Careful manners, sparkling wit, and strong feelings as you try to remain calm even though your heart is racing…Is it because you’re at the ball about to dance, or is it because you’re in a field at the edge of town about to “shoot it out” with a personal enemy? Dueling and dancing, two customs we think of when we picture life in antebellum South Carolina.  For this year’s “distance learning” version of our “dueling and dancing” lesson, we’ll concentrate on true stories from South Carolina’s past.

One of our nation’s most famous battles had very strong SC connections.  We’ll study the strategy behind the battle, the tactics and leadership involved, and the South Carolina connections.  When we’re done with the Alamo, you’ll remember it!

In another globe-spanning session, we’ll consider some exciting sea stories, and how a lone ship and her crew could have make a huge strategic difference.

We’ll start the year with a basic overview of military concepts to help you get the most out of history lessons involving leaders and military forces – and yes, we’ll give you a template for just how to study, any battle you choose to emphasize. Enriching for any time period!

Join Joe as he takes you on a tour throughout the museum to examine the many flags on display. An introduction to military flags and the history and customs surrounding them, including a special artifact close-up session with a historic flag and a gallery activity.

Thirty-three years after General Sherman's path of destruction through the state of South Carolina, our state's men were off to war again - this time, following the Stars and Stripes. Learn more about our state's contribution to the "Splendid Little War" and how a new generation of South Carolinians ended up serving under a different General Lee! Illustrated with original images and artifacts from the Relic Room collection.

Benjamin Hammett Teague of Aiken, South Carolina, was a boy soldier in the Confederate Army and a guardian of history for the rest of his long and distinguished life. His personal collection became an important part of the Relic Room’s displays when it was founded, and his activities as a prominent leader of the United Confederate Veterans also helped shape the memories of the war. Spend some time us as we related stories of this boy soldier, dentist and historian!

Simon Baruch and Benjamin W. Taylor were both South Carolinian physicians whose careers included Civil War medical service. We’ll consider both of their stories, including anecdotes from military service and their medical careers after the war.

They called him the "Prince of Edisto." Honor graduate of his class at The Citadel, a rising star in society and in the Army, Micah Jenkins' life was cut short by a Confederate bullet at The Wilderness in 1864. Learn about the life and times of this Brigadier General, and the leadership legacy he left.

During the final autumn of World War One, South Carolina’s 118th Regiment played a critical role, and paid a heavy price while making its contribution to Allied victory. An incredible total of six soldiers from this regiment, were awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroism in this campaign. Spend some time with their stories.

Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, one of our delegates to the Constitutional Convention, had strong opinions on how the new nation’s military should be constituted. His experiences during the Siege of Savannah probably had a lot to do with that. This history talk will compare citizen-soldiers, “regulars” and mercenaries, in the siege of Savannah and in the thinking of our Founding fathers.

We're a place to preserve history - and we have a history of our own. We'll discuss the nineteenth-century founding and some stories from the history of South Carolina's oldest military museum.

World War One was already raging in Europe, when President Woodrow Wilson called up the National Guard to address a military crisis on the southern border of the US. Soon South Carolina’s citizen-soldiers found themselves bound for a year’s deployment in the “Wild West”. Learn about our state’s soldiers in this largely forgotten military operation just over a century ago.

On May 10, 1871, eight years after the battle in which they had fallen, the remains of South Carolina’s dead from the battle of Gettysburg were reinterred at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. Their memorial address was given by a distinguished Presbyterian minister and Confederate chaplain. In honor of Confederate Memorial Day, we’ll consider the wartime career and the postwar message of that preacher and soldier, the Reverend John Lafayette Girardeau.

In 1898, South Carolinians rallied to join the United States war effort against Spain. A monument on the State House grounds honors their service and notes a few soldiers by name: soldiers who volunteered for a hazardous mission facing an enemy deadlier to US forces than the Spanish had been. Learn about their heroism in the war on Yellow Fever.

A boulevard in Greenville, Federal and state buildings, statues on the State House grounds and in Statuary Hall in Washington DC – Wade Hampton III’s legacy is widespread. Get to know the leader, and the man, behind this legacy, through stories of his wartime service and personal life.

The hundreds of eager young Royal Air Force flying cadets who arrived in Camden, South Carolina, wanted to fly Spitfires, as the heroes of the Battle of Britain had done. Most would not. Instead, they’d fly to war in Lancaster and Halifax bombers, attacking German cities by night as part of Bomber Command. Learn about South Carolina’s connection to one of the Second World War’s most devastating and costly campaigns.

If you’ve seen “The Sound of Music,” you know Capt. Von Trapp as the dour, if brave and distinguished, man whose household is transformed by his children’s governess, Maria. But before that, he was a bold naval leader with a flair for unconventional tactics – a U-boat captain, a staunch monarchist, and an Austrian patriot.

Columbia, a 10,000-ton light cruiser named in honor of the city of Columbia, SC, was a distinguished US Navy warship engaged in some of the hardest fighting in World War Two. Hear stories of the ship and her heroic crew!

Not only was World War One fought across continents, it was also fought in three dimensions. Radical new “flying machine” technology began to transform warfare, and South Carolinians were among the new breed of warriors who fought among the clouds.  Learn about some of these “Flyboys” and their experience of war, illustrated with original images from their own scrapbooks.

When Sherman marched through South Carolina, his flanks were continuously harried by a young Confederate calvary general whose roughhewn Western troops defeated their Federal counterparts at Aiken, South Carolina, and held the Union advance up for a day at Congaree Creek five miles from Columbia. Thirty-three years later, the same man left Congress to be Theodore Roosevelt's commanding officer in the Spanish-American War! Learn about the fascinating career of the general who earned the sobriquet "Fighting Joe."

Learn how three South Carolinians, at three different levels of military responsibility, had an effect at the 1862 battle of Fredericksburg – and far beyond.

Curator of Education Joe Long discusses Relic Room flags and stories in this edition of History at Home - telling stories of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum during quarantine!

Curator of Education Joe Long discusses How to Be a Villain in this edition of History at Home - telling stories of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum during quarantine!