(Coming Soon) Congaree River Exhibit of Recovered Confederate Munitions

What Sherman dumped into the Congaree.

When Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman took Columbia in February 1865, he captured a lot of stored Confederate munitions. Not wanting them to be used against his army as it marched farther north, he had his men dump them all into the Congaree River, near what would later be the Gervais Street Bridge.

It would take 150 years before anyone tackled the tricky task of cleaning up the mess on the river’s bottom. Soon some, of those munitions found in that cleanup will find a home nearby in the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.

That collection of about 300 Civil War artifacts will include cannonballs, small arms, a saber, a wagon wheel and other items. They will go on display in the Gist Gallery starting in March 2027, and stay until May 2028.