Appomattox Manor is a former

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

Hopewell, Virginia Hopewell is an independent city (United States), independent city surrounded by Prince George County, Virginia, Prince George County and the Appomattox River in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 202 ...

, United States. It is best known as the Union headquarters during the

Siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the siege of Petersburg, it was not a c ...

in 1864–65. The restored manor house on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

and

Appomattox River The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in central and eastern Virginia, named for the ...

, and the grounds are managed by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

. The museum there, Grant's Headquarters at City Point Museum, is a unit of the Petersburg National Battlefield Park.

Before the war

The Eppes family home was a century old by the time Union forces occupied the site in 1864. It had been built on a large tract of land acquired by Captain Francis Eppes in 1635 and by the time of the American Civil War it was the center of a

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

covering more than 2,300 acres (9.3 km²).

The war years

In 1861 Appomattox Plantation was owned by Dr. Richard Eppes. Though he owned three plantations and nearly 130

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, Dr. Eppes was not a strong

secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

. Yet when

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

cast her lot with the South he took up arms by joining a local

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

unit. He soon left the army to become a contract

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

at a Confederate hospital in Petersburg. The Eppes family remained at their home until 1862 when the arrival of Union gunboats on the

forced them to flee their home for the safety of Petersburg. Soon thereafter nearly all of their slaves left with those Union forces. When the war came to Petersburg two years later Mrs. Eppes and the children fled again, this time to her mother's home in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Appomattox Plantation was used as the offices of U.S.

Quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land army, armies, a quartermaster is an officer who supervises military logistics, logistics and requisitions, manages stores or barracks, and distri ...

Rufus Ingalls and his staff during the siege. City Point was a port on the James River. During the last years of the Civil War, from the port there, the

City Point Railroad In 1836, the Virginia House of Delegates approved a charter for the City Point Railroad. City Point, Virginia, was just ten years old. The Lower Appomattox Company ran boats of cargo from Petersburg, Virginia, to the large port at City Point. The c ...

was used to support the Union forces during the

1864–65. The successful capture of Petersburg and its network of

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

s was the key to the fall of the Confederate capital city of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, ending the war less than a week later. After the surrender, when Dr. Eppes returned he found his house in near ruin and his plantation nearly destroyed. Not until March 1866 with the last Union regiments gone and the property back in his name did his wife and children return home to pick up the pieces and start anew. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1969. The manor house and surrounding land was donated to the

by the Eppes family. It is located in the City Point Historic District.

References

National Park Service

James River Plantations, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary

External links

Appomattox Manor, Cedar Lane, Hopewell, Hopewell, VA
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

(HABS)
National Park Service, Operating Hours & Seasons
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia American Civil War sites James River plantations Virginia in the American Civil War Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Hopewell, Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Virginia Houses completed in 1751 Houses in Hopewell, Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia 1751 establishments in the Colony of Virginia