H.L. Hunley Museum | Let's Go!

The H.L. Hunley submarine made history during the American Civil War when she became the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat. In February 1864, the Hunley, under command of Lieutenant George E. Dixon, sank the U.S.S. Housatonic; a Union blockade vessel. The Hunley's mission was a success, but disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and never returned to port. The Hunley was the third in a series of submarines constructed by engineers Horace Lawson Hunley, Baxter Watson, and James McClintock. Before the Hunley's successful attack on the Housatonic, the Hunley had two accidents, the second of which claimed Horace Hunley's life. 

The submarine was found by author Clive Cussler, and his team known as NUMA (National Underwater Marine Agency) in 1995. She was raised in 2000, and has since been undergoing conservation efforts at the Warren-Lasch Conservation Center, in Charleston, South Carolina. There is a museum devoted to the H.L. Hunley, which is open to the public on weekends. 

Standards

• 3-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in the antebellum period, the causes and effects of the Civil War, and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
  • South Carolina played a key role in events that occurred before, during, and after the Civil War; and those events, in turn, greatly affected the state. To understand South Carolina’s experiences during this tumultuous time, the student will uti...
    • 3-4.4 Summarize the course of the Civil War in South Carolina, including the Secession Convention, the firing on Fort Sumter, the Union blockade of Charleston, the significance of the Hunley submarine; the exploits of Robert Smalls; and General William...
• 8-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the multiple events that led to the Civil War.
  • The outbreak of the Civil War was the culminating event in a decades-long series of regional issues that threatened American unity and South Carolina’s identity as one of the United States. To understand how South Carolina came to be at the cent...
    • 8-4.5 Compare the military strategies of the North and the South during the Civil War and the fulfillment of these strategies in South Carolina and in the South as a whole, including the attack on Fort Sumter, the Union blockade of Charleston and other...