Nostalgia & History > Appomattox

The following is an excerpt from the website,
 
http://civilwardailygazette.com/2015/04/09/my-command-has-been-fought-to-a-frazzle-appomattox-court-house-part-1
 
General Lee received Grant’s message a little before 1pm, delivered by Col. Orville Babcock of Grant’s staff. Lee asked one of his own staff, Col. Charles Marshall, to find for them a place where they could meet, and he rode into the town.
 
“We struck up the hill towards Appomattox Court House,” recalled Col. Marshall. “There was a man named McLean who used to live on the first battle-field of Manassas, at a house about a mile from Manassas Junction. He didn’t like the war, and having seen the first battle of Manassas, he thought he would get away where there wouldn’t be any more fighting so he moved down to Appomattox Court House. General Lee told me to go forward and find a house where he could meet General Grant, and of all people, whom should I meet but McLean. I rode up to him and said, ‘Can you show me a house where General Lee and General Grant can meet together.’ He took me into a house that was all dilapidated and that had no furniture in it. I told him it wouldn’t do. Then he said, ‘Maybe my house will do!’ He lived in a very comfortable house, and I told him I thought that would suit.” 
 
McLean, now part of the legend, had lived upon the battlefield of Manassas, where he and his family witnessed the first major bloodshed of the war. After the second battle in 1862, he moved with his family to the small village of Appomattox, promising them that it would be a place “where the sound of battle would never reach them.”
 
Marshall sent an orderly back to General Lee and Col. Babcock, who soon arrived. “Colonel Babcock told his orderly that he was to meet General Grant, who was coming on the road, and turn him in when he came along,” Marshall continued. “So General Lee, Babcock and myself sat down in McLean’s parlour and talked in the most friendly and affable way.”
 
General Grant was led to Sheridan’s lines, where they were arrayed for battle, facing the enemy. “They were very much excited,” Grant remembered, “and expressed their view that this was all a ruse employed to enable the Confederates to get away. They said they believed that Johnston was marching up from North Carolina now, and Lee was moving to join him; and they would whip the rebels where they now were in five minutes if I would only let them go in.”
 
But these were not Grant’s own thoughts. He had, he said, “no doubt about the good faith of Lee.” He walked up the steps onto McLean’s porch, and found Col. Marshall waiting. Perhaps turning to give himself one last look of the scene which had unfolded around him, Grant recalled:
 
“The head of his column was occupying a hill, on a portion of which was an apple orchard, beyond a little valley which separated it from that on the crest of which Sheridan’s forces were drawn up in line of battle to the south.”
 
The conclusion of this telling will post at 3pm Eastern – the time of the surrender itself. 
 
Picture 1 is from the following website, 
 
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virginia,_Appomattox_Station_-_NARA_-_533370.jpg
 
Picture 1, “Virginia, Appomattox Station.” 
 

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Picture 2, a portion of picture 1 enlarged.   

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Looks like some pretty wide gauge track. Thanks for the interesting photos. We are now coming up to the 150th anniversary of the surrender.

Standard gauge laid with small rail looks amazingly wide. I noticed this effect locally in somebody's back yard who has a stretch of standard-gauge track using old underground mine rail. I can't get over how wide it looks! === === = === JLH

It probably is broad gauge - the South didn't convert to Standard Gauge until 1886.  The North was pretty well standardized by the time the war started.  In 1861 the act that created the transcontinental railroad specified standard gauge be used, as well.

-John

It is my understanding that some of the South's rails were standard-gauged at the time.

Some were, some weren't. There was a fair amount of dual-gage track around, especially in interchange yards.
 

I under stand that most railroad track in CSA territory was 5 foot guage. 
Efforts were made to to develop a more unified or stadardized system, but it was too late.
One southern city blocked efforts for one line to extend its rails across town to reach another line
because it would put cartage companies out of work.

Richmond, Va was served by 5 differnt railroads, all of different gauges  

Judging from the height of the men pictured that is 6" gauge track. It is extremely wide not to mention the joints are awful bumpy looking!
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