Old Appomattox Court House
Encyclopedia
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park
The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park is a National Historical Park of original and reconstructed nineteenth century buildings. It was signed into law August 3, 1935. The village was made a national monument in 1940 and a national historical park in 1954...
. It was registered in the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989. It is located on Virginia State Route 24
Virginia State Route 24
Virginia State Route 24 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 221 and SR 116 in Roanoke east to US 60 in Mt. Rush. SR 24 connects Roanoke with several small communities in southern Bedford County and central Campbell County...
, three miles (5 km) northeast of the town of Appomattox
Appomattox, Virginia
Appomattox is a town in Appomattox County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,761 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Appomattox County.Appomattox is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
in Appomattox County, Virginia
Appomattox County, Virginia
Appomattox County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 14,973. Its county seat is Appomattox. For a long time, Appomattox was a prohibition or dry county...
, where the "new" Appomattox Court House
Appomattox Court House
The Appomattox Courthouse is the current courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia built in 1892. It is located in the middle of the state about three miles northwest of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, once known as Clover Hill - home of the original Old Appomattox Court House...
is presently located.
History
Appomattox County, Virginia
Appomattox County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 14,973. Its county seat is Appomattox. For a long time, Appomattox was a prohibition or dry county...
. It was built in 1846, one year after Appomattox County was established, at what was known then as Clover Hill, Virginia. It was the second government public structure built after Appomattox County became official. It was in the center of the village on a large green lot surrounded by the Richmond-Lynchburg stage road. The first building constructed after the county became official was the original wooden county jail
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park ruins
The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park ruins are part of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.-Old county jail:...
built in 1845. The original courthouse was built across the street from the Clover Hill Tavern
Clover Hill Tavern
The Clover Hill Tavern with its guest house and slave quarters are structures within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. They were registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.-History:...
in 1846. This original courthouse building burned down in 1892. A second courthouse
Appomattox Court House
The Appomattox Courthouse is the current courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia built in 1892. It is located in the middle of the state about three miles northwest of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, once known as Clover Hill - home of the original Old Appomattox Court House...
was constructed in 1892, which is near the location of the Appomattox Station
Appomattox Station
Appomattox Station is located in the town of Appomattox, Virginia. Before the Civil War, the railroad , bypassed Appomattox Court House village which was built southeast about three miles in 1850...
in the town of Appomattox, Virginia
Appomattox, Virginia
Appomattox is a town in Appomattox County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,761 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Appomattox County.Appomattox is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
.
The reconstructed "old" Appomattox Court House is presently the visitor center for the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. On the first floor is the information desk. On the second floor is a museum and the auditorium. Interpretive slide shows present the events of General Lee's Confederate Northern Virginia troop surrender to Grant. Civil War weapons are on display and there are many photographs relating to the event. The "old" Appomattox Court House was reconstructed in 1963 and 1964 as the park's visitor center and information desk for the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
.
Historical significance
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
to General Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
as it was Palm Sunday and the court was closed for the day. The actual surrender took place at the McLean House. The National Park Service states that the Old Appomattox Court House is of paramount importance by virtue of its association with the site however. It is vital under certain criteria of the National Park Service and by virtue of its creation of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park by federal law. It represents the participation of the federal government in the preservation and commemoration of historically significant events.
Description of old "court house"
The reconstructed Old Appomattox Court House is a two-story structure of running bond brick with a raised second floor main entry. There is a second story east and west entry porch. The building has newelNewel
A newel, also called a central pole, is an upright post that supports the handrail of a stair banister. In stairs having straight flights it is the principal post at the foot of the staircase, but it can also be used for the intermediate posts on landings and at the top of a staircase...
posts and baluster
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
s. The four-panel entry doors on the main level are flanked by 12/12 double hanging sash windows. The size of the structure is fifty feet wide by forty feet deep. It has three bays with a hipped flat-seam roof with wood trusses.
The rebuilt edifice has a brick paved first floor beneath the second floor hipped-roof porch with brick cast stone steps and cast iron railings. The lower level has a similar layout with a smaller four-panel door flanked by 8/8 double hanging sash windows. The end elevations have two internal chimneys flanked by 8/8 double hanging sash windows on the first floor with three 8/8 double hanging sash windows on the second level. There is a third sash window located in the center. All the windows of the "court house" have shutters.
Footnotes
Sources
- Bradford, Ned, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Plume, 1989
- Catton, Bruce, A Stillness at Appomattox, Doubleday 1953, Library of Congress # 53-9982, ISBN 0-385-04451-8
- Catton, Bruce, This Halloeed Ground, Doubleday 1953, Library of Congress # 56-5960
- Chaffin, Tom , 2006. Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah, Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux,.
- Davis, Burke, The Civil War: Strange & Fascinating Facts, Wings Books, 1960 & 1982, ISBN 0-5173715-1-0
- Davis, Burke, To Appomattox - Nine April Days, 1865, Eastern Acorn Press, 1992, ISBN 0-9159921-7-5
- Gutek, Patricia, Plantations and Outdoor Museums in America's Historic South, University of South Carolina Press, 1996, ISBN 1-5700307-1-5
- Hosmer, Charles Bridgham, Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States by the University Press of Virginia, 1981
- Kaiser, Harvey H., The National Park Architecture Sourcebook, Princeton Architectural Press, 2008, ISBN 1-5689874-2-0
- Kennedy, Frances H., The Civil War Battlefield Guide, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990, ISBN 0-395522-8-2X
- Korn, Jerry et al., The Civil War, Pursuit to Appomattox, The Last Battles, Time-Life Books, 1987, ISBN 0-8094478-8-6
- Marvel, William, A Place Called Appomattox, UNC Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8078256-8-9
- Marvel, William, Lee's Last Retreat, UNC Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8078570-3-3
- McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford University Press, 1988,
- National Park Service, Appomattox Court House: Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Virginia, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 2002, ISBN 0-9126277-0-0
- Tidwell, William A., April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War, Kent State University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8733851-5-2
- Weigley, Russel F., A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865, Indiana University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-2533373-8-0