Tuesday, 12/8/15 - a travel day. We left Williamsburg and headed to Appomattox. The campground wasn't much, but the biggest problem was no internet, no cell service - and we were there for 2 nights. Oh well, tomorrow we go to Appomattox.
In the museum, they had many artifacts from the men who fought in the war; swords, guns, sashes, and flags, among other things. What touched me the most were the individual stories of some of the men. One of them was 19 yr old Lt. Charles Minnigerode. On the morning of April 9th, 1865 (the afternoon of Lee's surrender), Minnigerode was struck by a bullet which passed through his body, knocking him from his horse. The General in charge, ordered the company surgeon to attend to young Minnigerode. The surgeon pronounced that his wound was mortal, and left him sitting up against a tree, and left. While sitting there, the young man wrote out a last note to his family on a small scrap of paper: "My darling Mother--I am dying but I have fallen where I expected to fall. I suffer agonies, would to God I could die calmly, but--In all things I must see His will be done. My greatest regret in leaving this world is to leave you and the rest of the dear ones. The younger children will be more comforting to you than I have been, but none of them will"...love you more."
The note remained in the family for over 140 years, and then was donated to the museum. The title of the presentation read, "It is a terrible thing to die on the last day of the war". Actually, he did survive his wound and went home.
Another presentation was of three brothers, the Brown brothers. All of them served throughout the entire war from 1861-1865, and in fact, fought in the last battle at Appomattox. All three survived the war, and lived out their lives into their eighties. The odds must be astronomical of three brothers all surviving, when 2-3% of the total population of the U.S. (about 700,000 men)died.
We met the Ranger outside on the stage road, who explained how the battle happened. The road behind him went east to Lynchburg and that is were the Union troops were camped. Directly in front of him, the road heads west to Richmond, where Robert E. Lee and his army was camped. The road was a regular stage route at the time. Then he took us to the McLean house (to his right) to let us tour the famous parlor where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant sat down to settle the terms of surrender and sign.
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| Ranger on the stage road |
Appomattox did not see a lot of fighting during the war, but had the last 2 day battle around the hills surrounding Appomattox Court House. When General Lee was surrounded by the Union Army, headed by Ulysses S. Grant, he retreated to the west. As he moved his army, Grant followed and cut off his escape routes as they moved. At Appomattox, Lee saw an opening to the west, but when he went to take it, he was cut off by General Custer (yes, the same Custer of Little Big Horn). Since he was completely surrounded by Union troops, he had no choice but to offer up his surrender. President Lincoln had given Grant orders to give "Malice to None" and ordered Grant to let the men go home, as long as they agreed to give up their armaments and agree never to raise their arms against the U.S. again.
Grant sent word to Lee to select a meeting place to sign the agreements. Lee selected the McLean house in Appomattox, mainly because it had a parlor (not many farmers had such a splendid home). Lee met Grant at the McLean house, they shook hands, and Lee asked Grant to write out the terms of the surrender.
Grant sat down at a small table, and wrote out the terms in pencil. Then scribes (men with very good handwriting skills) re-wrote the agreement and both Generals signed. It was over at about 3:00 in the afternoon of April 9th. It took 3 days to disarm the Confederate Army and give all the men (30,000 in the Confederate Army) pardons, so they could go home without risking further battles. You see, without the internet or television, it would take a long time for everybody to get the news.
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| The famous handshake |
Then we were able to go through the McLean house. It was completely restored in 1948, and is maintained by the National Park Service.
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| McLean house (well out front) |
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| General Lee table |
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| General Grant table |
We also went in the back of the house, where there were two outbuildings, the summer kitchen and the slave quarters (housed 2 families).
The pardons (all 30,000 of them) were printed up at the tavern in town. They brought in 3 printing presses to get the job done in 3 days.
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| 2 of the presses |
After the tours, we went back to the Courthouse to talk to the ranger some more. He was very interested in our trip, and even suggested other places of interest for us. He was also interested in the history we had already seen. It was a very good day.
Thursday, 12/10/15 - A travel day. Off to Four Oaks, NC. It is just a one night stay (no tours), and back on the road tomorrow to Myrtle Beach, SC to meet up with some of my family.
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