American Civil War Museum

Winter Wander
2024-12-08 12:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
A nice walk through the historic neighborhood of Clay Street in Downtown Richmond. ACWM is pleased to open the first floor of The White House of the Confederacy for free guided tours. Winter Wander is an annual event with our Richmond history community partners.

Holiday Open House in Appomattox!
2024-12-07 10:00 - 16:00

Virtual Book Talk "Union General Daniel Butterfield"
2024-12-05 18:30 - 19:30
General Dan Butterfield played a pivotal role during the Civil War and introduced practices still in use by the U.S. Army today. He was a Medal of Honor winner but was also controversial, not well-liked, and tainted by politics. Join us as award-winning author James S. Pula separates fact from fiction to offer a detailed look at Union General Daniel Butterfield.

James S. Pula is a professor of History Emeritus at Purdue University Northwest and the former editor-in-chief of Gettysburg Magazine. Dr. Pula is the author or editor of more than two dozen books.

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Annual Tredegar Tree Lighting!
2024-11-21 17:30 - 19:30 | American Civil War Museum, 480 Tredegar St, Richmond, Virginia, 23219, United States
Join us at the popular Tredegar Tree Lighting when we officially illuminate the 20ft tall tree in the museum lobby! A Richmond holiday event favorite, the lighting of the Tredegar Tree features live music by the Joe Sarver Trio, holiday cheer provided by Virago Spirits, is family friendly and free to the public. The Tredegar Tree is decorated with hand-crafted 19th century era style ornaments and hundreds of lights. A great way to start the season! This event is sponsored by The Wilton Companies.

ACWM is pleased to be an official Toys for Tots collection partner and encourage guests to bring an unwrapped toy to donate at the Tredegar Tree Lighting!

Tredegar History Tour
2024-11-17 11:00
Take a guided tour of the former Tredegar Ironworks site every Saturday & Sunday at 11am and 3pm with Musket Firing Demonstration at 1pm!

"Now We Stand By Each Other Always" - a performance in three acts.
2024-11-14 18:00 - 20:00 | American Civil War Museum – Appomattox, 159 Horseshoe Rd, Appomattox, Virginia, 24522, United States
Rudely Stamp’d Historical Impressions presents “Now We Stand by Each Other Always” November 14th at the American Civil War Museum at Appomattox Court House.

This three-act play features a series of conversations between Genls. Grant and Sherman over the course of the Civil War. These conversations take place at key moments in the war and demonstrate the evolving friendship between the men – Vicksburg, MS in 1863, Cincinnati, OH in 1864 and City Point, VA in 1865.

Heroes of the Union war effort, Grant and Sherman were unlikely friends with dramatically different personalities. Grant, ever stoic, was quiet, reticent and almost shy. Sherman, on the other hand, was manic, nervous, fidgety and intense. Despite these differences, the men forged a friendship in the fire of war and led the Union’s armies to ultimate victory.

Virtual Book Talk - "Dranesville: A Northern Virginia Town Caught in the Crossfire of Battle"
2024-11-07 18:30 - 19:30
This small Union victory is often overlooked, but it was emblematic of the fighting that was to come. At Dranesville, civilians were caught up in the spreading Civil War, and officers, who would become household names, gained early experience.

Ryan Quint, a native of Maine, earned his degree in history from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. He has worked in the field of public history, including at the George Washington Foundation, Colonial Williamsburg, and the National Park Service.

Fall Festival at ACWM-Appomattox
2024-10-26 10:00 - 16:00 | American Civil War Museum – Appomattox, 159 Horseshoe Rd, Appomattox, Virginia, 24522, United States
Mark your calendar for October 26th and Fall Festival at ACWM-Appomattox! Join us for a fun-filled day of local music, pumpkin painting, dancing, wood carving, blacksmithing, hearth cooking, and of course, cannon firing demonstrations throughout the day. Food, vendors, history partners & programs.

11am program: ‘The Battles of Appomattox: The Final Fury & the Last to Die’ with Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park historian, Patrick Schroder

2pm program: Award-winning poet Lisa Samia shares poems and historical accounts from her series ‘The Nameless and Faceless of the Civil War’.

Virtual Book Talk: "A Wonderful Career in Crime"
2024-10-24 18:30 - 19:30
Charles Cowlam’s career as a convict,spy, detective, congressional candidate, adventurer, and con artist spanned the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age. The only person to receive presidential pardons from both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis during the Civil War, he was a chameleon in a world of strangers. Join us as Dr. Frank Garmon, Jr. explores this man whom scholars have overlooked due to his elusive nature.

Frank W. Garmon Jr. is assistant professor of American studies at Christopher Newport University. He received the Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching Student Writing in 2023.

Tredegar Society Wine Dinner
2024-10-21 18:30 - 20:30 | Enoteca Sogno, 1223 Bellevue Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, 23227
Please join the Tredegar Society for our Third Annual Wine Dinner. This year’s dinner will feature the wonderful wines of Tuscany paired with a three-course meal from Enoteca Sogno. Come enjoy great Italian food and wine while supporting the American Civil War Museum!

The Tredegar Society of the American Civil War Museum supports the museum’s mission to provide a better understanding of the causes, course, and consequences of the Civil War.

Make your reservation!

Lincoln Prize Lecture
2024-10-17 18:00 - 20:00
2023 ACWM Lincoln Prize Lecture

The American Civil War Museum will present the annual Lincoln Prize Lecture on October 17th at Tredegar in Richmond, Virginia. Featured speakers will be the recipients of the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, Dr. Frances M. Clarke and Dr. Rebecca Jo Plant. They were awarded the prize for their book Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era. The Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize is awarded annually for the finest scholarly work published in the prior year in English on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier, or the American Civil War era, one that also enhances the general public’s understanding of the Civil War era.

$50 for ACWM Members, $75 for non-members

Lincoln Prize Lecture Tickets!

The Unvanquished-(virtual book talk)
2024-09-26 18:30 - 19:30
Join this virtual book talk, where author Patrick K. O’Donnell discusses his book, The Unvanquished. This book documents the untold story of Lincoln’s Special Forces, the manhunt for Mosby’s Rangers, and the shadow war that forged America’s Special Operations

Trivia Night at the Museum
2024-09-25 17:30 - 19:00
Join us for drinks and a few rounds of trivia! Tredegar, ACWM, and of the Civil War – lots of topics, lots of fun! With our partner Virago Spirits, his event is part of our Wind Down Wednesday series when we welcome visitors to our Tredegar site after hours. This popular event features signature cocktails with a side of Civil War history in an incredible riverfront Richmond landmark, Tredegar.

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Tredegar History Tour
2024-09-21 11:00 - 17:00
Guided tour of the Historic Tredegar site every Saturday & Sunday is included with admission. Tours at 11am and 3pm with Musket Firing Demonstration at 1pm!

480 Tredegar Street, Richmond VA 23219

In-Person Book Talk with Dr. Yael Sternhell: War on Record
2024-09-19 18:00 - 19:30 | The American Civil War Museum – Historic Tredegar, 480 Tredegar St., Richmond, Virginia, 23219, United States
How do Civil War historians craft their narratives? What do they actually know about the sources they rely on to convey historical truths? In a talk drawing on her new book, Yael A. Sternhell discusses the Civil War’s most important archive and reveal how what we consider as factual knowledge about America’s greatest conflict was actually shaped by an intricate web of ideological currents and political struggles during the postbellum era.Yael Sternhell, Ph.D. teaches history and American studies at Tel Aviv University and is also the author of Routes of War: The World of Movement in the Confederate South.

Free to ACWM Members, Non-members $10

Pre-event Member Reception 5:00pm-6:00pm

Tredegar History Tour & Musket Firing Demonstration
2024-09-14 10:00 - 17:00
Guided tour of the Historic Tredegar site at 11 am and 3 pm with Musket Firing Demonstration at 1 pm!

Greenback America Exhibit at ACWM-Appomattox
2024-09-14 10:00 - 17:00
A dynamic exhibit exploring the evolution of the nation’s monetary system after the Civil War. Open daily at ACWM-Appomattox

Tredegar History Tour & Musket Firing Demonstration! Saturday and Sunday
2024-09-07 10:00 - 17:00
Find yourself in history at the American Civil War Museum

Take a guided tour of the Historic Tredegar site and see a musket firing demonstration. Saturday and Sunday tours at 11am and 3pm with demonstrations at 1pm each day.

Greenback America Exhibit at ACWM-Appomattox
2024-09-02 10:00 - 17:00
Greenback America exhibit is now open at ACWM-Appomattox! Explore changes to the U.S. monetary system brought on by the Civil War. Open daily and included with museum admission.

Tredegar History Tour & Musket Firing Demonstration
2024-09-02 10:00 - 17:00
Guided Tredegar HIstory Tour at 11am and 3pm with living history Musket Firing Demonstration at 1pm! Find yourself in history this Labor Day!

Tredegar History Tour Every Saturday & Sunday at 11am and 3pm with Musket Firing Demonstration at 1pm! Included with museum admission.
2024-08-25 10:00 - 17:00

Virtual Book Talk: Never Such a Campaign
2024-08-22 18:30 - 19:30
Follow Generals Robert E. Lee and John Pope as they converge on ground bloodied just thirteen months earlier. Since then, the armies had grown in size and efficiency, and combat between them would dwarf that first battle. For the second summer in a row, forces would clash on the plains of Manassas, and the results would be far more terrible. Join us as historians Dan Welch and Kevin Pawlak explore the Battle of Second Manassas.

Greenback America Exhibit is Open daily at ACWM-Appomattox
2024-08-18 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-07-13 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-07-05 10:00 - 17:00
Visitors will explore how Americans assigned cultural meaning to money, and how doing so helped them interpret politics, patriotism, and race. This temporary exhibit tells the story of how the United States’ decision on how to pay off the Civil War transformed the relationship between the government, the economy, banks, and citizens.

ACWM-Appomattox

Wine Down Wednesday: Cocktails, Civil War Style
2024-07-31 17:30 - 19:00
This is an age 21+ event

Wine Down Wednesday is the best way to end your work day! Raise a glass to summertime fun with an 1862-style cocktail (or glass of wine)! Join us at ACWM Tredegar for a bit of mixology history with the first printed bartender’s manual, ‘How to Mix Drinks: Or, the Bon-Vivant’s companion.’ Learn a little about Jerry Thomas, the author and the great-great grandfather of modern American mixology, while sampling one of his recipes!

Tredegar History Tour Saturday & Sunday at 11am and 3pm with Musket Firing Demonstration at 1pm (included with museum admission)
2024-07-07 10:00 - 17:00

Tredegar History Tour at 11am & 3pm with musket firing demonstration at 1pm!
2024-07-06 10:00 - 17:00
Join us for a guided tour of the Historic Tredegar site and a musket firing demonstration! Included with museum admission.

Tickets

White House of the Confederacy Guided Tours Daily!
2024-07-05 11:00 - 16:00
Built in 1818, this National Historic Landmark served as the Confederate Executive Mansion during the war. Guided tours of the restored house–the elegant public rooms as well as the private living quarters–explore the lives of the people who lived and worked there. 1201 East Clay Street, Richmond VA 23219

Tour Times & Tickets

Greenback America Exhibit open in ACWM-Appomattox
2024-07-02 08:00 - 17:00 | American Civil War Museum – Appomattox, 159 Horseshoe Rd, Appomattox, Virginia, 24522, United States
Discover how Americans assigned cultural meaning to money and how doing so helped them interpret politics, patriotism, and race. This exhibit explains how the United States’ decision on how to pay off the Civil War transformed the relationship between the government, the economy, banks, and citizens.

American Civil War Museum–Appomattox

159 Horseshoe Rd.Appomattox, VA 24522
