Historic Visits to General Grant's Headquarters and Yorktown

We've been able to squeeze in quite a few history lessons during our time here in Virginia. 

One day after school, we drove the 15 minutes to "General Grants Headquarters" and took the tour that was offered.

During the 10 month siege of Petersburg during the Civil War, General Grant established his headquarters at City Point at the tip of Hopewell. Hopewell is one of the three cities that surrounds the army base here. We got to tour the house that was used as the headquarters and the cabin where General Grant stayed. It was pretty neat and we learned some pretty cool stuff. 

The house itself is actually part of a plantation. It was known then as the "Appomattox Plantation and it was owned by a man named Richard Epps. He was a southerner and Virginia man. He wasn't a strong secessionist, but when Virginia left the Union, he joined a cavalry unit in the confederate army. A year later, Union troops and gunboats arrived on the James River outside their home, and Mrs. Epps was forced to move her family from the plantation. At the start of the war, Richard Epps owned around 130 slaves. It is recorded in the journals that he was not a nice slave owner either. He was cruel and often withheld food until the slaves cooperated. So you can imagine, when Mr. Epps left to join the army and the family fled a year later- almost all of the slaves ran as well. 

It's a beautiful piece of land and the home, although old and no longer used as a house, is amazing. 

Here are Bailey and Chris in front of the house. 

To the left of the main house was the kitchen and laundry area. They had it staged how it would have been in the 1860's. Bailey loved it. 

Then inside the house, the tour guide gave us an awesome 20 minute tour of the house and a history lesson. In the center of the main room was a map that showed City Point and mapped how the Union Headquarters was set up during the siege. The house itself was not lived in, but used as offices for the Quartermaster, Rufas Ingall, and his staff during the siege. The Quartermaster had an amazing operation going on. The encampment was massive and he was in charge of taking care of all the logistics. 

It's also recorded that Abraham Lincoln visited this house more than once during the war to confer with General Grant. That's pretty cool. We were standing in the same room that Abraham Lincoln once stood. 

This is a recreation of the study. Mr. Epps, although being a cruel slave owned, recorded in his journal that his most trusted friend and advisor was his slave and when his particular slave died, Mr. Epps had him buried in their family cemetery.

After we finished touring the house, we walked the grounds. The porch was my favorite part. So cool that this house is still intact. It's recorded that almost every room in the house took damage from canons during the war, but it was repaired and maintained over the years until the house was sold to the National Park Service. 

Then we walked over the General Grant's Cabin. It was said that General Grant did not enjoy siege times and found them to be boring. It was also recorded that he tended to drink alot when he was bored. Considering the siege at Petersburg was almost 10 months long, I imagine General Grant had plenty of time to drink. 

He lived in this little cabin during the siege and his family even visited him here at one point. 

Here's the recreation of the inside of the cabin. 

This mantle is the orginal mantle from his fireplace. How cool is that?

Then we walked along the bluffs over looking the river and read the plaques there. This bank was once a very busy port. Ships coming in and out carrying supplies and men. It's weird to imagine the sleepy town of Hopewell as the main hub during the siege. 

All-in-all, it was a very interesting visit and the kids enjoyed it too. It's so fun to get to experience so much history with them. 

Then today, Monday, while the kids were in school, Chris, Tucker and I drove over to Yorktown to tour the battlefield and learn a little bit about the area. 

Our first stop was the York Town Battlefield visitors center. We watched a movie about the battle at Yorktown and how our country won its freedom in Yorktown. 

Then we toured some of the exhibits. Tucker loved the table map the boat. 

Although Tucker would not have made a very good sailor. He didn't not want to lay in the hammocks.

After finishing at the visitor center we did the driving tour around the battlegrounds.
During the seventh year of the Revolutionary war, British General Cornwallis brought his army to the sleepy town of Yorktown. And after the alliance with France and the infusion of French troops, the American army was ready to fight and win. The American army eluded the bulk of the British army in New york and snuck south to try and trap Cornwallis' troops at Yorktown. 

By the end of September, there were approximately 17,600 American and French soldiers gathered in Williamsburg- just 20 minutes from Yorktown. While 8,300 British troops occupied Yorktown. General Clinton tried to send reinforcements to Cornwallis but the French fleet did not allow the troops to arrive. Cornwallis' troops constructed a main line of defense around Yorktown that consisted of 10 small enclosed forts called redoubts, with connecting trenches.
The Americans and French marched from Williamsburg to Yorktown on September 28th and began digging it's own trench 800 yards from the British line of defense. By October 11th, the American and French soldiers had basically knocked the British guns out of action.  That night they started digging another trench, only 400 yards from the British main line. You can't see it well in the picture but this was a field where the trenches were dug. We drove past them and it was crazy how close to the two lines of defense were. 

The French and American troops each captured the two remaining redoubts and basically ended the battle. Cornwallis sent out a flag of truce to call a ceasefire and the framework of the British surrender was decided. 

On October 18th, the representatives from all three armies met at the Moore house to settle surrender terms. This was the last battle of the revolutionary war.  

After the battle of Yorktown, the news of the British defeat spread quickly. And although there were still somewhere around 26,000 British troops in North America, the British resolve to win the war was nothing like it use to be. The war had been lengthy and costly and the British were also engaged in military struggles in India, the west Indies and Ireland. So, in 1782, the British Parliament passed a resolution saying the British should not continue the war against the United States. Later that year provisions of peace were signed and acknowledge American independence.
So this monument memorializes the American Victory at Yorktown. So cool. It was amazing to see the site of the last Revolutionary battle and the site were peace negotiations were started to win us our independence. 

We feel so blessed to get to visit so many cool historic sites while living at Fort Lee. The history is amazing!!!