Visiting The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum

The museum is located in the old Columbia Mills Building at 301 Gervais Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina just a few blocks west of the SC State House building. The museum shares this building with the SC State Museum.

Founded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and originally housed in the South Carolina State Library, the museum opened on Wednesday, June 24th, 1896. The South Carolina Relic Room and Military Museum is the third oldest museum in the State of South Carolina.

In 1901, the museum moved to the SC State House building and then was relocated to the SC Department of Archives building around 1960. The relic room relocated again to the World War I War Memorial Building adjacent to the University of South Carolina in 1971 where it remained for three decades. The relic room was finally reopened in the old Columbia Mills Building in 2002. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The museum focuses on South Carolina's military history from the Revolutionary War to the present-day. Its mission has been to educate South Carolinians about their state's rich tradition of military history and continues to explore how South Carolina's citizen soldiers have served their State and country in times of crisis, on the battlefield and on the home front. 

For more than a century the museum has collected, preserved, and exhibited artifacts, images, and documents that tell the complexity of war, its impact on the development of South Carolina, and how its citizens have answered the call to defend the nation. 

Visitors to the museum today can explore South Carolina's distinguished martial tradition in exhibits covering each and every major American war.

In addition, the museum houses an ever-expanding archival collection available to researchers by appointment.  

The following are photos I took of my recent visit to the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum, and its outstanding artifacts and historical presentations. 

A more detailed history of the founding of the Relic Room

United Confederate Veterans (UCV) uniform
with reunion ribbon.

South Carolina Militiaman during the American
Revolutionary War 1776-1783.

1st Regiment South Carolina Volunteers,
American-Mexican War 1846-1848.

Confederate infantrymen.

Mannequin of Malvina "Mally" Black Gist,
Confederate Treasury note signer in Columbia,
SC and Richmond, VA (1864-1865).
Born in Newberry, South Carolina in 1842.

Photos of the officers and men who served in South Carolina's
defense during the War Between The States (1861-1865).

The frock coat worn by Confederate Brigadier
General Micah Jenkins when he was killed at
the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864.

The Palmetto Sharpshooters Infantry Flag.

Battle Flag of the 1st (Orr's) Regiment of Rifles.
Organized in spring of 1861 by Colonel James L. Orr
of Anderson, South Carolina.

8th Regiment South Caroling Volunteer Infantry.

United Spanish-American War Veterans Flag,
2nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry.

Infantryman of the 371st Regiment Volunteers.

Flag of the 371st Regiment.

The battle dress uniform jacket of
Captain Kimberly Hampton U.S. Army
(August 18, 1976 - January 2, 2004)
the first American female pilot to fall in combat
during the War In Afghanistan.
Hampton was born in Greenville, SC.

I was very pleased by the exhibits and the care shown to tell the stories of the men and women from South Carolina who served in America's wars. I am also glad to see that the museum made no effort to glorify the meanings behind those exhibits -- namely war itself -- and focused more on the lives and stories of those who served. The staff and the archivists who run the museum were professional and do an excellent job.  

If any of y'all ever take the time to stop over in Columbia be sure to visit the Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum, as well as the SC State Museum that shares the same building. 

I hope y'all enjoyed this article, please let me know in the comments below if it was helpful, or informative.  

Have a wonderful Dixie Day, and y'all come back now, ya hear?