McLean House - Appomattox

The McLean House is located on National Park Drive in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.  It was here that Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.  The three-story red brick home where the surrender took place was built in 1848 and purchased by Wilmer McLean in 1862.  McLean's story goes back to the first major battle of the war, Manassas.  He lived with his family on a home in the middle of the conflict.  Fearing for their safety he moved them away to this location, feeling that the war would never reach him this far out in the country.  In early April the war did come to his doorstep again.  The decimated Confederate Army was stalled in their retreat and fearing for more unneccesary losses in the war, Robert E. Lee agreed to a surrender.  The McLean house was chosen as the location of the official meeting because it was the most impressive house in the small village.  In the afternoon of April 9, 1865 Lee and Grant met in the parlor of the home, exchanged cordial greetings and small talk, agreed to the terms of surrender, and signed the documents.  On April 12 an official surrender ceremony was held in the village.  The planning for this ceremony was also held in the McLean house.  After the April events were ended the village returned to normal.  McLean sold his home in 1867 and moved the family to Alexandria.  The significance of the McLean house wasn't lost to history.  In 1893 the house was dismantled, with plans to move it permanently for display in Washington, D.C.  This never materialized, and all that was left was a pile of bricks and wood, which sat rotting until Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill creating Appomattox Court House National Monument in 1935.  The park was established in 1940 and over the course of the next ten years the McLean home, along with several other structures in the village was rebuilt and restored.  The McLean House was dedicated in 1950.  

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