Images of Appomattox Court House National Historical Park – Western Virginia, taken in July 2022.

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park memorializes Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

The town of Appomattox Virginia became the center of US history in April of 1865 when General Grant and the Northern Army outflanked and surrounded the troops of the Army of Northern Virginia forcing General Lee to end the South’s attempt to create a separate nation. It was here the surrender ceremony took place along with the Confederate soldiers laying down their arms and receiving ‘parole passes’ which were printed up in the Clover Hill Tavern.

Now I assume almost everyone has heard of Appomattox and associates it with the surrender of the South and the end of the Civil War but I must admit I was surprised to learn (or simply didn’t learn it when I should have) the actual ceremony didn’t take place in the Appomattox Court House at all; instead, Grant and Lee actually met nearby in the parlor of the McLean House because the court house was closed due to the fact it was Palm Sunday.

It wasn’t all I learned, or relearned, while touring the park but it does highlight the importance of the stories told by the various historic parks which are part of the National Park Service system.