APPOMATTOX COURTHOUSE, VIRGINIA
On May 14, 2010, we spent the afternoon at Appomattox Courthouse National Historic Park. The historical artifacts, displays, and other presentation materials were excellent, as we've found at all the National Park Service sites. One highlight was a 40 minute talk by a young actor in character as a Confederate soldier who had enlisted in 1861 at the beginning of the war and remained with his company to the very end. His presentation on the events and battles of the few days immediately to Lee's surrender put the flow of events in clear perspective. He was also able to show a very personal perspective.
The town of Appomattox Courthouse was a small farming village of no particular military significance as Lee's army approached. With 30,000 of Grant's Army of the Potomac infantry following in the east, another 8-10,000 to the south, Lee stopped briefly at Appomattox Courthouse attempting to receive food supplies on trains at the nearby railroad. The three photos below are just some samples of local buildings that would have been occupied by local citizens.
THIS IS WHERE IT ENDED
With Northern infantry surrounding him on the east and south, and the swolen James River on his north, Lee's only escape lay to the west and Lynchburg. The Lynchburg road was controlled by only a couple of thousand cavalry holding position on the hilltop at the position of this photo. After launching a dawn attack that drove the cavalry off to the west escape seemed possible. Unknown to Lee, however, Union infantry had arrived from the west overnight and taken position behind the cavalry. Surounded and outnumberd the end had arrived for General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and for all practical purposes for the Confederacy.
If you were a Union cavalry soldier on the morning of April 8, 1865, you were looking to the east down this stage road toward your Confederate foe. If you were a Confederate soldier you were encamped around the courthouse visible at the bottom of the hill, or you were among the troops formed just at the bottom of the hill about to sweep the cavalry back to the west.
WHERE THE FINAL ACT WAS PLAYED
General Lee's formal surrender to General Grant took place in the parlor of the home of the Mclean family, one of the wealther members of the community.
There is a small Confederate cemetary on the hill west of town, the hill where Union cavalry formed. The American flag visible in the forground is on the grave of one unknown Union soldier whose remains were found several months after the surrender.
