Appomattox

Day 5

After a breakfast of Cherios, OJ, cinnamon flavored coffee, and blueberry muffins we drove to the tiny village of Appomattox Court House where Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865.  The ceremony took place in the parlor of the McLean family house at 3 PM.  The rural village has been restored to look exactly as it did in 1865, and includes a tavern, general store, jail, lawyers office and an actual courthouse which now serve as the Visitors Center.  The buildings are beautiful and the surrounding grounds are stunning.  

Tavern

General Store

The McLean Home

In the week preceding his surrender, after Lee’s troops abandoned defending Richmond, the Confederacy capitol, his army had daily battles with Grant’s forces which reduced the Army of Northern Virginia from 60,000 to 30,000 soldiers.  So surrender was unavoidable.  Lee did not want to keep running and stage guerilla type attacks that would ultimately do harm his men and the nation.  Other Confederate armies in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas continued to fight but by July all finally surrendered.

The McLean home included slave quarters behind the main house.  It’s hard to imagine living in such conditions.

Leaving Appomattox, we drove to nearby Lynchburg where we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant.   Joni and I both had incredible tacos and strawberry margaritas.

From Lynchburg we drove to the Booker T. Washington National Monument which is located on the grounds of the plantation where Booker was born as a slave in 1856 and where he was freed in 1865 at the end of the war.  He lived with his mother, and two siblings in a tiny log cabin on the grounds of the plantation.  

His family immediately moved to West Virginia when they were freed.  His life as an educator was remarkable.  He is the first African American to receive an honorary degree from Harvard, to be on a postage stamp, to have a US Ship named in his honor, to have his image on a US coin, and to be honored with a national monument. Truly a great American.

We left the Burroughs plantation around 5 pm and arrived at our campsite at Fairy Stone State Park in southern Virginia at 6 pm.  It was 73°F, and sunny.  Elevation=1200 ft.  Miles driven=149.  

This was our third Virginia State Campground and they have all been equally well maintained and spacious and in gorgeous settings.  Virginia gets an A.  We’re really loving April camping…so far every campgrounds has been practically empty; so the quiet and serenity if wonderful.  It’s as if you went backpacking into the wilderness, but you have a lot more conveniences.