The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1916-05-25
LITTLE LEFT Of
!. OLD APPOMATT0X
OLDIERS Of 1865 who revisit
the town of Appomattox find
that the half-century which has
-..al e.. 4los. -

that the h~alf-century winch mas
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 it's fields have grown up to pine.
The village Of Appomattox Court
douse was never a considerable set
Element. Like many another county
seat in the South, it had it's origin in
a courthouse, a Jail, a tavern, a house
or two and a blacksmith shop-a GEN.
ter to which the inhabitants of a rural
district could come at intervals to
transact legal business.
A visitor to Appomattox Courthouse
now called in that observation-disclosures
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
tilSio hdiI " SShIuty <hDouL LOW IL
was burned. Today the square in which
the old courthouse stood is covered
with the debris Of the fire, but out Of
the w~reckage trees have grown up
as companions to those that shaded
the old courthouse before the fire.
The village hat 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 Appomattox hotel, is the
home Of a 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. An
other house is occupied by a small
part of the state.
. The Surrender house, the Mclean
house, in which General Grant and
his staff met Lee and his military Sec
rotary, is not there. 1t was a broad
fronted brick house with ? covered
porch across the front, with the en-
trance in the middle ard 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 the house
are rotting in the garden. There has
been some talk Of a patriotic society
building the house On it's 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 e Of war that destroyed
the peace and safety of his family in
1861.
Mclean was q farmer, then living in
a 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. @. T. Beauregard took
place at that ford. and General Beaure-
gard took up his headquarters in the
Mclean house. A shell from Q Union
battery struck the house.
Ate: the battle OF Bah Run. july q,
1861. Mclean and his family moved to
upper FauQuier county. He next moved
20 Lunenburg county. War followed
him. Then, declaring that hs would