This humble-looking brick house, surrounded by rolling green Virginia fields and stately pines, is the site of many momentous events, only one of which is the historic signing of the surrender accords by Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. The Battle of Appomattox Court House was also fought here, the final engagement between Confederate and Union Forces, where the Confederates found themselves completely surrounded. Lee had assumed he was fighting only cavalry, and found that the cavalry had back up – two mobile corps of Union infantry. Lee’s choice was to either surrender or face the annihilation of the Confederate Army.
There’s a weighty feel to the place, as there is with so many battlefields and places of significance. It’s an unmistakable feeling that something big happened here. My mom and I were talking about this feeling the other day, and we hypothesized that since we do release different chemical combinations – endorphins, pheromones, adrenaline – when we experience strong emotions, maybe those linger in places where Something Has Happened. That would explain why every battlefield I’ve ever visited is quiet, much quieter than the surrounding landscape.
The McLean House has a presence all its own, thanks to its history – and not just the history of Wilmer McLean, who just happened to run into Lee’s adjutant, Colonel Marshall, and after a number of other locations failed, offer up his house as the “surrender house” – but thanks to the oddities that went into its destruction and reconstruction. Yes, destruction. The McLean House isn’t the original house. That house was purchased and dismantled by a bunch of entrepreneurs who decided to dismantle the house and move it piece by piece to Washington D.C. so it could be rebuilt as a Civil War museum. During the process, they ran out of money, and the pieces of the house just sat.
Eventually, after the village was signed officially into National Monument status, the house was rebuilt from a combination of new and original materials. Thanks to meticulous architects, historians, and photographers, it has been reconstructed much as the old pictures depict. The original furniture is part of the Smithsonian collection, but everything looks pretty authentic. Let me take you on a quick house tour of the McLean House.
Some of these pictures called for something more than my usual editing, so I took the opportunity to play with some creative art effects to give them an antiqued and period feel. The slaves’ quarters seemed especially bleak to me, especially when you look at the comparative grandeur of the rest of the house.
And finally, here’s a look at the front parlor of the house, where the surrender took place.
Lee showed up in his dress uniform, polished and ready, and sat at the more ornate marble table. Grant showed up in his field uniform, complete with muddy boots, and sat at the simple oval table. That created a bit of controversy, but when asked about it later, Grant merely responded, “I didn’t want to keep the gentleman waiting.”
This is in keeping with all the stories I’ve heard told about their characters, and I’ve heard many. Ever since I started my time at West Point, these men became more than just figures from a historical war. Robert E. Lee, the “Marble Man,” is a fellow Army engineer and West Point Class of 1829, and has the distinction of graduating without any demerits, or points off for bad behavior {yours truly tried that but unfortunately racked up a couple hours on Central Area}. Grant {who was actually born Hiram Ulysses Grant and didn’t receive the S. until he showed up at West Point due to a clerical error} started out as a quartermaster from West Point Class of 1943, and while he racked up quite a few demerits, was actually a strong mathematician, just “lax in his studies.” I feel like I grew up hearing stories about these men, not just their exploits in battle but what pranks they pulled as cadets, how well they did in their coursework, and whether or not they fell asleep in class as often as we did.
The stories of what Lee and Grant, Patton and McArthur, Schwarzkopf and Petraeus and more, did when they were cadets and what personality traits they showed back then, told as if they were just a little bit ahead of our cohort instead of years, is an amazing piece of West Point culture, and one we don’t fully absorb as cadets. Aside from thinking on occasion, when I was standing out during drill and ceremony practice on the Plain, our main parade field, that I was standing in the same place where great generals had done their saber drill, I didn’t really think about it all that much. It definitely hit me when I went back as an instructor. The things you see at thirty that you could never see at twenty.
It sounds trite to say that history comes alive when you visit the places and stand on the ground where it happened, but it’s the truth. Things unfold for you and you can watch things happen in your mind’s eye that you could never visualize before. I always feel like I’ve experienced something amazing when I visit places like this, and this trip was no different.
Here’s hoping everyone has a great start to their week!
