A Place Called Appomattox

Gallery

Original 1845 lot layout of Appomattox Court House. The Clover Hill Tavern straddled lots 16 and 17; the house where Lee surrendered was later built on lot 21 (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Thomas S. Bocock, Appomattox County’s first county attorney. He was a candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives during the marathon contest of 1859–60, and he was the only man to serve in that capacity in the Confederate Congress (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Joel Walker Sweeney. Born within sight of what would become Appomattox Court House, he organized a minstrel show that included several family members, and he was credited with inventing the five-string banjo. He died at Appomattox in the autumn before the Civil War began; his grave lay only yards from the spot where Robert E. Lee awaited U. S. Grant’s reply to his offer of surrender (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Richard Alexander Sweeney, who died on a musical tour in 1860 (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Sampson D. Sweeney. The last of the famous brothers, Sam died early in 1864, while serving as J. E. B. Stuart’s renowned headquarters banjo-picker (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Sam Sweeney entertaining J. E. B. Stuart’s headquarters staff, ca. 1862 (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Charles H. Sweeney, ca. 1865. A cousin of Joel, Richard, and Sam (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Charles H. Sweeney (at left), Mattie Sweeney (in white apron), and their children, ca. 1900. The main portion of their cabin still stands on the slope opposite Appomattox Court House (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). The only known photograph of Wilson Hix, onetime sheriff of Appomattox County and owner of the Clover Hill Tavern at the time of Lee’s surrender (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Lucy H. Hix, Wilson Hix’s second wife (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Wilson Hix’s daughter, Emma, with her husband, Henry J. Cogan, and their child, ca. 1868. Cogan arrived at Appomattox Court House as an officer with the postwar provost detail (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). (top left) Edward G. Hix, ca. 1890 (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). (top right) Captain George W. Abbitt, Co. B, 46th Virginia, ca. 1862. Abbitt, who commanded his regiment at the surrender, later served several years as clerk of Appomattox County (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). (left) Second Lieutenant William Glover Coleman, Co. B, 46th Virginia, ca. 1862. While acting as commander of his company, Coleman strenuously objected that Private William J. McDearmon had been detailed behind the lines to supply lumber for the Southside Railroad. The McDearmon family sawmill competed for such contracts with Coleman himself, who attempted to operate his business while serving at the front (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Sergeant Daniel W. Gills, Co. H, 2nd Virginia Cavalry. In his capacity as county sheriff, Wilson Hix unsuccessfully attempted to have Gills—his deputy and later his son-inlaw —discharged from the army (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). Ellen Bryant. Bryant, who lived north of Appomattox Court House, claimed that her father served as overseer on Joel Flood’s plantation. In 1866 she married Daniel Cole, a Pennsylvanian with the county provost detail (Appomattox Court House National Historical Park). High Bridge over the Appomattox River, east of Farmville. Cost overruns in construction of the piers for this bridge helped bankrupt Samuel McDearmon, the original developer of Appomattox Court House. The bridge became strategically crucial during Lee’s retreat: the last four spans, in the distance, were burned by Confederates on April 7, 1865 (Massachusetts Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.). Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain, commander of a brigade in the Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac. A genuine war hero who appears to have retroactively inflated his role even further, he later claimed that U. S. Grant personally named him to command Union forces in the surrender ceremony (Companions of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, New York: L. R. Hammersley Co., 1901). Jenyns C. Battersby’s sketch of the last round fired by Confederate artillery from the Peers house. Battersby, the commander of the 1st New York Cavalry, did...