Unseen Appomattox

August 22, 2009
with NPS historian
Patrick Schroeder
includes lunch
$125 : 20 seat limit
Headquarters:
Appomattox, Virginia

We'll gather for breakfast at a local Appomattox eatery, scrutinize maps, and discuss the itinerary, then head out for a full day of touring with a delicious lunch stop at the historic Babcock House.

This tour will take you to areas most have never visited before, including some sites that are in private hands, saved by the Civil War Preservation Trust, or in remote areas of the park. Places featured in the tour will be:

• Appomattox Station battlefield—Civil War Preservation Trust has applied for a one million dollar grant to save 40 acres of this unprotected battlefield. This April 8, 1865, engagement pitted Federal General George A. Custer’s cavalry division against Confederate General Rueben. L. Walker’s reserve artillery. The fight was unique in many aspects and a key element to trapping the Army of Northern Virginia, leading to its surrender the next day.
• Gordon’s April 9th attack—we will hike the ground that Confederate General John Gordon’s men advanced across in the break out attempt on the morning of April 9. We will follow the ground to the point where Lord’s (U.S.) battery was captured.
• Robertson House Site—Where the last fighting and casualties took place. See it now, Wal-Mart has bought the property and is slated to build on it next year. Discuss proffers by business.
• Sears Property—We will visit the Sears property, saved by the Civil War Preservation Trust, across which Federal General Charles Griffin’s Fifth Corps advanced, and was the route that Grant took to enter the village of Appomattox Court House for the surrender meeting.
• The Morton House—A visit to the Col. Morton house site will reveal the story of Patti Guild, the only woman to make the retreat with Lee’s army. It is also the area where some of the last fighting took place between the men of Confederate General Martin Gary’s cavalry brigade and the advance of Custer’s division. Civil War Preservation Trust is working on saving this property.
• Confederate Trenches—A small trench line built by Confederate pickets and skirmishers in located several miles from the park boarder, but was purchased by the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites and donated to the park. There is also a chance that we could visit Pleasant Retreat, (the Flood Home), that served as Longstreet’s headquarters.
• The Coleman House Site—was the epicenter of fighting during the Battle of Appomattox Court House on the morning of April 9. In this area, the 11th Maine suffered 59 casualties—the highest suffered by any unit at Appomattox, also here is where the only civilian casualty took place, a slave woman named Hannah Reynolds.

We will also visit several cemeteries throughout the day.

[photo at top: Appomattox Court House, 1865, by Timothy O'Sullivan, on the Stage Road west of the courthouse. "Towns people and members of Company D, 188th Pennsylvania posing on the west side of the courthouse in August, 1865"]

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WOODBURY HISTORICAL TOURS