Now, It’s the Confederate Museum

Upstairs, Market Hall offered a couple of offices for the market managers and a big open space for public meetings and social functions. When the war started, the building was where volunteers received weapons and gear. Market Hall is owned by the City of Charleston. In 1899, the upper floor was leased by Charleston Chapter #4 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which had been founded five years before. The group’s first project was to collect artifacts of the Confederate war donated by veterans and their families. Many items were received when the United Confederate Veterans held its 1899 reunion in Charleston. Soon there were so many that the Confederate Museum was opened on the upper floor of Market Hall. Ninety years later, Hurricane Hugo severely damaged the building and forced the museum to close. The UDC removed the artifacts while the structure was repaired. It was a slow process, not finished until 2002. On Feb. 14, 2003, the Confederate Museum reopened. Today one can see a vast array of exhibits in the museum, including Confederate flags that flew over Fort Sumter, and relics once owned by Augustine Smythe and his younger brother Ellison.

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.