BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Appomattox Court House NHP

VA -- Appomattox Court House NHP:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. APPOM_130920_034.JPG: Appomattox Court House Here, amidst the once-quiet streets and lanes of Appomattox Court House, Lee, Grant, and their tired armies enacted one of the great dramas in American history. "General, this is deeply humiliating; but I console myself with the thought that the whole country will rejoice at this day's business." -- A Confederate during the surrender ceremony, April 12, 1865 Appomattox was first called Clover Hill – just a stage coach stop along the Stage Road linking Richmond and Lynchburg. In 1845, the village became the Appomattox County seat – home to the courthouse and about 100 people. Then, in 1865, it became one of the most famous places in the world. Today the village of Appomattox Court House has been partially restored. Its lanes and lots look much look much as they did in April 1865. Some of the village's historic buildings remain, while others have been rebuilt. Together they comprise one of America's most vivid historic landscapes.
2. APPOM_130920_062.JPG: McLean House At midday on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee rode into this yard, dismounted, and disappeared into the McLean House. Grant, surrounded by generals and staff officers, soon followed. Dozens of officers, horses, and onlookers waited outside. After 90 minutes, Lee and Grant emerged. To the silent salutes of Union officers, Lee rode back through the village – to his defeated army. The home that hosted the surrender meeting was one of the best in Appomattox. Built in 1848, it had since 1862 been owned by businessman Wilmer McLean. The house became a sensation after the surrender. Union officers took some mementos; and in 1893 it was dismantled for display in Washington, D.C. But that display never happened, and the National Park Service reconstructed the building on its original site in the 1940s.
3. APPOM_130920_074.JPG: McLean House Parlor: In this room, on Sunday after April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant met and agreed upon the following terms for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. General R.E. Lee, Commanding C.S. Army, General: In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. Very Respectfully, U.S. Grant Lieutenant General
4. APPOM_130920_208.JPG: From Slavery to Emancipation: The Legacy of Appomattox: People of African descent have a long connection to Virginia and to Appomattox... from the first indentured Africans at Jamestown, through the Civil War, to the surrender and its aftermath, to the communities here today.
5. APPOM_130920_212.JPG: Community Connections: People of African descent in Appomattox County saw dramatic changes in their lives during the 1800s. Most of those enslaved worked on tobacco farms, while some lived in the village where they worked as house servants, blacksmiths, shoemakers, wheelwrights, and coopers. African-Americans made lasting contributions to the area's economy and culture.
6. APPOM_130920_216.JPG: 1600s: When slavery began in the British Colonies, it was not the well-developed institution that existed during the Civil War era. 1619: In Jamestown, Virginia, 20 captive Africans arrive aboard a Dutch ship at the British colony. Records list them as servants and later records indicate that some became free and owned land and slaves, while other such as John Punch became slaves. 1640: Virginia courts sentenced "runaway John Punch to Serve his said master for life." 1662: Virginia's leaders hold that "Negro Women's Children to serve according to the condition of the mother." 1672: The British Royal African Company was a slave trading monopoly that operated trading posts on the coast of west Africa. 1700s: Race-based slavery expanded in the Caribbean and America before the American Revolution. 1705: Virginia Slave Code declares all non-Christian servants entering the colony to be slaves. 1750: Virginia passes laws defining the distinction between a slave and a servant. 1775: Lord Dunmore's Proclamation promised freedom to Virginia slaves who agreed to fight for the British, who became known as the Ethiopian Regiment. 1780-1790: Some northern states abolish slavery. It is a gradual abolition. There were still slaves in a few northern states when the Civil War began. 1790: Thomas Jefferson's nephew, Richard Randolph, and his wife Judith established Israel Hill -- a community in Prince Edward County made up of freed slaves. 1800s: After the Revolutionary War, most northern states began to outlaw slavery, yet the institution died slowly. 1808: The United States abolishes the international slave trade. Slavery will now grow through natural increase, not importation. 1831: Nat Turner's slave rebellion in Virginia. The state responds with restrictions on free African Americans. 1833: The British empire outlaws slavery. 1857: Dred Scott Decision: Ruling by the US Supreme Court that people of African American descent held as slaves were property and not US citizens. Thus they did not have Constitutional rights and were not emancipated when brought to or living in a free state. 1860: Nearly four million slaves lived in this country. 1861: At the outbreak of the Civil War, 60-percent of the white households in Appomattox County owned slaves, with most owning one to five. Five men in the county owned more than 50 people.
7. APPOM_130920_233.JPG: African Origins: The ancestry and heritage of many Africans in Virginia was tied to the cultures of central and western Africa. The Origins of Virginia's Enslaved People: The fertile, flat land of the coastal plain and piedmont regions of Virginia was ideal for growing tobacco. As plantations spread, the demand for field workers exceeded the supply of colonists willing to do such work. The first Africans came to Virginia in 1619 ... by 1860 there were 400,800. The word slave is derived from the Latin word Sclava, referring to the Slavic people in Europe (Serbs, Croatians, Bosnians, Macedonians, Bulgarians). During the wars fought in Medieval Europe, these war captives were often enslaved. Powerful kingdoms and empires spanned across pre-colonial Africa. African people had a strong connection to their surrounding environment, developing skills in farming, fishing, cultivating rice, animal husbandry, and blacksmithing, to name just a few. Prisoners captured during intertribal warfare were often sold into slavery. "The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome that it was dangerous to remain there for any time... The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added to the number of the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us." -- Olaudah Equino, 1789 The Origins of World Slavery: Slavery is as ancient as warfare itself. It has existed everywhere in the world and was practiced by many societies. The Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and Egyptians all used slavery. It was found in Africa, India, and by American Indians. Yet slavery meant different things at different times. Each society had its own rules about who could be enslaved, why, and for how long. Indentured servitude and slavery both existed in Colonial America. Over time, slavery became tied to race here. By the 1800s, African slavery was a growing institution in the original southern states, and had expanded to the new states in the south and western lands. The growth of labor-intensive crops such as cotton and tobacco fueled the demand for more slaves.
8. APPOM_130920_237.JPG: Fighting for Freedom: Marching as part of the Federal armies and fighting on the front line at Appomattox were several thousand United States Colored Troops. These men were from Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
9. APPOM_130920_241.JPG: On the morning of April 9, 1865, Alfred Willis and the 45th USCT formed part of the Federal force that blocked General Lee's escape route to the west. Willis' silver corps badge (right) represented the Twenty-fifth Corps which was composed of USCT -- two brigades consisting of the 8th, 29th, 31th, 41st, 45th, 116th, and 127th regiments were present at the surrender. Born and raised in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, Willis was working as a laborer when he enlisted for three years at age 21 on July 14, 1864.
10. APPOM_130920_244.JPG: United States Colored Troops ready for action
11. APPOM_130920_248.JPG: Uncertainty and Hope: The end of the war brought chaos and uncertainty along with a new social order. What was the status of former slaves? Were they all now citizens? These and many other questions remained unanswered as spring turned to summer in 1865. "After the reading [of the Emancipation Proclamation] we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see." -- Booker T. Washington recalling how he learned about the 1865 emancipation in nearby Franklin County, Virginia, when he was nine years old
12. APPOM_130920_254.JPG: After the War; A Changing Social Order: At Liberty Baptist Church, just three miles from Appomattox Court House, the congregation's white members helped its black members form a new church, and contributed money for it. This new congregation, Galilee Baptist Church (right), was founded in 1867, the oldest African American church in the county. Today it stands next to the park's western boundary. Another church, Mount Pleasant, had a tradition of beating a drum while marching one mile to Hixburg and back. This was done every April 9th to remember the ending of the war, and slavery. "Our Colored citizens turned out today at this place by the hundreds from all directions to celebrate their freedom..." -- April 9, 1898, Pamplin City, Appomattox County Plymouth Rock School was established just west of the village, after the war and remained functional until 1869. A northern-born white theologian, Charles W. McManon, was brought in by the Freedman's Bureau to teach at the school from 1866 to 1869. Before and during the war, the education of slaves was illegal. Though it originally met with some resistance, this school was the first sanctioned educational opportunity for African Americans in Appomattox County. William V. James became the first certified black teacher in the area in 1870. By 1871, 507 while children and 352 black children were enrolled in thirteen schools.
13. APPOM_130920_264.JPG: Q1: At the start of the Civil War, what percentage of the population in Appomattox County were people of African descent? Q2: What are the African origins of the banjo? And what are its connections to Appomattox?
14. APPOM_130920_267.JPG: A1: 53%. In 1860, 53% of the total population of Appomattox County consisted of people of African descent -- 4,600 enslaved and 171 freedmen. A2: Enslaved Africans brought a crude gourd instrument to this country known as the banjar. Local musician, songwriter, and inventor Joel Sweeney learned to play the banjar from slaves. Sweeney later refined the instrument and spread the popularity of what is known as the American five-string banjo to white culture around the world through his traveling minstrel show.
15. APPOM_130920_349.JPG: Clover Hill Tavern Built in 1819, this was the first building in what would become the village of Appomattox Court House. The Clover Hill Tavern served travelers along the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. For several decades, it offered the village's only restaurant, only overnight lodging, and only bar. Its presence helped prompt the Virginia legislature to locate the Appomattox County seat here. In 1846, the courthouse was built across the street. By 1865, the tavern had come on hard times – a "bare and cheerless place," according to one Union general. It was one of only two buildings in town used by the Federal army during the surrender process. Here, on the evening of April 10, 1865, Union soldiers set up printing presses and started producing paroles for the surrendered Confederates. The Federals printed more than 30,000 parole documents here.
16. APPOM_130920_487.JPG: The Surrender Ceremony "As my decimated and ragged band with their bullet torn banner marched into its place, someone in the blue line…called for three cheers for the last brigade to surrender… [F]or us this soldierly generosity was more than we could bear. Many of the grizzled veterans wept like women, and my own eyes were as blind as my voice was dumb." -- Major Henry Kyd Douglas, CSA Throughout the day on April 12, 1865, shattered Confederate divisions marched into the village to surrender their weapons and flags. Union troops lined the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road to beyond the McLean House. Confederates – many of them racked with tears – marched between the two Union lines to lay down their arms. By day's end, about 22,000 Confederates had marched into the village and stacked arms. Hundreds more refused to do so, and simply left their weapons in camp. April 10 through 15, the Confederates received their paroles. The long journey home, and the difficult road to reconciliation, began.
17. APPOM_130920_497.JPG: From the spot was fired last shot from the artillary [sic] of the Army of Northern Virginia, on the morning of April 9th, 1865.
18. APPOM_130920_500.JPG: Final Combat "It seems to me every one was more scared than ever, from the fact that we knew the war was nearly over, and we did not want to be killed at the end of the war." -- Private John L. Smith, 118th Pennsylvania Late on the morning of April 9, 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia engaged in its final combat. Before the flags of truce passed along the entire line – and as the Confederates withdrew through the village – the two sides exchanged scattered last shots. Some of the last cannons discharged were fired from the yard of the Peers House, to your left. The cannon in the Peers yard caused some of the last casualties of the war in Virginia. The Confederate guns fired at Union infantry advancing toward you, across the distant ridge. The identity of the last man killed in the fighting here is not known, but all of the men who died during the final battle at Appomattox Court House suffered a cruel and ironic fate. A gun of the Richmond Howitzers offers final defiance from the yard of the Peers House (above). The Howitzers had been in the war's first major battle at Manassas in 1861. On April 9, 1865, they fired some of the last shots here at Appomattox Court House. The death of Lt. Hiram Clark of the 185th New York during the last minutes of fighting at Appomattox Court House (left). Clark was killed while his regiment advanced toward you from the distant ridge beyond the Wright House. Private William Montgomery (right) of the 155th Pennsylvania was just 19 years old when struck by a cannon shell the morning of April 9.
19. APPOM_130920_523.JPG: On this spot Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, USA, and General Robert E. Lee, CSA, met on the morning of April 10th, 1865.
20. APPOM_130920_530.JPG: "Salute of Arms" On April 12, 1865, Union Brig. Gen. Joshua Chamberlain watched the distant ridge as the Confederates prepared for the surrender. They formed into column, marched into the valley, then up the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road toward the village. As the column approached this knoll, Chamberlain ordered his men to honor them. The Federals snapped to "carry arms" – the "marching salute." A surprised Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon instantly ordered his men to return the salute. Until now, the drama at Appomattox had been played out by major figures. But here was a profound expression of respect by the armies' common soldiers. They, more than anyone else, would blaze the path to reconciliation in the years that followed.
21. APPOM_130920_536.JPG: Lee and Grant Meet On the knoll before you, Lee and Grant held the second of their two meetings at Appomattox Court House. They met here on the morning of April 10. Grant hoped to enlist Lee's support in urging the surrender of other Confederate armies, and Lee was intent on working out the final details of surrender. Lee refused Grant's request to exert his influence with other armies. But the two officers did resolve details of the surrender. Grant agreed to provide the Confederates with individual parole passes to safeguard their journey home. He would also allow surrendered soldiers to pass free on all government transportation on their way home. During their two meetings at Appomattox, not a harsh word passed between Lee and Grant. Wrote one Confederate: "General Grant and his men treated us nobly, more nobly than was ever a conquered army treated before of since." The process of reconciliation had already begun. This 1890s photograph shows the landscape here much as it appeared in 1865. Lee's army spent its final days bivouacked on the ridge in the distance. The white sign marks the spot of the Lee-Grant meeting of April 10.
22. APPOM_130920_591.JPG: Lafayette W. Meeks Son of Fransis [sic & Maria Meeks Born March 2, 1843 And died in the defense of his Country October 4, 1861 at Fairfax Court House, Va. He was a member of the Appomattox Rangers in which Company he served faithfully in the battles both here and Manassas
23. APPOM_130920_620.JPG: Near this spot stood the apple tree under which General Robert E. Lee rested while awaiting the return of a flag of truce sent to him by General U.S. Grant on the morning of April 9, 1865.
24. APPOM_130920_625.JPG: After the Surrender The depression before you is the trace of the old Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. Gen. Robert E. Lee rode this route both to and from his meeting with Grant on April 9, 1865. His return to the army – as he passed towards his headquarters atop the ridge in front of you – turned poignant when hundreds of Confederate soldiers surged around him. "... shouts sank into silence, every hat was raised, and the bronzed faces of the thousands of grim warriors were bathed with tears... [They] pressed around the noble chief, trying to take his hand, touch his person, or even lay a hand upon his horse… "The general then, with head bare and tears flowing freely down his manly cheeks, bade adieu to the army. In a few words he told the brave men who had been so true in arms to return to their homes and become worthy citizens." -- Brig. Gen. Armisted L. Long, CSA On his return from the village, Lee paused for a time at the orchard before you, waiting for the promised rations from the Federal army to arrive. Then he continued on to his headquarters, his work as army commander done. Meanwhile his army received food (left) from their former enemies – the first food many Confederates had been issued in days.
25. APPOM_130920_633.JPG: Popularizer of the Banjo Nearby is buried Joel Walker Sweeney (ca. 1810-1860), the musician who redesigned this African instrument into the modern five-string banjo that is known today. Although slaves apparently added the fifth string to what had been a four-strong instrument, Sweeney popularized the new form on the minstrel circuit. He toured with his two brothers, Sam and Dick, in minstrel shows from 1831 until his death in 1860. During the Civil War, Sam Sweeney served as Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's personal banjo picker until Sweeney's death in the winter of 1863-1864.
26. APPOM_130920_644.JPG: Appomattox Court House Confederate Cemetery Here are buried eighteen Confederate soldiers who dies April 8 and 9, 1865 in the closing days of the War Between the States. The remains of one unknown Union soldier found some years after the war are interned beside the Confederate dead. About 500 yards east of this cemetery is the McLean House where Lee and Grant signed the surrender terms.
27. APPOM_130920_650.JPG: A Strategic Delay Appomattox Court House Nat'l Hist Park As Lee's Confederate Army retreated west, Federal forces blocked their way. Near this spot, Union artillery pieces commanded by Lieutenant James H. Lord and a cavalry brigade led by Brevet Brigadier General Charles Smith proved a strategic delay to the Confederate retreat – allowing time for other Federal units to move into position and ensure General Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865. James H. Lord (1832-1896), an 1857 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Pennsylvanian, received the brevet rank of major for gallant and meritorious service in action at Appomattox Court House. William P. Roberts (1841-1910) was the youngest Confederate general in service. He was promoted brigadier general in February 1865. During the early hours of April 9, 1865, Confederate forces moved into position on the west side of Appomattox Court House and prepared to launch a dawn assault to open the road. Before daylight Lord's two 3-inch Ordnance Rifles (blue cannons on map) began firing shells into the Confederate formations. Skirmishers of the 1st Maine Cavalry (blue dots on the map) moved forward to support Lord's battery. When Southern troops advanced, the Federal skirmishers withdrew and Lord's cannoneers fled. Brigadier General William P. Roberts' North Carolina cavalry brigade captured the two Union cannons and some remaining artillerymen, but the delay helped secure the Confederate surrender.
28. APPOM_130920_660.JPG: Appomattox Here on Sunday April 9, 1865, after four years of heroic struggle in defense of principles believed fundamental to the existence of our government, Lee surrendered 9000 men, the remnant of an army still unconquered in spirit.
29. APPOM_130920_670.JPG: From an angle, you can see the last line of text was removed. It used to say "to 118,000 men under Grant." The actual count was 62,385.
30. APPOM_130920_674.JPG: Confederate Cemetery Buried here are nineteen men (out of perhaps 100) killed during the last two days of war in Virginia. These men were at first buried where they died – at hospitals or in farm fields and woodlots around Appomattox Court House. But in 1866, the Ladies Memorial Association of Appomattox recruited volunteers to collect the eighteen Confederate bodies for reburial. The lone Union soldier was later found nearby and reburied here. The identities of just seven of the dead are known. Of these, all had been in the Confederate army for at least three years. One, Alabamian Jesse H. Hutchins (grave #4), enlisted just three days after the firing on Fort Sumter. He had survived 1,454 days of service, only to die in the war's last 24 hours. He was killed battling Union cavalry just a few yards from the courthouse on the evening of April 8, 1865. Local residents gather at the cemetery to honor their dead, April 9, 1915. Most of the Union dead from Appomattox were removed to Poplar Grove National Cemetery near Petersburg.
31. APPOM_130920_677.JPG: Wartime Landscape The road trace in front of you is the remnant of the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road – on April 9, 1865, the most important road in Virginia to Robert E. Lee. Along this road he planned to escape west, hoping eventually to turn south and join Joe Johnston's army in North Carolina. When the Federals blocked this route, Lee had no choice but to surrender. To your right is the village of Appomattox Court House, looking much as it did when Grant arrived here the afternoon of April 9. He met her briefly with Generals Sheridan and Ord. "Is General Lee up there?" Grant asked Sheridan. "He himself is over in that house," Sheridan replied. "Come, let us go over." With that simple declaration, Grant started along this road to one of the most important meetings in American history. Three hours later he would return along this route bearing news of Lee's surrender. This photograph dates to the 1890s, when the wartime landscape had changed little. The perspective of the photo matches the view you have today. The Stage Road is at left.
32. APPOM_130920_690.JPG: Dedicated to the memory of those who served in the defense of the Confederate States of America
33. APPOM_130920_713.JPG: Raine Cemetery and Monument The 30-foot obelisk marks the Raine family cemetery. Erected in 1912 by C. Hunter Raine, the monument honors past family members, including C. Hunter's father, Charles James Raine, who served as a captain in the Lee Battery of Virginia Artillery. Captain Raine was killed in action on November 30, 1863, near Mine Run – east of Culpeper, Virginia. A total of nine known graves are associated with the Raine Cemetery. The Raine family's only connection to the surrender is the McLean House – where the surrender meeting between Generals Lee and Grant occurred. John Raine built the brick house in 1848 and for a time ran it as a tavern. Wilmer McLean purchased the house in the fall of 1862. Interred in the cemetery are: Ann Eliza Raine 12/23/1848 to 8/10/1850 Charles Clifford Horner 1850 to 4/17/1851 Eliza D. Raine 11/04/1805 to 8/3/1856 John Raine 4/12/1795 to 4/17/1851 Ezekiel Adelbert Horner 1845 to 4/16/1855 Sarah Ann Eliza Horner 4/12/1828 to 6/16/1853 [Infant] Raine 4/16/1855 to 8/16/1856 John F. W. Raine 12/20/1853 to 10/5/1861 Charles J. Raine About 1834 to 11/30/1863
34. APPOM_130920_725.JPG: Education in 1800's Rural Virginia Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail -- Appomattox, Virginia - Appomattox County -- Before and during the Civil War, educational opportunities in Rural Virginia were often limited. The wealthier families employed a tutor or sent their children to boarding academies such as the nearby Union Academy. In such schools students learned a variety of subjects including history, mathematics, chemistry, and foreign languages. For less fortunate white children prior to the 1860's, there were 19 small, mostly one-room schoolhouses scattered throughout the county. African-American children had even fewer educational prospects. Here on April 9, 1865, two brigades of United States Colored Troops advanced east along the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road, ensuring the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army and the end of the Civil War. This brought about the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 6, 1865. Before that time it was illegal to teach a slave to read. The first educational opportunities for blacks in Appomattox County came about through the Freedman's Bureau, created by Congress to assist former slaves. From 1866 to 1869. Plymouth Rock, a school for freedmen, operated near the Courthouse. However, funding was erratic for African-American schools, causing educational prospects for blacks to remain scarce in the years following the Civil War. It was not until 1870-1871 that Virginia made funds available for public education for persons of all races, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of both white and black children who attended school. It would be nearly another hundred years though, until the gap between educational opportunities for the two races would finally be closed.
35. APPOM_130920_727.JPG: Battle of Appomattox Station April 8, 1865: 4-8 p.m. One of the last battles of the Civil War took place one mile west of here. After capturing Confederate supplies, General George Custer's cavalry charged through the woods into the cannon fire of Confederate General Reuben Lindsay Walker's troops. Though unsupported by infantry, Walker's men repulsed the first three charges, but Custer's final assault captured 25 cannon, 200 wagons, and 1,000 prisoners. The Federals dispersed Walker's artillery and secured the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. By holding the high ground west of Appomattox Court House they blocked the road General Lee intended to use and force his surrender the next day.
36. APPOM_130920_734.JPG: Grant's Pursuit The four-year effort to vanquish the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia came to its climax in the fields before you. "Legs will win the battle men …. They can't escape, if you will keep up to it." -- Maj. Gen. E.O.C.Ord, Commander, Union Army of the James, to his men on April 8, 1865 Since the fall of Petersburg the week before, Grant and his armies had pursued Lee relentlessly. One Union column slashed at Lee's rear guard. Another moved along Lee's left flank, trying to cut the Confederates off. On the evening of April 8, Union cavalry reached Appomattox Station and captured trainloads of rations – food for a Confederate army that had not been fully fed in days. On the morning of April 9, 1865, Union troops at last put themselves across Lee's path. Union cavalry battled Lee's men on the distant ridge. Lee attempted to break through, but soon Union infantry joined the fight too. Any hope that the Confederates could move westward on the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road (present Route 24) vanished. Lee now had but one rational choice: surrendered. More than 60,000 Union troops – most of three armies – pursued Lee to Appomattox Court House. On April 8 they mounted a final effort, and on April 9, they finally blocked Lee's way west. They deployed just in front of you – in the fields on either side of the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. "It was a steeple chase, hurdle race and go-as-you please contest combined… So short were the stops made, that there was no time to unsling knapsacks and each man as the halt was called threw himself down at full length for rest… A steady and rapid march for fourteen hours... " -- George W. Linn, 10th Pennsylvania, describing the Union march on April 8, 1865
37. APPOM_130920_739.JPG: "Message of Peace" From near his headquarters atop the rise in front of you, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent a message that jolted a nation. After finishing his meeting with Lee at the McLean House, Grant paused along the road and scribbled an unassuming note announcing the surrender (see below). Within hours, the message reached Washington. By midnight bells tolled in celebration throughout the North. Amidst the small gathering of tents here, General Grant spent his last night in the field. The next day he departed for Washington, D.C., leaving details of the Confederate surrender to a group of military commissioners. The defeat of Lee's army had required eleven months of constant toil, bloodshed, and death. But the job was done; Grant left Appomattox Court House a national hero.
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Wikipedia Description: Appomattox Court House
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Appomattox Court House is a historic village located three miles (5 km) east of Appomattox, Virginia, USA (25 miles east of Lynchburg, Virginia, in the southern part of the state), famous as the site of the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse and containing the house of Wilmer McLean, where the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant took place on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the American Civil War. The site is now commemorated as Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, a National Historical Park.

History:

Many rural counties in the Southern States had county seats whose names were formed by adding court house to the name of the county. The court house town contains the courthouse building as well as a number of other buildings. In this case, one of those other buildings is the McLean house, a former tavern.

Even before the Civil War, the railroad bypassed Appomattox Court House (the South Side Railroad, today a part of the Norfolk Southern, was built to the south of town in 1850), and commercial life tended to congregate at the nearby Appomattox station. As a result, the population of Appomattox Court House never grew much over 150, while Appomattox town grew to the thousands. When the courthouse burned in 1892, it was not rebuilt and a new courthouse was built in Appomattox, sealing the fate of Appomattox Court House as a town. The county seat was formally moved in 1894.

Because the first Battle of Bull Run, fought on July 21, 1861, took place on the McLean farm farther north in Virginia, it can be said that the Civil War started in McLean's backyard in 1861 and ended in his parlor in 1865 (neither event, however, marked the true beginning or ending of hostilities).

McLean was a retired major in the Virginia militia. He was too old to enlist at the outbreak of the Civil War and decided to move to Appomattox Court House in order to get away from the Civil War (after the war, he liked to portray himself as having moved because he was a peace-loving man, but the reality is that during the war, he made a small fortune running sugar through the Union blockade; he simply wanted to carry on this lucrative business without the interference that nearby hostilities would cause). Nonetheless, on April 9, 1865, the war came back to McLean when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at his house. His house was also used on April 10 for the Surrender Commissioners' meeting, and over the next few days as the headquarters of Major General John Gibbon of the U.S. Army.

The terms of surrender were: "The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands," ... neither "side arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage" to be surrendered; and, as many privates in the Confederate Army owned horses and mules, all horses and mules claimed by men in the Confederate Army to be left in their possession.

Although he had made a considerable fortune smuggling sugar, McLean's money was in Confederate currency, which became worthless with the collapse of the Confederacy and he was nearly ruined by the end of the war. The McLeans left Appomattox Court House and returned to Mrs. McLean's Prince William County, Virginia estate in the fall of 1867. When Wilmer McLean defaulted on repayment of loans, the banking house of "Harrison, Goddin, and Apperson" of Richmond, Virginia brought a judgment against him, and the "Surrender House" was sold at public auction on November 29, 1869. The house was purchased by John L. Pascoe and apparently rented to the Ragland family formerly of Richmond. In 1872 Nathaniel H. Ragland purchased the property for $1250.00.

On January 1, 1891, the property was sold by the Widow Ragland for the sum of $10,000 to Captain Myron Dunlap of Niagara Falls, New York. Myron Dunlap and fellow speculators went through two or three plans intending to capitalize on the notoriety of the property, one idea was to dismantle the home and move it to Chicago, Illinois as an exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Measured drawings including elevations and materials specifications lists were produced, the house was dismantled and packed for shipping, but the Panic of 1893 occurred; cash flow and legal problems caused the plan to halt. The home sat dismantled in piles, prey to vandals, collectors, and the environment for fifty years.

On April 10, 1940, Appomattox Court House National Historical Monument was created by the U.S. Congress to include approximately 970 acres (3.9 km�). In February 1941, archeological work was begun at the site, then overgrown with brush and honeysuckle. Historical data was collected, and architectural working plans were drawn up to begin the meticulous reconstruction process. The whole project was brought to a swift stop on December 7, 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, causing the United States' entry into World War II.

After the war, the project soon became a high priority again. On November 25, 1947, bids for the reconstruction of the McLean House were opened. The reconstruction proceeded, using the 5,500 remaining original bricks, which were scattered through the walls of the new house, and on April 9, 1949, 84 years after the historic meeting reuniting the country, the McLean House was opened by the National Park Service for the first time to the public. Robert E. Lee IV and Major General U.S. Grant III cut the ribbon at the dedication ceremony on April 16, 1950, after a speech by Pulitzer Prize winning historian Douglas Southall Freeman in front of a crowd of approximately 20,000.
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