information on the battle was taken from an article in The Washington Post by Michael E. Ruane that also appeared in The Roanoke Times

Submitted by Patricia Walls