National Civil War Museum - Exhibits

Exhibits

The museum's exhibits are designed to tell "the entire story of the American Civil War ... without bias to the Union or Confederate causes". The exhibition covers the period from 1850 to 1876, with its major focus on the Civil War years of 1861 to 1865. The majority of the collection of over 24,000 artifacts, photographs, documents, manuscripts, and other printed matter was acquired between 1994 and 1999 by the city of Harrisburg, under Mayor Stephen R. Reed, who is the museum's founder. Part of the rationale for the museum's location is Harrisburg's relative closeness to Gettysburg, and the many tourists who visit there.

The museum's galleries are as follows:

  1. A House Divided, 1850–1860 (examines the events leading up to the Civil War);
  2. American Slavery: The Peculiar Institution, 1850–1860 (how nineteenth century Americans saw slavery);
  3. First Shots, 1861 (Fort Sumter);
  4. Making of Armies (recruiting, training, and equipping both armies);
  5. Weapons and Equipment (with many artifacts);
  6. Campaigns and Battles of 1861-1862 (early campaigns and the tactics, strategies. and logistics);
  7. Battle Map, 1861–1862 (emphasis on how geography and topography affected troop movements);
  8. Camp Curtin (the Civil War's largest Union camp, located in Harrisburg);
  9. Why Men Fought, 1861–1863 (motivations of soldiers on both sides);
  10. Civil War Music (displays of musical instruments and recorded music to listen to);
  11. Gettysburg, 1863 (a turning point of the war);
  12. Costs of War (Civil War medicine);
  13. Women in the War (women's various roles);
  14. Navy (focuses on maritime engagements);
  15. Campaigns and Battles of 1864–1865 (the last years of the Civil War);
  16. Battle Map, 1863-1865 (from Stones River to Appomattox);
  17. Lincoln: War & Remembrance (remembering the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and veterans' roles after the war).

A video We the People focuses on ten characters from all walks of life and their fates before, during, and after the war. It is presented in segments in galleries 1, 4, 9, 14 and concludes in the theater.

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