Posts Tagged With: Pipestem WV

Pipestem, WV Sunday April 24

Appomattox Court House, Virginia is not a Civil War battleground yet it reigns tall in Civil War sites. It was here on April 9, 1865 that General Ulysses S. Grant accepted the unconditional surrender of General Robert E. Lee and his 28,000 Confederate troops. It was not until June 2 that the last Confederate armies surrendered. But the surrender here of Lee and his forces meant the realistic end to the five year turmoil.

The exhibits and films here lay out the maneuvering of the two armies leading up to the surrender. Lee is forced out of Richmond and Petersburg. He tries desperately to meet up with other Confederate troops in the Carolinas. But Grant keeps his army between Lee’s army and North Carolina and eventually Lee realizes his options are gone.

Rather than going into great detail about Appomattox or the Civil War, we are listing a few factoids which you may or may not be familiar.

1. In the picture above, which General had the table/desk on the left and which the table/desk on the right? (Lee who arrived half an hour before Grant-who had farther to ride to reach Appomattox-, took the table on the left.)
2. Appomattox Court House is both the name of this little village and the name of the court house of the town.
3. The actual surrender took place in the McLean house, not in the court house.
4. The truce flag used by the Confederates to reach the Union lines safely for the talks was a towel. A Union officer finagled it from the Confederate officer who had it. The Union officer gave it to his superior, General William Custer. Custer gave it to his wife. His wife cut part of the towel into pieces and gave those pieces to Union officers who would write positive letters about her husband after Custer’s death at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
5. The National Park Service has an informational handout on display here about “Slavery as a Cause of the Civil War”. For all those visitors who try to argue that the Civil War was fought over states rights, not slavery, they can read this handout. The handout has the words used by Southern legislators at the time of the preparation of the Constitution and at the time of secession. For instance: ”Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-the greatest material interest in the world.”—Mississippi Declaration of Causes of Secession.
6. Robert Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son, was a Union officer present at the surrender.
7. The McLean house was decided to be torn down by northern interests who wanted to reconstruct it in D.C. as a memorial. It was torn down in 1893 but the company went bankrupt and the bricks sat on the property unused. After WWII, the area was made a national monument and the bricks, many still sitting there, were used in the rebuilt McLean House. The same Niagara Falls company that dismantled the McLean House in 1893 rebuilt it after WWII.
8. Grant’s secretary who made the formal ink copy of the letter that spelled out the terms of the surrender, was Lt. Colonel Ely Parker, a Native American and a non-citizen at that time. He was known for his fine handwriting. At the meeting, General Lee said to Parker: ”I am glad to see one real American here.”
9. The Union Army fed the Confederates and let them keep any horses they owned before they returned to their homes. The terms of surrender and the treatment of the Confederates was seen as a major symbol of honor between the two groups.

Tonight, after driving 190 miles, we are in West Virginia where we will spend three nights at Pipestem Resort State Park. I will not miss driving in VA and NC towns where there are no traffic signs indicating which lanes turn left, right, or go straight. They only have lane markings. The lane markings get faded and don’t show up until you are on top of them. May not be a problem for locals, but for out-of-towners, it leads to many last minute lane changes.

Ed and Chris, Pipestem WV April 24