Appomattox 2018

[White Flint Bill]

After a cold snowy beginning, yesterday turned out beautiful.

I'll separately post photos of the stacking of arms, General Lee leaving the McClean house and the McClean house interior. Here are some miscellaneous photos that some folks may enjoy.

 

[Cavalry Charger]

It is a beautiful day, and thanks for sharing @White Flint Bill . I see some snow lying on the ground in the garden. I wonder what the weather was like on the day of the actual surrender?

 

[White Flint Bill]

It is a beautiful day, and thanks for sharing @White Flint Bill . I see some snow lying on the ground in the garden. I wonder what the weather was like on the day of the actual surrender?

Thanks. I accidently hit Send before all the photos were uploaded, so I edited to add more.

Other than the fact that it was muddy, I don't know what the weather was in Appomattox on April 9, 1865, but I'd bet some of our resident experts do!

 

[donna]

Excellent photos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Northern Light]

Great photos, thanks so much for posting!

 

[Eleanor Rose]

Wow! These are great @White Flint Bill! @Southern Unionist and I got to see the stacking of the arms ceremony a couple of years ago at Appomattox and it was a truly a moving experience.

 

[captaindrew]

Great photos! Thanks for sharing

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

Great photos! Appomattox is on my list of reenactments to attend. My GG-Grandfather of Co. D. 60th Alabama Infantry surrendered there. He stayed in Northern Georgia for a year after the surrender where he met my GG-Grandmother before returning to Alabama, (incidentally he also brought home a pair of Remington NMA's, making me wonder what he was up to for that year). Sadly due to Reconstruction he wasn't able stay in Alabama, according to family lore, a late night fatal encounter with a carpetbagger serving papers on his land was the reason the family had to relocate to Texas.

On a side note Appomattox's preservation seems to be in a good state of affairs.

 

[dixie1861]

So cool! Thanks so much for posting. I enjoyed all of those pictures!

 

[Larryh86GT]

Awesome photos. Thanks. Us here in the north really appreciate seeing a blue sky.

 

[Kip124thNY]

Enjoyed the photos, thanks for posting.

 

[Stony]

By 1865 the tavern had become a "bare and cheerless place". I wonder if the war had anything to do with it. lol. Great pics btw. Thanks White Flint Bill.

 

[connecticut yankee]

Thanks. I accidently hit Send before all the photos were uploaded, so I edited to add more.

Other than the fact that it was muddy, I don't know what the weather was in Appomattox on April 9, 1865, but I'd bet some of our resident experts do!

From Robert K. Krick's excellent book Civil War Weather in Virginia :

April 1865---- Richmond's final moments as capital of the Confederate States unfolded under pleasant, spring-like weather conditions. "It is beautiful weather," a Richmond diarist wrote on the morning of April 1, and the next day he enjoyed sitting in the sun under cool temperatures. On the momentous morning of April 9, Richmond was "a little cool." After a rainy evening on the 10th, clouds covered the sky on the morning of the 11th. Heavy rain returned the night of April 12 and continued the next day. After a brightly sunlit April 14, heavy rain fell on the 15th.19 Outside Richmond, where Lee's lines soon would be broken, an artillerist wrote in his diary on the morning of Sunday, April 2: "The weather is ¤ne and there is not a cloud in the sky." When he arose on the 4th, along the army's route of retreat, he wrote: "We are having a rainy day. The roads are right muddy." Seven days later, as a surrendered ex-Confederate near Appomattox, the same diarist wrote: "there is much mud all around us."20 On April 10 in Nelson County, a homeward-bound Confederate recalled, "early in the day it set to raining. We traveled all day through a downpour." A Confederate general awaiting parole at Appomattox described the weather on April 10 and 11 in his diary: "It rained, and . . . the men were exposed to a pitiless storm, without shelter."21 A newly surrendered, if not yet reconstructed, rebel wrote in his diary near City Point on April 13, "the nights are dismally cold and cloudy . . . it having rained nearly every day since our capture." Through the night of the 12th, "the rain fairly poured down . . . a perfect deluge. . . . Oh, thou black, horrible, cruel night."22 Confederates imprisoned by the thousands at Point Lookout, Maryland.

 

[JOHN42768]

Very nice, thanks

 

[byron ed]

Really like these photos, feels like I'm there. I'm a-gonna sign up for this one next year if it happens (I say, each year failing my plan to disengage from the military side of reenacting).

I spent the same weekend in trenches at a WW1 'nactment at a cold, cold often windy Midwest venue. Really appreciated that trench coats were first invented for this.

 

[John S. Carter]

S

Thanks. I accidently hit Send before all the photos were uploaded, so I edited to add more.

Other than the fact that it was muddy, I don't know what the weather was in Appomattox on April 9, 1865, but I'd bet some of our resident experts do!

Since I have not been there would you please to inform me as to which house is the McClean house where the surrender took place .What is the other house? It is amazing that this area has not changed since that time! Is this a National or State park? No one resides in the house? Notice that there is no Union forces in your pictures,where were they at as the Southerns surrendered their arms? It would appear that they would be in line as the Confederate force marched down the road,like at Yorktown were the Continentals where in line as the Brits march to surrender their weapons.Are there any books on that event?Remember that while Lee surrendered his ANV ,Johnson was still out with the West force with Sherman.Till Johnson surrendered the war would continue,so is there a myth that with the surrender of the ANV that the war was over .?Then there were forces in the West who had not heard from Richmond.

 

[WJC]

Thanks for sharing these great shots!

 

[White Flint Bill]

S
Since I have not been there would you please to inform me as to which house is the McClean house where the surrender took place .What is the other house? It is amazing that this area has not changed since that time! Is this a National or State park? No one resides in the house? Notice that there is no Union forces in your pictures,where were they at as the Southerns surrendered their arms? It would appear that they would be in line as the Confederate force marched down the road,like at Yorktown were the Continentals where in line as the Brits march to surrender their weapons.Are there any books on that event?Remember that while Lee surrendered his ANV ,Johnson was still out with the West force with Sherman.Till Johnson surrendered the war would continue,so is there a myth that with the surrender of the ANV that the war was over .?Then there were forces in the West who had not heard from Richmond.

The house in the first picture is the McClean house. I'll be doing a separate post on the McClean house so I tried to feature other places in the village in this one. The brick house in the second photo is the court house.

The dirt road in the pictures is the old stage road. The surrendering Confederates marched down this road, which was flanked by Union soldiers, when they went to stack arms in the formal surrender ceremony.

I'll be doing another couple of posts, but out here in internet wasteland it takes forever to upload pictures and I haven't gotten to it yet.

 

[mofederal]

Great photos Bill, they brought back so many memories of long ago. Much appreciated. Thank you.