A few months ago my husband and I visited The National Civil War Museum located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. When people think of visiting Civil War Museums, they think of visiting Gettysburg. While Gettysburg has a lot of them, Harrisburg is home to the National Civil War Museum.
The museum is open 7-days a week, closed on major holidays. In my honest opinion, the best time to visit (if you can) is during a weekday afternoon when they’re not crowded. On the day that we visited there were only 25 visitors in the entire place! We were able to take our leisurely time viewing all of the exhibits.
Once you pay your admission you’ll start your tour up on the second floor. If your handicap you can take the elevator and if not, you can climb the stairs. You’ll want to follow the guide map that you get when you pay your admission, so that your doing your tour in the correct order.
We learned a lot of information about our country’s past in regards to slavery, the politics leading up to the Civil War, the soldiers involved in the conflict, their camp life, the battles that ensued and how the war finally ended. The exhibits are laid out really nicely and you’ll learn a lot.
One of the things that we really appreciated is that we learned all type’s of things, things that we never saw written in history books while going to school. The things that we did know…were put into proper perspective by viewing the exhibits and the exhibits really brought our history to life. A history that this country wasn’t proud of and thankfully, was over-turned due to the efforts of the politicians and soldiers during the Civil War, and thereafter.
After going through all of the exhibits upstairs you’ll proceed downstairs to finishing seeing the artifacts, exhibits and watching some of the short films. There is a small theater downstairs where you’ll have the opportunity to watch an award-winning short video about the war. I highly recommend that you take the time out of your schedule to view it. I think it lasts about 10-15 minutes.
During our visit we met a gentleman who was dressed up as a Union Soldier who was going around the museum and talking to visitors. He was showing us some of the artillery that was used during the war and left us hold them. Oh my gosh, some of those artillery shells weighed 8 to 10 lbs. a piece! My husband had the opportunity to hold one of the big & heavy riffles and couldn’t believe that soldiers drug these heavy riffles around with them 24 hours a day.
Once we were done…we headed into the gift shop located on the first floor to pick up some souvenirs for our grandchildren. Like all gift ships, things were more on the pricey side, but I did find a few inexpensive things that I purchased. My husband bought a history book on the Civil War, so that he could learn even more. They have quite an extensive collection of books that are available for purchase.
Overall, we had a really nice and educational visit to the National Civil War Museum located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. If you ever get the opportunity to visit, we highly recommend it.
I would enjoy visiting this historical museum. It is amazing how much one can learn and enjoy the visit too.
We love history and in particular the civil war since there is much info and places here in the U.S. This looks like a really interesting place to visit. We actually have not gotten as far North on the coast as Pennsylvania, but wanted to and ran out of time one year.
I am amazed what some places have. I recall in Arkansas, there was an Iowa detachment there and there were a few letters found from our hometown. Our state wasn’t even officially a state yet, but they had bunches of things.
We love stopping at all the historical sites and museums with our kids. They’ve come to love it too. We will put this on our list of stops for our next trip that way.