Museum & Library of Confederate History — Attraction in Greenville

Places like this are not appropriate. The people were very nice to me and they do have some interesting artifacts & guns but they traffic in all the usual tropes that the civil war had nothing to do with slavery. Contrary to what I was told, I don't think the people I talked to were particularly informed about the civil war. They were knowledgeable about some small details regarding people, places & equipment. They were also more focus on & informed regarding South Carolina specifically, which makes sense.

When asked broad questions like "what caused the civil war" things become a little more awkward & scattershot. They talk a little about the Corwin Amendment but are not really clear regarding its importance (it seems to be an amendment to re-affirm that slavery is allowed in the constitution, a compromise Lincoln supported to avoid succession). They talk about the Morrill Tariff act and call it "taxation without representation" because the northern states had more population and therefore more votes. Also, they quote something H.L. Mencken wrote saying that Lincoln was immoral and that the northern victory was immoral because "In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished." Finally, they have a lot of self-published books, one in particular extolling the South for standing for biblical authority and by rooting the North's motivations directly and only in economic motivations subtly tries to impugn the North and erase the fact that a lot of abolitionists were also motivated by their understanding of Christianity.

All these small evasions, omissions & inaccuracies subtly re-paint history. America really needs to improve its education system because if children are educated by museums like this and the Ark Encounter in Kentucky, all these jigsaw pieces, pleasantly delivered under the color of authority, will fit together into a convincing...

What a wonderful gem of a museum, filled with all of the artifacts of that period of time in OUR nation's history.

As the pictures attest, just about every musket, pistol and sabre used in that war is on display. 12-pounder cannon out front (much easier to spot than the address)! But the place is so much more than that. The museum is really about people and how they coped with that period of war in our country.

There is a prosthetic leg on display, made of both leather and wood, along with the type of 6-pound cannonball that caused a below the knee amputation on the battlefield one afternoon for a certain young man. How he survived such a grievous wound truly is amazing. This man, trained as a structural engineer, went on to design his own prosthetic leg that looks quite similar to modern day prostheses. Rather than sulk about his unfortunate circumstances, he went on to build prosthetic limbs for other amputees. His company is still in business today! This is just one single story that this museum has to offer.

The curators of this museum are Carolinians; they will warmly greet you when you walk through the door. Would you expect less from a Carolinian? These curators are quite knowledgeable; never once did I find any one of them to be overbearing.

When you go, make sure that you read about the South Carolina Red Shirts; as a nation, we appear to be drifting into that territory again... My father always told me that those who ignore history are condemned...

The reason this is a 3-star instead of a 5-star is because I went once before, and had a 5-star experience. We had a good time, saw the exhibits, talked to a curator briefly to ask some questions, etc. I took my girlfriend here last weekend and experienced a 1-star experience. To say that man that talked our ears off for the next 90 minutes was overeager.... is a huge, huge understatement. This guy did not know when to stop talking. Most people can take non-verbal cues, but this guy was oblivious, talking to us about every. single. person on every. single. wall, giving us dates, names, and other minutiae that we had ZERO context for. About 45 minutes in, I said, "Thanks for the info, but we're just going to look around." He left us, and then came back 45 seconds later!!!!!! I was like, "Can this guy not take a hint?" He chased us into the library, where we just wanted to thumb through some books on civil war history, and continued to talk to us, so we couldn't even look at the books. So annoying. Well-intentioned, I'm sure, and knowledgeable, but man... you kind of ruined it for us. I'd just suggest that you need to tell your curators to learn how to read people better and gauge interest. Not everyone wants to hear a stream-of-consciousness presentation of the entire Civil War...