Appomattox Court House
Appomattox Court House, in the American Civil War, site in Virginia of the surrender of the Confederate forces to those of the North on April 9, 1865. After an engagement with Federal cavalry, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was surrounded at Appomattox, seat of Appomattox county, Virginia, 25 miles east of Lynchburg. Three miles to the northeast, at the former county seat, known as Appomattox Court House, Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, thus effectively ending the Civil War. This location was virtually deserted after removal of the county seat to the new town of Appomattox in 1892 but was made a national historical monument in 1940; its buildings, including the McLean House, in which the formal surrender took place, were restored to their 1865 condition. In 1954 the entire 968-acre area was designated a historical park.