APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

It was in the small village of Appomattox Court House to conclude on 9 April 1865 the terrible fratricidal war that lasted for four years the Unionist and confederate armies, the North and the South, leaving behind more than 620 000 dead. After his defeat at the siege of Petersburg and the abandonment of his capital Richmond, the army of Northern general Southern Robert E. Lee withdrew to Appomattox, followed by the Yankees troops. It follows the battles of Sailor's Creek, Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House at the end of which Lee will sign in the presence of General unionist Ulysses S. Grant the surrender of his camp in the house of Wilmer and Virginia McLean. It is the end of the adventure of the Confederate States of America, an independent state dreamed by the South.

The main attraction of the park is the visit of Mc Lean house where the surrender was signed. After the war, the property was bought by some promoters who wanted to enjoy its notoriety by démontant the house to rebuild it at the Colombian exhibition in Chicago (1893) or Washington D.C. The house was Demolished, but the piles of materials were left out on site because of legal and financial problems.

More than 50 years later, on April 10, 1940, the U.S. Congress created the Appomattox Court House National Historical Monument and the work of reconstructing the home and its environment is being undertaken. In April 1950, the ribbon of inauguration was cut by the direct descendants of generals Lee and Grant.

Other sites of interest in the park include General Lee's general headquarters and General Grant, the apple tree behind which Lee waited for General Grant's response following his request for surrender, and a few other places witnessing the last hours of the American Civil War.