Photo above, the house of Wilmer McLean in 1865. This is the site chosen by General Lee for the surrender meeting in Appomattox Court House. Courtesy Library of Congress. Right: Clover Hill Tavern, Appomattox, Photo courtesy NPS.

Appomattox Then

We've stated this before, but if you don't think the Civil War has an impact on your life today, imagine pulling out your passport every time you traveled to Virginia, to Tennessee, to Missouri, any time you crossed a state line on the Mason-Dixon axis from Union to Confederate territory. That is the impact it would have on your life. You probably would not live in the most prosperous nation on earth. You would live in some version of Germany or France or the United Kingdom. It was the effort of the men and women of this 1861-1865 timeframe that gave you this type of nation and life; Appomattox Court House was the chapter that wrapped that effort up. And it wrapped it up in as remarkable a fashion as the arduous nature of those battles from Manassas to Gettysburg to Petersburg had shown in a very different way. That story is well worth a visit.

General Robert E. Lee had had enough by the night of April 2, 1865, trying to hold on in the trenches of Petersburg against a relentless foe in General U.S. Grant. When the final breakthrough of Union forces occurred that day, there was no choice but to flee Petersburg and Richmond and try to regroup. But U.S. Grant would follow, and one week later, that effort would culminate in a surrender in Appomattox Court House. And it was surrender of grace and not capture. That has to be underscored. There were no prisoners or repurcussions to the Southern soldiers, and even though reconstruction would be difficult and painful over the next ten years, the grace of the terms of surrender that Grant and Lincoln showed General Lee would eventually bind the nation together. And that's just plain remarkable. There have been two particularly remarkable moments in United States history that we often forget; Washington giving up the power of the presidency after his term of office (this had not been done before) and Lincoln's grace at the time he accepted Lee's surrender on the steps and in the living room of the McLean House in Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Appomattox Station - Appomattox Station was the spot on a rail line (photo below) where General Lee sent rations and supplies to collect as he tried to retreat from Richmond and head south to North Carolina. However, General Custer had a different plan, capturing several of those railroad cars and starting a battle one mile from the station.

Appomattox Court House - This town, several miles further away, was a bucolic little berg of one hundred citizens that had never seen war during the four years of civil conflict. In fact, the McLean family had moved here from their home in Manassas after the first battle of Bull Run. Now it would come again and their home the unlikely location for the surrender meeting between Grant and Lee.

Image above: Lithograph of General Lee and General Grant at 2nd meeting about surrender, April 10, 1865, at tree on north end of town, by John Smith, circa 1865. Courtesy Library of Congress. Below: Confederate cavalry waiting to charge during the April 9 Battle of Appomattox Court House reenactment on the grounds of the park.

On the 160th Anniversary of the last days of the Civil War at Appomattox, listen to park rangers and take a walk around the historic surrender site, and site of the two last battles of the Grant versus Lee theater of the Civil War. In this Day 1 video, listen to rangers discuss how General Sheridan got his cavalry from the Shenandoah to the battle of Five Forks, leading to their involvement in the Battle of Appomattox Station, plus a ranger led walk around the village.

It's the Day of Surrender in the village of Appomattox Court House and the walks and talks that tell the story of April 9, 1865 on the 160th Anniversary. For some, you may not know that Lee did not go quietly. At his council of war, it was decided that early in the morning, they would attack the Union cavalry they thought the only enemy and force their way west then south. Take the Park Ranger walks about that morning battle that first started out as a Lee victory, but ended with Union infantry arriving to assist the cavalry, including US Colored Soldiers, and causing the white flags of surrender to appear. Learn about the surrender itself, from actors portraying Lee and Grant in front of the McLean House where the surrender took place. A wonderful commemoration of the end of the Civil War.

On the third day of the celebration of the 160th Anniversary of the surrender of the Confederate Army under General Robert E. Lee, there is an awesome recreation of the second meeting of surrender with portrayals of Grant and Lee, a recounting of the terms of surrender and those that would hold that task for each other, as well as the dedication of the trail to the Coleman House, where the most vibrant fighting on the morning of April 9, ending with the Union Army infantry forcing Lee to surrender. Thanks for all the great rangers and behind the scenes employees of Appomattox Court House National Historic Park for making this event so special.