Savannah History Museum

Savannah History Museum and Old Fort Jackson will be temporarily closing to the public beginning Sunday, November 1st. Old Fort Jackson and Savannah History Museum will still be offered as a venue available for private events and booked group tours. Please note that two Coastal Heritage Society sites, Georgia State Railroad Museum and Savannah Children's Museum, will remain open to the public ThursdaySaturday from 9:30am-2:30pm.

A donation in any amount of your choosing to Coastal Heritage Society's Annual Fund will provide an immediate and lasting impact to Savannah History Museum.

Coastal Heritage Society invites the public to attend this year’s Revolutionary Perspectives Lecture Series on Sept. 15th, 22nd, and 29th. The annual free event series will focus on a wide variety of topics unique to the American Revolution era. Due to health and safety concerns, these lectures will now be hosted by Coastal Heritage Society with the speaker on Facebook Live. The lectures will begin at 7pm. Our guest lecturers this year include Dr. Julia Gaffield (Georgia Stat...e University), Dr. Howard Keeley (Georgia Southern University) and Coastal Heritage Society's own, Emily Beck. Stay tuned for more information on each individual speaker and their lecture as we approach the presentation! This project is supported by Georgia Humanities, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, through funding from the Georgia General Assembly.

We'll be open for Labor Day - come out and see us!

We at Coastal Heritage Society are thrilled to have made the list for South Magazine’s Greatest Savannah Destinations for 2020!

Savannah History Museum will now be open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 am to 5 pm, beginning this Wednesday, June 24th. For the safety of all staff and guests, we will be observing social distancing protocols and implementing enhanced sanitizing procedures. There will be some changes to the exhibit flow and daily programming for guest safety. We strongly urge guests to wear masks and adhere to public health safety notices. We will be also limiting capacity to 30 guests at a time every half an hour, first come, first served, so please call ahead to check availability. Visitors can purchase tickets at: bit.ly/CoastalAdmissions or on-site at Savannah History Museum. Come visit us during our new hours!

Stories of Savannah Archibald Bulloch Part 2 of 3 The Brink of Revolution ...Continue reading

Stories of Savannah Archibald Bulloch Part 1 of 3: Colonial Made Throughout the southeast, especially around the waterways that lead to the Atlantic, are some of the oldest parts of the country. Some of these places are named after heroes that helped in the creation of the land we call home. Some names are bigger than others and some have influenced more than others. One obscure name that shines as one of the biggest proponents in the forming the state we call home is Archiba...Continue reading

Join us on Friday, May 8th at 10:00am for the premiere of this pre-recorded talk by Coastal Heritage Society Interpretive Supervisor & Resource Education Specialist Aaron Bradford on site at Old Fort Jackson!

A fascinating look at the technology of photography during the American Civil War Era by the impressive historians at the Civil War Digital Digest!

Join us tomorrow for the premiere of a pre-recorded talk on site at Old Fort Jackson -- Surgery During the Civil War with Coastal Heritage Society Resource Education Specialist Harris Hoin!

Sherman's Necktie During General William Tecumseh Sherman’s (1820-1891) infamous March to the Sea, he and his soldiers used a tactic that showed Sherman understood what the destruction of the Confederate rail system would mean to the South. In 1864 while marching from Tennessee down to Savannah, GA, Sherman realized that he needed to find a way that would destroy the railroad system going into Atlanta but also leading to his coastal destination. By doing this, Sherman would... prevent supplies from reaching their destinations. Sherman knew that just tearing the tracks up would not be enough because crewmen could repair and put the train tracks back online. A more permanent solution was thought of to effectively block the trains from coming and going to their destinations. On July 18, 1864, Sherman issued specific orders on how to destroy the iron rails. Officers should instruct that bars simply bent may be used again, but when red hot, they are then twisted and bent. Pile the ties into a heap for a bonfire. Once the fire is going well, then put the railings across, and when they are red hot in the middle, put a man at each end of the rail and twist the bar so that its surface becomes spiral. Once they twisted and bent a train track, it became useless, and that meant the railroad line could not be repaired. During Sherman’s March to the Sea, the Necktie became a symbol of the intentional destruction by the United States Army. With the railroads all torn up, there was no way for supplies to enter into cities like Savannah, which meant that its people had little to eat with little hope of getting more. This military strategy of destruction of anything and everything that may be useful to an enemy is known as a scorched-earth policy. Sherman’s Necktie was the term used to describe the twisted rail lines left behind by Union raiders in the Confederacy during the civil war. Pictured here is a modern replica of a Sherman’s Necktie that is on display at the Georgia State Railroad Museum.

Stories of Savannah Lachlan McIntosh Part 4 of 4 Upon returning south, McIntosh reported to Major General Benjamin Lincoln with about 2,000 men. Vice Admiral D’Estaing led about 5,000 French troops up from the Caribbean. After a bombardment of 1,000 shots were fired into Savannah, 3,000 men charged in a desperate assault on the British lines. McIntosh commanded the rear most column of South Carolinians. A series of delays resulted in his column being largely stuck in the ...Continue reading

Check out Coastal Heritage Society Resource Education Specialist Harris Hoin in this short talk on site at Old Fort Jackson about Civil War medicine!