Thoughts on the beginning and the end

I've been thinking about poor Wilmer McLean. This man woke up one morning in 1861 and found the war in his front yard. He lived in Manassas, Va. I've been to Manassas exactly one time. I don't live all that far from it (maybe two hours) but have not been back because every time I head that way, I find someplace new to go to. The time that I was there, I found the battlefield to be very difficult to see. You see, I went in February....after a snow storm....and a warm day.....so there was mud everywhere. One of the things that I found about Manassas is that if you want to see anything, you have to park your car and walk. Now, I don't have a problem with that concept at all. I enjoy a nice walk. But when the paths are nothing but mud pits....well, its just not going to happen. One thing that I never found was Wilmer McLean's house.

I checked around on the internet (because as everyone knows....EVERYTHING you read on the internet is true) and discovered that Mr. McLean lived on a farm called the Yorkshire Plantation. I checked with the NPS website to see if they mention the farm. Not a word....not even about Mr. McLean. So I went elsewhere and this is what I found. There is a marker the talks about the McLean farm. Its on Centerville Road (VA Rt. 28) at Yorkshire Road. Here is what the marker says:

McLean Farm

(Yorkshire Plantation)

Part of an early 18th century plantation established

on Bullrun by Col. Richard Blackburn formerly of

Yorkshire, England. The land was acquired by Wilmer

McLean in 1854. The battle which opened 1st Manassas

raged across this farm July 18, 1861, with the house

and barn used as a headquarters and hospital by

Confederate troops. Following 1st Manassas, in an

attempt to escape the forefront of the war, McLean

moved his family to the tiny village of Appomattox

Court House. There four years later, the war would

come full circle to end in McLean's parlor with Lee's

surrender to Grant, April 9, 1865.

Next time that I'm down that way, I am going off looking for this marker.

As the marker said, the war ended in April of 1865, literally in the McLean's parlor. After the 1st Battle of Bull Run, Wilmer McLean decided that he needed to get his family away from the war. So he packed up his family and they moved to Appomattox Court House in southern Virginia. For a few years, everything was going well for the McLean's, they had their farm and they were away from the war....until 1865 when the war moved south....and ended up in his parlor.

Not only did the war end in their parlor, but many of the furnishings of that room were stolen right out from underneath them. Some of the generals involved in the surrender took pieces of furniture as a souvenir of that day. Here is what the marker at the McLean house in Appomattox Court House says:

At midday on April 9, 1865, General Robert E.

Lee rode into this yard, dismounted, and

disappeared into the McLean house. Grant,

surrounded by generals and staff officers, soon

followed. Dozens of officers, horses, and

onlookers waited outside. After 90 minutes,

Lee and Grant emerged. To the silent salutes

of Union officers, Lee rode back through the

village -- to his defeated army.

The home that hosted the surrender meeting

was one of the best in Appomattox. Built in

1848, it had since 1862 been owned by

businessman, Wilmer McLean. The house

became a sensation after the surrender. Union

officers took some mementos; and in 1893 it

was dismantled for display in Washington, D.C.

But that display never happened, and the

National Park Service reconstructed the building

on its original site in the 1940's.

Poor Wilmer McLean.....he found the Civil War in his front yard in 1861 and found it in his parlor in 1865. The beginning and the end. Kind of cool!