Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1916-06-01
Little Left of Old Appomattox.

nous by the great event OF Lees surTen-
der.
Indeed, the place has gone backward
in fifty years. It's houses have faleninto
decay or have disappeared, and its fields
have grown up TO pine.
The village OF Appomattox Courthouse
was never a considerable settlement.
Like many another county seat in the
South, il had its origin in courthouse,
jail, a tavern, house or two and black
smith shop-a center TO which the inhab-
iiants of a rural district could come at in
tervals 10 transact legal business.
A visitor TO Appomattox Courthouse
today-or "old Appomattox," as it IS
now called in that neighborhood-must
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 twas burned.
Today the square in which the old court
house 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 survived 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 tavern, once the Apo
mattox hotel, is the home OF farmer
and the overSeer OF about 800 acres OF
adjacent land now owned byCol. George
A. Armes, retired officer Of the United
States army who lives in Washington.
Another 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 secretary,
is not there. 1t was a broad-tronted
brick house with covered porch across
the front, with the entrance in the middle
and hallway through the center.
The house was torn down in 1892. 1t
was proposed 10 reconstruct it at the
Worlds Fair in Chicago, but after the
demolition OF the house the plan was car
ried no further, presumably for lack oi
funds. The piles OF brick and lumber
that had been the house are rottlng 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. II
was the home OF William Mclean, who
had moved to AppomattoX from the vi
cinity 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 10 Blackburn'S Ford, on Bull Run.
July IS the first fighting between the
troops OF Gen. Irwin Mcdowell and Gen.
q. T. Beauregard took place at that ford,
and General Beauregard took up his
headquarters in the Mclean house. A
shell from a Union battery struck the
house.
After the battle OF Bull Run, July q,
1861, Mclean and his family moved TO
upper Fauquier county. He next moved
to Lunenburg county. Wartolowed him.
Then, declaring that he would take his
family so far from the fighting grounds
that war would not further trouble them,
he rented house in the hamlet OF APP
pomattox. Fate made this house the
Surrender house.
The Mclean house near Manassas long
ago was a ruin, but another house near IT,
which Beauregard also used as head
quarters, is often enormously pointed out
as the Mclean house.
McLean's som. Wilmer McLean-is
a business man in Manassas hamlet
that since the war has grown into thriv-
ing town.
The table in the Mclean house at APP
pomattox on which the articles OF sur
render were written is in the National
museum at Washington. The flag OIL
truce under which the negotiations be-
tween Grant and Lee were conducted is
also there, having been loaned TO that
institution by the widow OF George A.
Custer.
Colonel Whitaker OF Grants staff, who
carried the flag, lives in Washington and
is expected to take part in the celeora-
ton at Appomattox.
Maj. George c. Rounds OF Manassas
Civil War veteran, resident since the war
at Manassas, who promoted the Blue and
GRAY reunion on the field OF Bull Run,
has promoted the coming fraternal ceIe-
bration at Appomattox. Major Rounds
has been urging upon the war department
and congress for years the desirability OF
converting the battlefields OF Bull Run into
a national park. He also takes akeen IN
terest in the future OF Appomattox Court
house.
On the surrender ground IS now dense
pine growth, in which is the only impor-
tant monument at Appomattox. 1t was
erected by North Carolina, April g, 1905.
Though the Appomattox Courthouse
village Of the Civil War period has prac-
ticalIy disappeared, there is new and
thriving town called Appomattox which
is now the county seat OF Appomattox
and is on the Norfolk & Western railroad.
During the Civil War there was siding
on this railroad called Appomattox sta
ton. Il was here that Custer with his