Charles Sweeney Cabin The Charles Sweeney Cabin is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park . It was registered in the National Park Service ' s database of Official Structures on June 26 , 1989 . History . Charles Sweeney was the cousin of Joel Sweeney , the person that popularized the five - string American banjo . In the 1840s the Sweeney clan lived on the stagecoach road northeast of Clover Hill , the name of the village now known as the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park . John Sweeney , a wheelwright and Charles ' brother , lived in the old family home on the north bank of the Appomattox river with his wife and four children . When Joel was not touring the country entertaining he would stay at John ' s cabin . Just up the road the four children of John ' s , being nephews and nieces of Charles , could see their uncle ' s small cabin . Charles lived in the tiny cabin with his wife and two remaining children . Charles Sweeney ' s older son Robert , a left - handed fiddle player , lived in even a smaller cabin with his wife and baby daughter downhill from John . Charles Sweeney was born in 1794 as was his wife , Mary . Historical significance . The National Park Service states the Charles Sweeney Cabin is meaningful by virtue of its association with the site of General Robert E . Lee ' s surrender to General Ulysses S . Grant . There is some evidence , in the form of a circa 1930 post card , which indicates that General Fitzhugh Lee and his staff stayed in this house the night before the Surrender . It was originally built between 1830 and 1840 by Charles Sweeney , altered between 1940 and 1950 , and restored in 1988 and 1994 . Description . The Charles Sweeney Cabin is a single - story one - room structure with a loft . It is about twenty feet wide by about eighteen feet deep . The cabin is a post and beam hall house set on dry - laid fieldstone pier foundation , typical of what was in rural Virginia in the nineteenth century . The hall house consists of a " hall " or keeping room , that was the main room of the cabin . It served as an assortment of various rooms when needed ; consisting of a living room , dining room , kitchen , workroom and bedroom . Cooking was done in a fireplace that was set to one end of the large room . A rough , crudely quoined , fieldstone chimney extends to the second floor and above with brick . There are windows on the north , south and east sides . The south and east sides have single four - paneled doors . The interior of the cabin is in good condition . The roof is made of oak shakes , square - butted , and is supported at the eaves by a box cornice . The ends are covered with scribed end boards . The one - room interior of the Charles Sweeney Cabin has a loft accessible in the northwest corner by a dog - leg stairway . The stairway has many of its original baluster s . It also has original trim on the stringers , the structural member of the stairway that supports the treads and risers . The square newel and rail are formed from one piece of an oak branch . There is a small closet under the staircase that has its original four - paneled door with concave , quarter - circle corners on the raised panels . All the inside of the " hall " room exposed to the eye is whitewash ed . The door and window surrounds suggest the cabin was intended to be , but never was , plastered . The east side has a four - paneled door which is flanked by 6 / 6 double hanging sash window s . The east side has a single centered four - panel door on the main floor that opens directly into the multi - purpose keeping room . Above is a six - light ( eight foot by twelve inch ) casement . The north side has a single 6 / 6 double hanging window . Hewn oak L - formed corner posts and knee braces alternate with the secondary members made of pine .