Existing comment:
From Manassas to Appomattox
In July 1861, Wilmer McLean's home near Bull Run drew fire from Union troops before the first battle of Manassas. A sugar broker during the war, he decided to move to Appomattox Court House to be closer to his business interests in southern Virginia. In April 1865, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in McLean's home to negotiate the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.
The McLean house was disassembled in the 1890s in a failed effort to move the historic building to Washington DC. It was reconstructed in 1949 as part of Appomattox National Historical Monument. |