Appomattox Court House National Historic Site

I’ve been wanting to visit Appomattox Court House to see where General Grant took Lee’s surrender. I missed this site 18 months ago when I was in Virginia and Washington so planned a stop this trip. Leaving Cincinnati, I drove to Concord, Virginia for two nights, to spend a day at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

After a 9 1/2 month siege of Petersburg, trench warfare and cutting off the railroads supplying Petersburg and Richmond, Lee abandoned both cities April 2nd and was trying to move south to join up with Joe Johnston’s Army of the Tennessee in North Carolina.

Grant was determined to stop him. He did. Lee’s soldiers were starving, horses and mules were starving and unable to pull wagons. Grant and his generals outmaneuvered Lee as he moved west, keeping his army from resupplying and getting their needed rations. Grant sent a note April 7th asking for his surrender, Lee replied “not yet”. Two days later General Grant and Lee met in the McLean House at Appomattox Court House to sign surrender papers.

A great overview of the Appomattox campaign is on the NPS site.

The village has been recreated, many buildings are original though and have been restored including the Clover Hill Tavern, where they have a display of the printing presses used to create the paroles for the troops, the tavern guest house, kitchen, the Meeks Store and storage building. The Courthouse, now the visitor center, and the McLean House have been recreated. The visitor center has a video and many artifacts from the site. I watched the video, toured the exhibits and attended two different programs, a Living History program then a Ranger Walk.

General Joe Johnston was being pursued by Sherman through Georgia and North Carolina. After hearing about Lee’s surrender, Johnston sent a message to Sherman asking to discuss terms of surrender. After back and forth over terms and the desertion of over 8000 of his troops, who thought they would become prisoners of war, Johnston formally surrendered April 26, 1865. I read more about Sherman and Johnston after leaving Appomattox and thought it was very interesting. The north was angry after the assassination of Lincoln and wanted more punishment for the south and weren’t happy with the terms Sherman offered.

I thought this was the end of the Civil War prior to my visit but learned there were about 6 more battles after Appomattox, the last in Texas in May.

Petersburg National Battlefield

Leaving Concord for Hampton, Virginia, I spent the day at Petersburg National Battlefield. There are multiple areas to visit, but I only stopped at the Eastern Front Battlefield area. I didn’t go to Five Forks or Grant’s HQ at City Point.

After the visitor center, the exhibits and the video, I did the trails out to Battery 5, first stop on the Eastern Front Audio Driving/Walking tour in the app. I visited the reconstructed fortifications at stop 3, the various Forts along the stops then finally did the walking trail at the Crater, where the Federals dug tunnels under the Confederate lines to plant explosives.

However, Union troops piled into the crater and were attacked by the rebels. Grant considered this failed assault as “the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war.” The siege still was effective and did cut the supply lines forcing Lee to eventually surrender his Army. I should have made time to stop at Five Forks and City Point but had a long drive to Hampton where I was staying that night. Even this 3 hour stop did teach me a lot about this important event.

** All photos property of Lisa, not to be copied or reproduced **