Charleston During the Civil War
Charleston, South Carolina is where it all began. Explore Charleston’s military and cultural history during the tumultuous time of the Civil War through period art, architecture, and artifacts. The sites within this package include an art museum, a historic house and a history museum for a wide variety of perspectives on the Civil War.
Adult ticket - $35.00
Child ticket (ages 6-12) - $19.00
From The Charleston Museum online shop
Allow one week for delivery
Pass includes admission to all of the following:
Aiken-Rhett House – 48 Elizabeth Street
The Aiken-Rhett House stands alone as the most intact townhouse complex showcasing urban life in antebellum Charleston. Built in 1820 and greatly expanded by Gov. and Mrs. William Aiken, Jr. in the 1830s and 1850s, the house has survived virtually unaltered since 1858.
The Charleston Museum – 360 Meeting Street
City Under Siege, the Museum’s Civil War exhibition, provides a rich overview of events in and around Charleston from secession to 1865. Withstanding a Federal naval blockade, frequent bombardments, and five major Union attempts to capture the city, the war 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 a pike from John Brown’s Harpers Ferry raid, the table and chairs used to compose the Ordinance of Secession, uniforms, artillery shells, firearms, “gunboat china,” the watch of a fallen South Carolina soldier, and the prosthesis of Colonel Peter Gaillard, who lost his hand in action against Union forces on Morris Island. (note: your pass entitles you visit the entire museum, not just City Under Siege).
Edmondston-Alston House
The 1825 Edmondston-Alston House, city residence of prominent Georgetown County rice planter Charles Alston, was used by General PGT Beauregard to watch the Bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. General Robert E. Lee found refuge in the house during the Great Fire of 1861. The original family Civil War collections displayed include an 1860 copy of South Carolina's Ordinance of Secession and the post-war pardon granted to Charles Alston and signed by President Andrew Johnson. In commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, a special rotating exhibition will follow on a year by year basis the lives of the Alstons, their fellow Charlestonians and their slaves.
Gibbes Museum of Art – 135 Meeting Street
During the Civil War, fires and looting destroyed art collections, such as those displayed at the 1858 inaugural exhibition of the Carolina Art Association, the parent organization of the Gibbes Museum of Art. While some families survived with their fortunes intact and continued to collect art, many artists were greatly affected by the war. Painters such as William Aiken Walker and Conrad Wise Chapman became artists for the Confederate Army and depicted battles of the Civil War, including those that occurred in Charleston. Such paintings are included in The Charleston Story, an exhibition of the museum’s permanent collection that explores the people, places, and events that have shaped the culture and history of the city and the South as a whole.