A painting of General Lee meeting with General Grant to discuss terms of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.

APPOMATTOX! April 9, 1865. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant.

Today, we enter the Civil War portion of our trip. Over the course of the next five days, we will visit the heart of where a major chunk of the War took place. From Appomattox to the Wilderness, Fredericksburg, Chancelorsville, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg, central Virginia took the brunt of the conflict. From the the time that my friend, Kevin, took me to Gettysburg, I have visited many important and revered battle sites scattered throughout the region, but no place has such a concentration of clashes as in this area of Virginia.

The Civil War can be divided into four theaters: 1) Western Theater - between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. 2) Transcontinental Theater - everything west of the Mississippi River. 3) Naval Blockade - the entire waterway around the South including the Atlantic coast, the Gulf coast, and the Mississippi River. This was called the Anaconda Plan. Like an Anaconda snake, the navy was to squeeze the economic life out of the Confederacy by blocking all shipping in and out of the South. 4) Eastern Theater - with the northern capital, Washington DC, and the southern capital, Richmond, laying only 90 miles apart, all eyes were on this theater of the war.

Much of the war west of the Mississippi took place in Missouri and was limited. The North eventually took control. When the war started, the Union navy was pathetic. It took nearly the whole war for the Anaconda Plan to come to fruition. However, there were early successes. New Orleans fell into Union hands by May 1, 1862. Eventually, the South was starved economically from the blockade. It was in the West that the Union experienced its most consistent success. General Grant appeared to be unstoppable. It helped that Confederate leadership in the West was badly lacking.

However, it was in the East that gave the Union fits. Saddled with poor leadership, the Union suffered defeat after defeat, mainly at the hands of General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. From the time Lee took over the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862 to his defeat at Gettysburg in July 1863, Lee garnered a string of audacious and spectacular victories that made him a legend.

After Grant essentially took over the Union Army of the Potomac in the Spring of 1864, Lee was slowly pushed to his ultimate surrender at Appomattox. It took a year of bloody battles to break Lee’s brilliant defensive strategies, but Grant’s incessant tactics wore Lee’s Army down.

We spent a half-day at the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and surrounding area. Although not a true battlefield, it still held a great reverence to me, as it was here that the Civil War effectively ended. What a moment of relief that must have been - much like the end of World War II, at least for the Union troops. I am sure the Confederate troops had mixed feelings - glad it was over, but heartbroken that they lost. I think General Grant summed it up well in his memoirs, “I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.” Fighting for the right to own people as property is the worst cause to fight for.

Lee’s retreat from Petersburg and Richmond, and Grant’s dogged pursuit was documented in detail at the park. We have been impressed by the documentary films shown at these National Civil War parks. The film shown at this park was of equal quality.

The most impressive thing, was the re-creation of the entire town of Appomattox Court House. The site badly deteriorated in the years after the surrender. Using the ruins and extensive photographic evidence, the town was authentically rebuilt, down to the furnishings in the buildings.

An actor dressed as a Union soldier, told tales of his entire war history, including ending up here at the final surrender. Apparently, his story was based on an actual soldier’s experience. I was skeptical when he first started, but he pulled it off and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is a map of the re-creation of Appomattox Court House. It is a National Historical Park.

This is a replica of the Appomattox Court House building. It now houses the museum.

The town tavern and Inn.

The jail house.

The town general store.

Lawyers office.

An assortment of other houses and buildings in the village.

Home owner, Lewis Isbell, a bachelor, had four sons with his slave servant.

We looked over the field where the two armies stood facing each other waiting to see if the fight would continue, or finally end. With a white flag of truce, it ended. For the Army of the Potomac to catch up to, and get in front of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was almost miraculous. The Army of the Potomac, for four long years had been a slow plodding outfit. The Army of Northern Virginia was always more fleet of foot. It took Grant nearly a year to get this plodding brute of an Army to be so nimble. It was good that he did. Lee’s plan was to escape and hook up with General Joe Johnston in North Carolina and carry on the war. If successful, the war would have dragged on significantly longer.

The McLean house, where the formal surrender occurred, was meticulously re-created. The furnishings, including the writing desks used by Lee and Grant, were custom built to exact specifications. In a great irony of the war, the McCleans owned a farm at the first major Civil War battle, the First Battle of Bull Run (called the First Battle of Manassas by the South). It was at their house where the Civil War effectively ended.

The McCleans found a comfortable level of prosperity in Appomattox Court House.

Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. McClean.

In the backyard of the McClean homestead were the slave quarters.

There are many paintings of the surrender. This one is considered to be quite accurate. Lee and Grant sat at different writing tables.

This is a very accurate re-creation of the room where the surrender took place.

This is an accurate re-creation of the pens used to write and sign the formal surrender.

This is an accurate re-creation of the original surrender as written by General Grant.

After the surrender was signed, printing presses were set up in the town tavern. It took printers three days working around the clock to print 28,000 parole papers. With these papers, each former Confederate soldier could get free transportation home.

An example of parole papers.

After visiting Appomattox Court House, we set up camp a few miles down the road at Holiday Lake State Park. There are two loops at the park. The first loop, called Laurel Loop, was laid out perfectly. There were less than 10 sites all separated by 100s of feet. The loop was served by a modern shower house and bathroom. That was our loop. The other loop was crammed together and had a shower house and bathroom half the size of our loop.

The camp host was friendly and knowledgeable of the area. He started full-time RVing less than a year ago. It is interesting to note that we have met several full-timers that have recently started. We have never met any long-time full-timers. I wonder what that indicates? As much as I love going out on the road for months at a time, I do like to return to our home-base with 26 acres on the Plover River in the central Wisconsin countryside.

Our electrical and water hookups.

The beach at Holiday Lake.

Like most state parks, Holiday Lake State Park had several nice hiking trails.

On a different note, we saw a Skeet gas station selling gas at $2.99. I had just filled up at $3.29, which I thought was darn good, so I couldn’t take advantage of Skeet’s great price. The going rate around here has ranged from $3.39 to $3.79, with $3.49 being typical.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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