I recently met Charles Pendleton and spent some time inside the Civil War Museum here in Vicksburg. It’s one of those places where you realize pretty quickly you’re not going to rush through it.
The first thing Charles does is ask you to read the mission statement. “My goal is not to educate you, but inspire you…” He wants people to want to learn for themselves. That philosophy sticks with you as you walk around, because it explains a lot about how the museum feels.
This didn’t start as a museum. He began collecting Civil War items about ten years ago. At first, it was all kept at his house. “It was just my private collection at my house,” he said. Eventually, it became too much to keep there. “My wife started complaining about it,” he added, and that’s when the idea of opening it to the public came up.
Charles started renting the building six years ago. About a year later, everything was set up and open.
As you move through the space, he doesn’t rush you. He encourages you to actually read what’s on the walls. One display shows the 11 Southern states that formed the Confederacy, laid out in the order they seceded. Mississippi was second.
“If you don’t read nothing else, you can read the highlighted paragraph in Mississippi’s letter,” Charles said. “But look at all of them. I have paragraphs highlighted.”
There’s also a small slave house exhibit. When you step inside, you hear recorded voices. He explained, “When you go in there, the voices in there talking are actual slaves that they interviewed.” It’s quiet in there, and people tend to slow down without being told to.
Charles was born and raised in Vicksburg, and that local connection shows up all over the museum. One of the pieces he’s most proud of is a rifle that was made right here in town.
“I’ve only seen this one and one other one,” he said. It was made by a man named Louis Hoffman in Vicksburg. The museum also has Hoffman’s Derringer, stamped “Vicksburg, Mississippi.” Hoffman even patented holsters with clips on the back here in Vicksburg.
Finding those items took time. He searched for the rifle for several years before finding one at a show. The asking price started at $42,000. “He came down to $38,000, and I ended up buying it,” Charles said, after explaining that it was for a museum.
The Derringer took even longer. “I gave up on finding one of them,” he said. He kept checking gun shows anyway. Then one day, in a barber shop, a conversation led to a surprise. “I was talking about it, and I guess I’ve got one,” Charles recalled.
That’s how a lot of this place feels. Stories layered on top of objects. Local history that doesn’t always show up in books, but still matters.
The Civil War Museum in Vicksburg isn’t like someone standing in front of you telling you what to think. It’s more like being shown around by a neighbor who really cares about what he’s collected and why it’s here.
You walk out knowing a little more and feeling like you were invited into a conversation that’s been going on for a long time.
January 14, 2026
