![]() ![]() A suitable venue in the nearby village of Appomattox Courthouse was sought for the discussion to take place and the home of one Wilmer McLean was settled upon. Three-and-a-half years later Robert E Lee and his Confederate Army were surrounded, leading the general to finally, and reluctantly, discuss terms of surrender with his opposite number, Ulysses S Grant. In 1861, in what was one of the earliest engagements of the war, McLean’s house near Manassas, Virginia, was a Confederate headquarters that suffered a Union shell crashing through the dining room, causing him to move to a remote village more than a hundred miles away. This can often lead to bold fictions, but the story of Wilmer McLean, one almost too coincidental to be believed, is fact. So much of the Civil War is personal: aside from the military accounts and largely propaganda-free journalism of the time, a good deal of information comes from diaries and is therefore varnished with personal experience and sentimentalism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |