My Trip to Appomattox Court House

As part of my vacation last week, which was in a nearby state park, I took the opportunity to visit the historic American Civil War location of Appomattox Court House. The place where Grant forced Lee to surrender. The place where the Confederacy pretty much lost their fight to keep slavery.

As much as my visit to Gettysburg, this was something as a student of American History I wanted to do. So, with camera in hand, I took a quick break from my group's park activities to enjoy myself for a few hours.

First off, I visited the nearby American Civil War Museum. Not officially a part of the Appomattox Court House National Park (I think), they had a few galleries on display: One about the Civil War and the lead-up to what happened at Appomattox, and one about Black Emancipation.

After the visit, I drove down the road to the National Park

And into the Court House neighborhood that had been refurbished back to how it looked in 1865:

Appomattox Court House was a relatively small community on a major road between
Richmond and Lynchburg.

The McLean House from a distance

The Courthouse that gave the small community its name

This is it. Where the surrender terms were signed on April 9, 1865

Had to switch to my smartphone for the selfie...

The Room Where It Happened!

If you read up the history, most of the furniture in this room were either purchased or pilfered
by the Union officers who attended the signing, knowing full well how impactful
this moment was. What we see here are replicas based on what ended up at
the Smithsonian or private collections.

When I entered the McLean house as part of the tour, the guide warned me to duck my head a lot. Damn, people must have been short back in the 19th Century.

There is little evidence remaining from the momentous actions of April 1865. No sign of the two armies that gathered on the town's dirt road to witness Lee's armies surrendering their rifles to the Union army receiving them. All that remains are the quiet forested hills and the brick buildings preserved to document where and how it happened.

All that's left has been the troubled efforts of this nation to build the arc of history towards a pure justice for ALL Americans...

At Gettysburg

I've mentioned before I wanted to come in person to Gettysburg National Park so I could bask in the history.  So this year I did.

Went to the park with my older brother - who lives in the area - and we spent most of the day there.  We did the film and Cyclorama (a wraparound massive painting depicting the final engagement of the three-day battle), walked about the Visitor Center - which had some special activities going on due to the anniversary of the battle - before driving out by car to the key points of the battlefield.  It is spread out at such distances that going by car is the quickest way to see it all (although biking it or riding Segways are options: hiking is for masochists).

What follows is a pictorial travelogue depicting the horrors of letting your older brother try to parallel park everywhere.  Oh, and the national park.

Arriving at the Visitor Center

Hanging Out With my Brother From Another Statue, the inventor of the chokeslam,
the Sage of Springfield, the Ayatollah of RockanRolla, Abraham Lincoln!

With my real-life brother Eric, checking out the historic firearms used in the war, outside the film
and Cyclorama studios.

Scenes from the Cyclorama

Signage from the Cyclorama

In the back porch of the Visitor Center, they are drilling the new recruits.

All along the Auto Tour - the road path circling across all the key parts of the battlefield -
there are memorials to every brigade, every division, every Corps, every state.

General Reynolds memorial

The Macpherson farm, along the first part of the tour, where the fighting began.

The memorial for the Eternal Light Peace... which was surrounded by cannons and
signs of battle.  Irony?  Sad?  Human, I suppose...

Some of the artillery positions along Seminary Ridge, where the Confederate Army
lined themselves during the Second and Third days of the battle.

The stone wall of Seminary Ridge.

North Carolina's memorial

Part of the North Carolina memorial overlooking the open field between the two armies.

I am pointing at the horizon.  Over there is the Union position.  Across this field Lee will order
two massive divisions to charge on the Third Day in an all-out attack.  Just look at how open that field is,
how far that is to march...

General Robert E Lee's memorial.

The Florida memorial

Florida Memorial

General Longstreet's memorial, which is kinda in a hidden spot and not as
popularly visited...

General - and President - Eisenhower's farm 

The Georgia Memorial

For mom: the Alabama Memorial

 And here is me at Little Round Top, at the far left flank of the Union line, where Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine held their position under furious attack.

The stone wall used by the 20th Maine to hold the line.

Along Little Round Top, overlooking Devil's Den, where some of the bloodiest fighting took place.

Re-enactors, I think, walking along the memorials atop Little Round Top.
The actual re-enacting is going to take place on Saturday (on the 4th),
which I figure will have a big turnout (weather permitting).

 And one of the last stops of the tour: the Union line of the Third Day.  The Angle.  Pickett's Charge.

General Lewis Armistead's memorial. Of Pickett's Charge, his brigade reached this far before being overwhelmed.
Known as the High Watermark of the Confederacy, this is the closest the Confederates would ever get
to a major victory that could have won foreign support and convinced the Union to end the fighting.

The Copse of Trees

The other side of the open field that Pickett's Charge went across.  It seems almost
maddening to send 12,500 troops across such open fields, up towards a heavily defended line,
towards an army waiting for you.  Did Lee think numbers alone would work?  Did Lee
believe the legends already building about his success, about the determination of his soldiers?
Either way, Pickett's Charge broke the Confederate Army.

Also, there's a video clip of being atop an observation tower overlooking the Peach Orchard (some cursing involved, so NSFW).

Sickles was really an idiot.  Buford would have done better.

So I've made my pilgrimage to the battlefield.  As it goes, my vacation is going well, hope to visit Fort McHenry and to stick around for the 4th of July celebration in DC.