Last weekend we were in Lynchburg Virgina for my wife's graduation, and we were able to go to Appomattox courthouse, where as you may know, is the place that General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia following the battle that took place there. Even while driving there I was preparing my wife telling her how "this probably won't be that big or anything" and I was thankfully completely wrong! This is a really nice site and there are 12-15 rebuilt period buildings and most of the ones we toured were decorated in period. You could probably take your time and spend 4-5 hours just seeing everything. Here we are sitting on the porch of the visitors center (Reconstructed county courthouse)
(Click on pictures for full size image)
The next group of pictures are all from the inside of the visitors center. Here are some nice "dug" muskets.
This is a really nice collection of artifacts from a single soldier, including his parole papers from Appomattox.
The main entrance has dozens of pictures of men who were at Appomattox for the surrender.
The next two pictures are a few display cases full of all kinds of great artifacts. What I wouldn't give to have some of this stuff!
Next is a nice collection of local dug bullets.
Here is the first of two really nice flags.
The first of some really nice jackets.
Stack of arms, I really didn't look that closely at these, we were too distracted by the sign (which I didn't get a picture of) warning of the electronic alarm that would go off if you touched these!
Confederate frock coat.
The 2nd of two flags.
Union Jacket.
There were so many thing that I didn't even see- let alone get pictures of. After about 30 minutes everyone was waiting for my father in law and I to finish up so we had to skim through a lot of stuff quickly. I would definitely love to go back and spend a lot more time looking at everything and reading all of the descriptions.
Next, on to the Mclean house! Where the actual surrender was signed.
View from the front of the house.
Here is a replica of the desk General Lee used to sign the surrender conditions.
Here is a replica of the desk General Grant used to write out the surrender conditions.
I believe that both of the original desks are in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
One of the rooms in the Mclean house.
Another room in the Mclean house.
Finishing up, here are some pictures of a few of the outbuildings (aka terrain inspiration/reference)
A nice little grave site.
Although it's not a major battlefield, I would still highly recommend visiting this if you ever get the chance.
