Relic Room celebrates the nation’s 250th birthday with Revolutionary War Day

The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum will celebrate 2026 Revolutionary War Day on March 28. It lasts from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. that Saturday, and admission is free. You also get into the museum galleries all day for free, and they contain plenty more about the Revolution.

The event includes soldiers, irregulars and civilians in period dress, a wide array of weapons, 18th-century tools, artifacts, plus demonstrations of drills involving muskets and cannon, including a blacksmith at work producing the hardware of the day.

There will be dramatic readings from the Declaration of Independence. You will hear music of the period, and a town crier will keep you up on what’s happening. Also, a limited number of muskets and tricorn hats will be available for volunteers to participate in a demonstration infantry drill.

Here are some things you’ll find in different areas of the museum and its surroundings:

In the Atrium

• SC 1780 – That is to say, Southern Campaigns 1780 (that’s when the war really heated up here in South Carolina). This group will explain medical care available to wounded soldiers on the battlefield in those days.
• The life of a slave during the revolution will be explained, also by SC 1780. This is told through the experience of a black Patriot who had been a slave.
• Quill pen writing.
• Coloring activity, with chairs for five young artists.
• Making corn husk dolls. They didn’t have Barbie in those days. Fortunately, if you make them right, they look a lot like women and girls wearing long dresses. And you can take them home.
• Overmountain Trail – Learn about Backcountry life in 18th-century South Carolina.
• Historyman Comics table – Meet the author behind some wonderful comic books that bring the Revolutionary War to life. The comics, published by SC 250, are sold in the Relic Room gift shop.
•  7th Regiment of Foot – A display of items that a reenactor group uses to simulate a soldier’s life two-and-a-half centuries ago.
• Make pomander balls – Make them and take them home with you.

Outside

• Cannon firing. 10:30, 1:00, and 2:45. – presented by the SC 1780 group; See how a cannon crew prepares for firing and then get to experience it live. Don’t worry – no actual projectiles will be fired.

Education Room

• 11 a.m. – Ever wondered why there were so many flags during the American Revolution? Mark Anthony will tell you all about the symbols and what they mean.
• 2 p.m. Music played a vital role during the war – come learn why. Zach Lemhouse, Director of the Southern Revolutionary War Institute, will explain.

Congaree Room

• Touch table with replica objects. You know how most museums – and this one most of the time, truth be told – are always telling you not to touch the artifacts? Well, you can leave your fingerprints all over these.
• Historic Games.
• Table presentation about women’s roles during the Revolution.
• Wooden cut outs/photo opportunity – Stick your face through the opening, and suddenly you’re in the 18th century, and have photographic proof to take home.

Photos of actual Revolutionary War soldiers also will be on display. These daguerreotypes show the soldiers as old men, well into the following century, in “The Twilight of Revolutionaries and the Dawn of Photography” display.

About the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum

Founded in 1896, the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is an accredited museum focusing on South Carolina’s distinguished martial tradition through the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the War on Terror, and other American conflicts. It serves as the state’s military history museum by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting South Carolina’s military heritage from the colonial era to the present, and by providing superior educational experiences and programming. It recently opened a major new exhibit, “A War With No Front Lines: South Carolina and the Vietnam War, 1965-1973.” The museum is located at 301 Gervais St. in Columbia, sharing the Columbia Mills building with the State Museum. For more information, go to https://crr.sc.gov/.