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Events are open to the public.
There will be a $15 per person fee for the Sunday morning bus tour.
All other events are FREE.
For more information, please visit the Commemorative Weekend website.
FORT SUMTER TOURS
Tours Daily departing from Liberty Square at Aquarium Wharf, 360 Concord Street, Downtown Charleston
and Patriots Point, 40 Patriots Point Road, Mount Pleasant
Please visit Fort Sumter Tours website for rates and ferry schedules.
Fort Sumter is the Island Fort where the Civil War began. Fort Sumter Tours is an authorized National Park Service concessioner. They provide the only commercial boat transportation to Fort Sumter, the island fort where the Civil War began. The cruise yachts carrying you to Fort Sumter are U.S. Coast Guard inspected passenger vessels. They are clean, safe and equipped with snack bars and restrooms. We have two convenient locations from which you can depart: Liberty Square in downtown Charleston, or in Mt. Pleasant at the Patriots Point Maritime Museum, the world's largest naval and maritime museum. The 2 hour and 15 minute tour consists of approximately 35 minutes of narration while cruising historic Charleston Harbor, 1 hour at Fort Sumter, and then 30 minutes of continued narration on the return trip. After boarding, you will experience a relaxing 30 minute cruise through Charleston's historic harbor out to Fort Sumter. The tour is fully narrated and explains many points of interest and historic significance. You will learn about the major events which led to the outbreak of America's most bloody war. At Fort Sumter National Park, historians will provide detailed information about Fort Sumter and its pivotal role in the War between the States. There is a museum with fascinating exhibits and a small gift shop for your enjoyment. After one hour at the Fort, you will cruise back to port, enjoying panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and Charleston's bustling harbor. TOURS ARE PROVIDED BY SPIRITLINE CRUISES. 800-789-3678/843-722-2628
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CONGRESSMAN ROBERT SMALLS
April 3 - June 19, 2012
Charleston Museum, 360 Meeting Street
Admission: $10/Adults; $5/Children
This special traveling exhibit tells the story of Robert Smalls's daring 1862 escape from slavery, his service to the Union forces during the Civil War, and his political career during Reconstruction.Consisting of narrative panels, photographs, artwork, ship models, artifacts and reproductions which underscore the historical significance of Robert Smalls, this exhibition is an important contribution to Civil War and African American history. Visitors will become more familiar with Smalls's heroic exploits and be inspired by his legacy of bravery, leadership and public service to all Americans. Exhibit highlights include furniture from the house where Smalls lived as a slave, scaled replicas of the CSS Planter and the USS Keokuk, the two ships that Robert Smalls piloted during the Civil War, a replica of the musket owned by Smalls, letters he wrote to dignitaries of his time, and photographs of his house in Beaufort, SC, his family and his descendants through the generations. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. PRODUCED BY THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM. For more information, please call (843)722-2996 or visit their website.
SECESSIONISTS, SOLDIERS AND SLAVES: THE ALSTON FAMILY’S CIVIL WAR
January 1, 2011-December 31, 2015
Guided tours available Tues.-Sat. 10am-4pm; Sun. 1:30-4:30pm; Mon. 1-4:30pm (*Mar. 21-Apr. 25, Mon. hours are 10am-4:30pm); Closed Christmas Day
Edmondston-Alston House, 21 East Battery, Downtown Charleston
Admission: $10
A witness to history, the Edmondston-Alston is an important site in Charleston’s Civil War saga. It served as the site General Beauregard used to watch the Bombardment of Fort Sumter and a refuge for General Robert E. Lee during the Great Fire of 1861. The permanent collections include a rare original copy of the Ordinance of Secession as well as the parole Charles Alston received from President Andrew Johnson after swearing allegiance to the United States in 1865. Special changing exhibits will mark sesquicentennial anniversaries of the American Civil War on a year-by-year basis and follow the lives of the Alston family and their slaves. Using the family archives and collections of Middleton Place Foundation, each year of war will be viewed through the lens of the Alston family including first hand accounts of the battle for Morris Island and defense of Battery Wagner which ultimately resulted in the death of an Alston son. PRODUCED BY THE EDMONDSTON-ALSTON HOUSE. For more information, please call (843)722-7171 or visit their website.
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SECESSIONISTS, SOLDIERS AND SLAVES: THE MIDDLETON FAMILY’S CIVIL WAR
January 1, 2011- December 31, 2015
Open daily at 9am-5pm; Closed Christmas Day
Middleton Place, 4300 Ashley River Road, West Ashley area of Charleston
Admission: $25/Adults; $15/Students (14+ with student ID); $10/Child (6-13); FREE/Child (Under 5)
The Middleton Place House Museum and the Edmondston-Alston House will mount special changing exhibits commemorating American Civil War sesquicentennial anniversaries on a year-by-year basis and follow the lives of the Middleton family, Alston family, friends and slaves. Using personal letters, first-hand accounts and collections of the Middleton Place Foundation, the war will be viewed through the lens of the Middleton and Alston families as Secession and early war optimism turns slowly into defeat. The exhibit will explore rice culture during the war, the building of Charleston’s defenses, investing in experimental “seegar boats”, the use of slaves for war projects and runaway slaves fleeing the plantations for Union bases in Beaufort and Port Royal.
PRODUCED BY MIDDLETON PLACE. For more information, please call (843)556-6020 or visit their website.
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CITY UNDER SIEGE: CHARLESTON IN THE CIVIL WAR
Ongoing permanent exhibit
Charleston Museum, 360 Meeting Street
Admission: $10/Adults; $5/Children
This permanent exhibition provides a rich overview of events in and around Charleston from secession to 1865. Including the Federal naval blockade, Union bombardment, social dislocations, privations and five major Union attempts to capture the “Queen City of the South,” the war and its effects changed the lives of Charleston’s residents forever. Their story—one of suffering, sacrifice, initiative and tenacity—is told with extensive images and artifacts from the Museum’s collections. These include uniforms, artillery shells, firearms, “gunboat china,” the watch of a fallen South Carolina soldier, and the recently-acquired prosthesis of Colonel Peter Gaillard, who lost his hand in action against Union forces on Morris Island. PRODUCED BY THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM. For more information, please call (843)722-2996 or visit their website.
CONFEDERATE MUSEUM
Ongoing; open Tuesday-Saturday 11am-3:30pm; closed Sunday-Monday
Confederate Museum, 188 Meeting Street, Downtown Charleston
Admission: $5/Adults & Teens; $3/Children 6-12; Free/Children under 6
Contact: Charleston Chapter #4 of the “United Daughters of the Confederacy” (843) 723-1541
Owned and operated by the Charleston Chapter #4 of the "United Daughters of the Confederacy," the museum features artifacts from the War Between the States.
THE HUNLEY
Ongoing; tours on Saturday from 10am-5pm, Sunday from 12-5pm
Warren Lasch Conservation Center, 1250 Supply St. (former Charleston Naval Base), North Charleston
Admission: $12/Adults; $10/Seniors, Military, and Members; Free/Children under 5; order in person, at www.etix.com or call (877) 448-6539
Contact: Friends of The Hunley (843) 743-4865 ext. 10, www.hunley.org
On the night of February 17, 1864, the H.L. Hunley embarked on a dangerous mission that would forever mark her place in history. Eight men, led by Lt. George Dixon, entered an experimental vessel that was to become the first successful submarine in world history, with a mission to sink an enemy ship, the USS Housatonic. That night, the Hunley rammed her spar torpedo into the hull of the Housatonic. She then surfaced long enough for her crew to signal their comrades on the shore of Sullivan’s Island with a blue magnesium light, (or lantern) indicating a successful mission. The shore crew stoked their signal fires and anxiously awaited the Hunley’s safe return. But minutes after her historic achievement, the Hunley and all hands onboard vanished into the sea without a trace.
THE OLD SLAVE MART MUSEUM
Ongoing; open Monday-Saturday from 9am-5pm
The Old Slave Mart Museum, 6 Chalmers Street; Downtown Charleston
Admission: FREE
Contact: The Old Slave Mart Museum (843) 958-6467; email:
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The Old Slave Mart Museum, located at 6 Chalmers Street, recounts the story of Charleston's role in this inter-state slave trade by focusing on the history of this particular building and site and the slave sales that occurred here. Possibly the only known building used as a slave auction gallery in South Carolina still in existence, the Old Slave Mart was once part of a complex of buildings known as Ryan's Mart that occupied the land between Chalmers and Queen Streets. The complex consisted of a yard enclosed by a brick wall and contained three additional buildings: a four-story brick building partially containing a "barracoon" or slave jail, a kitchen, and a "dead house" or morgue. Slave auctions at the Old Slave Mart ended in November 1863. The property changed hands many times after the Civil War. Recognizing the significant importance the institution of slavery has had in Charleston's history, the City of Charleston acquired the property in 1988.
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