The Colorado statesman., 1916-05-27
LEFT OF
OLD APPOMATTOX

| - OLD1ERS OF 1865 who revisit
a. the town of Appomattox find
that the half-century which has
done so much for their country
has done nothing for the hamlet made
famous by the great event of Lees
surrender.
Indeed, the place has gone back
ward in fifty years. It's houses have
fallen into decay or have disappeared,
and its fields have grown up to pine.
The village of Appomattox Court
house was never a considerable set
tlement. Like many another county
seat in the South, it had it's origin in
courthouse, a Jail, a tavern, house
or two and blacksmith shop-a cen
ter to which the inhabitants of rural
district could come at intervals to
transact legal business.
A visitor to Appumattox Courthouse
today-or "old Appomattox," as it is
now called in that neighborhood-mu
be disappointed, unless he has the
faculty of visualizing the momentous
events that took place there, and near
there, in April, 1865.
The court building had then stood
there half century. About 1890 it
was burned. Today the square in which
the old courthouse stood is covered
with the debris of the fire, but out of
the wreckage trees have grown up
as companions to those that shaded
the old courthouse before the fire.
The village that clustered around
the courthouse has nearly disappeared.
Four old frame structures have sur
vived fire, storm and neglect, but these
are sagging and out of joint and seem
soon to pass away. One or two of
these houses are tenantless. The tav-
ern, once the hppomattox hotel, is the
home of farmer and the overseer
of about 1,500 acres of adjacent land
now owned by Col. George A. Armes, a
retired officer of the United States
army, who lives in Washington. Ar
other house is occupied by small
farmer who has not dwelt long in that
part of the state.
The Surrender house, the Mclean
house, in which General Grant and
his staff net Lee and his military Sec
retary, is not there. 1t was a broad
fronted brick house with a covered
porch across the front, with the en-
trance in the middle and a hallway
through the center.
The house was torn down In 1892.
1t was proposed to reconstruct it at
the Worlds Fair in Chicago, but after
the demolition of the house the plan
was carried no further, presumably
for lack of funds. The piles Of brick
and lumber that had been tho house
are rotting in the garden. There has
been some talk of patriotic society
building the house on its old site.
An interesting personal story goes
with the history of the Surrender
house. 1t was the home of William
Mclean, who had moved to Appomat-
tox from the vicinity of Bull Run, to
avoid the scenes of war that destroyed
the peace and safety of his family in
1861.
Mclean was farmer, then living in
frame house near Manassas on the
road leading to Blackburns Ford, on
Bull Run. July Is the first fighting
between the troops of Gen. Irwin Nc.
Dowell and Gen. G. T. Beauregard took
place at that ford, and General Beaure-
gard took up his headquarters in the
Mclean house. A shell from a Union
battery struck the house.
After the battle of Bull Run, July 21,
1861, Mclean and his family moved to
upper Fauquier county. He next moved
to Lunenburg county. War followed
| him. Then, declaring that ba would