Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1916-05-24
LITTLE LEFT Of
OLD APP0MATTOX

| - OLDIERS of 1866 who revisit
- 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. Its houses have
fallen into decay or have disappeared,
and it's fields have grown up to pine.
The village Of Appomattox Court
house was never considerable set
Element. Like many another county
seat in the South, it had its origin in
a courthouse, jail, 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 Appomattox Courthouse
today-or "old Appomattox," as it is
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
there half a 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 Appomattox hotel, is the
home of farmer and the overseer
of about 1,500 acres of adjacent land
now owned by Col George A. Armes,
retired officer of the United States
army, who lives in Washington. An
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 met Lee and his military sec.
rotary, is not there. It was broad.
fronted brick house with a covered
porch across the front, with the en-
trance in the middle and hallway
through the center.
The house was torn down in 1892.
It 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 its old site.
An interesting personal story goes
with the history of the Surrender
house. It was the home of William
Mclean, who had moved to Appomat-
OK from the vicinity Of Bull Run, to
lvoid the scenes of war that destroyed
he peace and safety Of his family in
.S61.
Mclean was farmer, then living in
j frame house near Manassas on the
Dad leading to Blackburns Ford, on
BULL Run. July 10 the first fighting
etween the troops Of Gen. Irwin Nc.
lowell and Gen. G. T. Beauregard took :
lace at that ford, and General Beaure-
ard took up his headquarters In the .
lcLean house. A shell from q Union
artery struck the house.
After the battle Of Bull Run, July n,
81, Mclean and his family moved to
pper Fauquier county. He next moved
} Lunenburg county. War followed =:
i'm. Then, declaring that he would !
Ike his family 80 far from the fighting
rounds that war would not further !
'ouble them, he rented house in the !
amlet of Appomattox. Fste made this
ouse the Surrender house.
The Mclean house near Manassas
ing ago was a ruin, but another house :.
ear it, which Beauregard also used :
3 headquarters, is often enormously ;;
ointed out as the Mclean house.
McLean's SOM. Wilmer Mclean j
a business man in Manassas ham ;
It that since the war has grown into ]
thriving town.
The table in the Mclean house at ::
ppomattox on which the articles of
lrrender were written is in the Ma Il
onal museum at Washington. The
az of truce under which the negotia-
ons between Grant and Lee were con-
ucted is also there, having been
'aned to that institution by the Wild
" Of George A. Custer. II
Colonel Whitaker of Grants staff,
no carried the flag, lives in Wash
lgton and is expected to take part in
le celebration at Appomattox. II
Maj. George c. Rounds of Manassas.
Civil war veteran, resident since
le war at Manassas, who promoted
le Blue and Gray reunion on the field
{ Bull Run, has promoted the coming
'aternal celebration at Appomattox.
[ajor Rounds has been urging upon
ne war department and congress for
ears the desirability of converting Il
ne battlefields of Bull Run into a ma.
onal park He also takes keen in
crest in the future Of Appomattox
On the surrender ground is now a