Appomattox Court House

Former seat of Appomattox County, about 25 miles east of Lynchburg, Appomattox Court House is the town in Virginia where Confederate Forces surrendered to the North on April 9, 1865, ending the Civil War (or the War For Southern Independence, depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon Line you're on). Robert E. Lee formally surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in the McLean House. By 1892, Appomattox Court House was almost completely deserted, the seat having been moved three miles south to the town of Appomattox. In 1954 the entire 968 acre town was designated as a historical park, and all of its buildings were restored to their 1865 condition.

When a railroad between Lynchburg and Richmond came through sometime not long after the American Civil War and Reconstruction, the entire town of Appomattox packed up and moved about four miles south to be on the railroad line. This left old Appomattox Court House as a purely historical site, not to be marred by train tracks or U.S. 460 as it came through. And that's a good thing.

To visit the battlefield, take Virginia 24 north from modern-day Appomattox.