Qualla: Appomattox Manor

Appomattox Manor: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Grant set up his tent on the lawn. He did not move into the house, even when it was offered. The general slept in canvas like his soldiers, drank his coffee from a tin cup, and walked from his tent down the bluff to the rough wooden wharf below, where steamers from Washington tied up daily. For ten months, from June 1864 through April 1865, this small bluff at City Point — where the Appomattox River runs into the James — was the nerve center of the Union war effort. From Appomattox Manor's grounds, Grant directed the siege of Petersburg, plotted Sherman's march, and finally accepted the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. The war ended here in a way it had not ended anywhere else.

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Appomattox Manor: Two Centuries of Eppes

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Captain Francis Eppes patented the land in 1635 — twenty-eight years after the colonists at Jamestown first stepped off the Susan Constant. By the time the Civil War came, the property had been in the Eppes family for 229 years and covered more than 2,300 acres. The current manor...

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Appomattox Manor: When the Gunboats Came

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Richard Eppes was a reluctant secessionist — a man who profited from slavery but doubted the wisdom of armed rebellion. When Virginia seceded in April 1861, he joined a local cavalry unit anyway, then transferred to surgeon's duty at a Confederate hospital in Petersburg. In 1862 ...

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Appomattox Manor: City Point: The Engine of Union Victory

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In June 1864, Grant chose City Point as his headquarters for the long siege of Petersburg. Within months the sleepy port became one of the busiest harbors in the world. Quartermaster Rufus Ingalls used Appomattox Manor as his offices. Engineers built a seven-mile wharf complex wi...

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Appomattox Manor: Coming Home to Ruins

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Petersburg fell on April 2, 1865. Richmond fell the next day. A week after that, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House — and the war was effectively over. The last Union regiments left City Point in early 1866. When Dr. Eppes returned in March, he found the house standing but...

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Appomattox Manor: What You See Today

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The bluff is quiet now. The wharves are gone; only stone piling stubs remain at the waterline. The manor house stands restored, white-painted clapboard with a wide porch overlooking the river confluence. The reconstruction of Grant's cabin sits at the spot where his tent stood — ...

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