Wilmer McLean originally had his business and home in Manassas, Virginia, at the beginning of the Civil War. His home was General PGT Beauregard's headquarters during the battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. During the battle, a federal shell destroyed the Wilmer kitchen. Seeking to escape from the war, he moved his familyand business further south to little, out-of-the-way Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, but the war found him anyway. The parlour of his new home was the site of General RE Lee's Surrender to General US Grant on April 9, 1865. It was often said the the Civil War began in his kitchen and ended in his parlor.