We got an early start and drove until we got to Appomattox Court House, a small town where General Lee surrendered and ended the Civil War. The original small town is now a National Historic Park. We went into the actual court house and looked around at some of the artifacts and watched a few video presentations about the end of the war. We started to fill out out the “Junior Ranger” booklet for the Park. Unlike other National Parks we had been to, there was an actual challenge and you had to really know the facts and learn. We went to a ranger program talking about the events leading up to the end of the war. The Union troops cutting off of the railroad supplies to the Virgina confederate army forced the army to move west. When the Confederate Army finally got a train with food they were told to send it down the line ahead of them for later. Foraging for food in the wilderness was the best food they could get, and they marched for days. They were racing the Union Army to the station with the food, and the Union Cavalry beat them. There was some fighting between them until 20,000 more union soldiers came from the east over the hill and the Confederates began to throw up surrender flags. Then they signed the papers and the war was over. The tiny town was built right on the railroad where the supplies stopped, so they went to the McLean house to do all the formal work and decisions. The McLean house was taken down to be relocated , but the group ran out of money and left the deconstructed house in the yard to rot. Later it was reconstructed by the National Parks Service with a lot of original furniture, china, even bricks, but often they were replicas since the house had rotted and the family had moved. We checked out an old tavern, a general store and the bookstore, full of old artifacts from the time of the surrender. We finished up or Junior Ranger books and got our badge and certificate. We went down the road a little bit to picnic under a enormous oak tree.

It was next to a cemetery where some of the men who died in the last battle were buried. Most of their names were unknown. One man that who was buried there had signed up to join the war right at the very, very beginning, and died in the battle within 24 hours of the war being over. The entire visit there, it was kind of happy because the war was finally over, and at the and time a feeling of loss and grief over all the people that died.

I felt bad in a weird way for the oak tree, having a battle full of death next to it and then from that point on,  people sad and solemn, respectful and quiet, but never happy, never laughing, never joyful. That was a dark time, but that place is still weighed down way too much by just plain sadness. I decided to give the tree a hug, because everyone needs a little happiness, you know? Yes… even trees. We drove back to the Peaks of Otter where we stayed in the lodge. We ate a nice dinner at the lodge and watched the sunset over the lake. We saw a great blue heron fishing near a small island. It felt really odd sleeping on a bed after being in a sleeping bag for so long.