Time Travel Saturday

Sometimes during a quiet moment I wonder what it would be like to travel back in time. It's not known to have ever happened and certainly isn't considered realistic, but a flight of fancy can't hurt. So now and then I imagine I can time travel and witness a moment from the past.

There are so many occasions to choose from, so many places and events to see. More than likely I'd be interested in something of historical or political significance, although ordinary moments or people could catch my fancy. How about Lucy? What would a day with Lucy be like? How about a day in Paris in say 1868?

Maybe another time, just now I have history in mind.

Today I'd go to Appomattox Court House on April 9th 1865.

The situation was hopeless for The Army of Northern Virginia and so the commander, General Robert E. Lee, decided to meet Union Commander General U.S. Grant to seek terms. Around midday Confederate Colonel Charles Marshall approaches Mr. Wilmer McLean on the street and asks him if General Lee could use his house to surrender the army.

Wilmer McLean, who had been a Major in the Virginia militia was too old to return to duty at the start of the war, moved his family, wife Virginia and children Maria, Osceola, Lucretia, Wilmer Jr. and Nannie, to Appomattox Court House in 1863. They moved from a house in Manassas following its destruction during the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. As headquarters to Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard the house was fired on by Union artillery and had a cannonball drop through the fireplace. Beauregard recalled later,

A comical effect of this artillery fight was the destruction of the dinner of myself and staff by a Federal shell that fell into the fire-place of my headquarters at the McLean House.

And so McLean moved to Appomattox Court House. Some say he moved to get away from the war and some say it was because of his business, sugar purveyor to the Confederacy.

Around 1 PM General Lee astride Traveller arrives and enters McLean’s parlor to await General Grant. Lee, tall and immaculately groomed with silver hair and beard wearing a red sash and ornate sword, is subdued. At 1:30 Grant is spotted approaching with General Sherman and members of his staff. Grant, whose baggage has gone missing, is slightly disheveled after some days without a fresh uniform. He approaches Lee and shakes hands. Grant reminds Lee that they had met in Mexico. Lee says he knows he met Grant, but that he could not recall how Grant looked, “…I have never been able to recall a single feature.” Grant continues to reminisce until Lee reminds him of the reason for the meeting. Without missing a beat Grant moves to the business at hand, terms are agreed to and the surrender document is signed. Oh, to have been in that room; to have witnessed the end of The Army of Northern Virginia, to feel the presence of Generals Grant and Lee, to have watched as Lee expressed his gratitude for Grant’s generous terms and to have experienced the quiet moments as Grant drafted the surrender document.

Following the surrender Lee leaves first. He mounts Traveler and is heading off as Grant and his staff leave the house. Grant stops and removes his hat in salute. Lee raises his own hat in return and then rides off.

And where was McLean during all of this? Wilmer was outside perhaps wondering how fate had chosen him to play a role in both the beginning and the end of the war. As it was McLean endured some damage here at the end as he had in the beginning. Following the surrender Ord made off with the table Lee used and Sheridan got away with Grant’s table. Also carried away were the chairs, an inkstand and two brass candlesticks.

Confederate Brigadier General E. P. Alexander encountered McLean following Lee's capitulation.

I had not seen or heard of McLean for years, when the day after the surrender, I met him at Appomattox Courthouse, and asked with some surprise what he was doing there. He replied, with much indignation: “What are you doing here? These armies tore my place on Bull Run all to pieces, and kept running over it backward and forward till no man could live there, so I just sold out and came here, two hundred miles away, hoping I should never see a soldier again. And now, just look around you! Not a fence-rail is left on the place, the last guns trampled down all my crops, and Lee surrenders to Grant in my house.”

Yes, April 9, 1865 would have been an interesting day in Appomattox Court House, Virginia.