The museum is located at 729 Front Street. Admission is free.

The Planter– the ship that Robert Smalls sailed to freedom. His amazing story is told in more detail in this previous post (link).

North Island

The USS Harvest Moon– sunk in Winyah Bay after striking a Confederate mine.

A Union ironclad that participated in Rear Admiral Samuel Du Pont’s failed attack on Charleston.

The CSS David– a Confederate submarine. A full scale replica is located in the Old Santee Canal State Park in Moncks Corner, South Carolina (link).

The Hunley and the sinking of the USS Housatonic– the original Hunley can be viewed on weekends at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston. A previous post covers the center at the link.

Raising the Hunley

The Stone Fleet sunk by the Union to block Charleston harbor

Shipwrecks in South Carolina. During the Civil War these occurred near Charleston harbor and off Sullivan’s Island with the exception of the USS Harvest Moon. The reasons for this and details regarding the individual ships that sank near Sullivan’s Island were covered in a previous post (link).

An 11-inch Dahlgren cannon salvaged from the Keokuk is in Battery Park in Charleston and shown in a previous post of the park (link).

One of six ironclads built for the Confederacy during the war. Completed in 1862, she defended Charleston and was burned in 1865 to prevent capture by Union troops.

On the list of shipwrecks are two Confederate ships that were purposely destroyed in 1865 to prevent them from falling into Union hands the CSS Palmetto State and the CSS Pee Dee.

The raising of cannons from the CSS Pee Dee, burned in February of 1865 in the Great Pee Dee River in Marion County, South Carolina, to avoid capture by the Union during Sherman’s march through the state. Artifacts from the wreckage site are on display in the Horry County Museum in Conway (an upcoming post in the Coastal Cities of SC series) and the Florence County Museum in Florence, SC (a future post).

The Philadelphia overloaded with 26 cannons foundered and sank on its journey from Charleston to Philadelphia in February of 1877. The ship went down in 80 feet of water 18 miles off of Cape Romain near Georgetown, South Carolina. The wreck was rediscovered in 1997 and six 10-inch Columbiads manufactured at the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia were salvaged. One of them was purchased by Fort Macon and installed at the site in 2017.

A painting of Castle Pinckney (covered in a previous post), one of the masonry forts that guarded Charleston harbor, is on my bucket list of sites to visit in South Carolina. Its ownership has changed hands many times over the years but in 2011 it was purchased by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Fort Sumter Camp #1269. I have taken pictures of it from the water but have never been on the island.