October 2016
I LOVE history! Especially American history! When I found
out Appomattox, Virginia was on the way to Raleigh, North Carolina (where we
were heading to meet up with Larry’s brother) I KNEW we had to make a stop
there! I mean that’s where the Civil War ended right? Wrong!
I learned so much
about the Civil War there. It was fascinating!
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| The recreation of the courthouse is now the museum |
For one thing I assumed the documents were signed in the
Appomattox Court House.
And they were… sort of.
There is a large recreation of
the courthouse building but that’s not where they were signed.
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| The McLean House. The front right wall is the only part of the original house. The rest is replica. |
There’s also a
home, The McLean House, where the papers were actually signed. Appomattox Court
House was the name of the town. Back then, the town or village where a
courthouse building stood, was called “Whatever” Court House so it was the
village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The papers were signed in the home
of Wilmer McLean to make all the people involved, especially General Robert E.
Lee, feel more comfortable. It was the end of the war for Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia but there were other armies that continued to fight.
It was the start of the end, not the end.
Poor Mr. McLean was a reluctant participant in history. He was a wholesale grocer whose home in Manassas, VA was commandeered as headquarters for Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard. During the first Battle of Bull Run in 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, a cannonball dropped through his kitchen fireplace. For multiple reasons, not the least of which was the safety of his family he moved to a different little town in Virginia called Appomattox Court House. On April 8, 1865 a messenger knocked on his door and asked to use his house for the signing of the surrender of Lee’s Army. He reluctantly agreed. After the meeting and all the papers were signed members of the Army of the Potomac started carrying off his furniture for souvenirs. They handed money to the protesting Mr. McLean and took anything that wasn’t tied down.
Poor Mr. McLean was a reluctant participant in history. He was a wholesale grocer whose home in Manassas, VA was commandeered as headquarters for Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard. During the first Battle of Bull Run in 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, a cannonball dropped through his kitchen fireplace. For multiple reasons, not the least of which was the safety of his family he moved to a different little town in Virginia called Appomattox Court House. On April 8, 1865 a messenger knocked on his door and asked to use his house for the signing of the surrender of Lee’s Army. He reluctantly agreed. After the meeting and all the papers were signed members of the Army of the Potomac started carrying off his furniture for souvenirs. They handed money to the protesting Mr. McLean and took anything that wasn’t tied down.
After the meeting one of the young officers saw a small rag
doll, belonging to seven-year old Lula McLean, Wilmer’s youngest daughter. The
doll was dubbed The Silent Witness and was tossed around by the younger
officers until one of them put it in his pocket as a souvenir. Poor little Lula
never saw her precious doll again. It ended up in the home of Captain Thomas
W.C. Moore where it was a prized possession of the Moore family for 128 years
until it was handed over to the museum of Appomattox Court House.
Little Lula's doll. I keep wondering if she cried and how long she continued to
search for her little friend. I remember how attached I was to my dolls when I
was seven!
Another interesting anecdote we learned about Old Wilmer: he had three
other daughters, all of illegible age. He hid them in an upstairs room and sat
on the porch with a shotgun in case any young soldiers got the wrong idea.
Replica of the desk Lee sat at in the McLean's parlor.
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| The wall of original bricks |
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