Appomattox

I'm learning a lot about the Civil War and no longer find it excruciatingly boring.  We've been to Gettysburg and Fredericksburg, and now the place were it all ended, Appomattox Court House.  I felt a greater connection to this event and site, which brought the country back to peace.  To me it was all the more impressive after being at the other battlefields and knowing that hundreds of thousands of people died to get us to the surrender at Appomattox.

McLean's Parlor

Reconstructed to look like it did when General Lee surrendered

Appomattox Court House is where General Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865.  He didn't actually do it at the town courthouse, he surrendered instead at the adjacent McLean residence.  (Appomattox Court House was the name of the town - I won a bet with Nathan about this so I must gloat.)  The park has the reconstructed courthouse, McLean house, jail, and several other key pieces of the town, kept as closely as they could be to how they were the day of the surrender.  You can see all of the places Generals Lee & Grant met over the course of several days and the road where Confederates stacked up their weapons. You can also learn all about how the Union basically forced an end to the war by cutting the South off from their supplies.  The surrounding countryside is kept undeveloped and the cute little town is frozen in 1865.  Well worth a stop - you may find yourself involuntarily imagining yourself watching the printer print Confederate parole notices and wondering if a hardtack (which looks a lot like the ever-delicious Dr. Kracker) really tastes as bad as they say.

Are those bite marks?