Appomattox

I was really looking forward to this stop but I didn't really know what to expect.  We weren't done with battle sites but here we were at the end, where the surrender took place.  Appomattox turned out to be a place of incredible peace and reverence.  There are two villages: the less famous one is Appomattox Crossing.  Appomattox Courthouse is the site of Lee and Grant's last battle and Lee's difficult decision to surrender.  The village has been beautifully restored to it's 1865 appearance.  We had probably our best Park Service interpretive tour here from a volunteer.  He slowly and deliberately laid out the last five days of the war.  We sat on the porch of the Clover Hill Tavern and I could "see" General Grant arriving straight from the battlefield, muddy and slightly disheveled.  General Lee had arrived earlier on his horse Traveler in a brand new dress uniform, dignified in defeat.  The end arrived on April 9, four years almost to the day after the first cannon shot at Ft. Sumter.

The McLean House where the surrender took place.  In 1862, Wilmer McLean had owned a house near the Virginia village of Manassas.  His house was in the middle of the first Battle of Manassas.  He packed up his family and belongings and moved to a place which he thought was as far from the war as possible.  On April 8, 1865, he volunteered his parlor to be used for the meeting between Grant and Lee.

 Wilmer McLean's parlor with the actual furniture from the surrender.  Lee sat at the nearer marble topped table and Grant at the smaller table.  Some Unionists wanted the South to be punished but Lincoln had given Grant clear orders that the South was to be given generous terms in order to speed the reconciliation and healing.

The Appomattox Courthouse.  This is now the museum and visitor center.

We drove a portion of Skyline Drive in Shenendoah National Park.  Below us is the Shenendoah Valley and river.