know, it's something that's very exciting for people. we work with a lot of volunteers. obviously over the summer we'll have history camps or student groups come out and sometimes we'll have them help us out and maybe help with some of the screening. you know, there's really that sort of excitement and moment of discovery, and a lot of the interns, i think that's, you know, that thrill of discovery is part of what keeps you going during the course of yet another 110-degree day out there, and, you know, a lot of people tell me that the part of what connects them with archaeology is knowing that they are the -- they are the first person to touch this object in, you know, the past 200 years or whatever the case may be, and, that you know, i think it's really part of that tangible connection to the past that people get excited about. we're hoping -- at this point we don't have funding for any additional field work which is unfortunate because obviously i feel like -- you know, we've

really just sort of scratched the surface out here, and there's a lot more information potential with this site. it's very unique, particularly for this area, the mid-atlantic region. you don't typically see slavery being practiced on the scale that it was being practiced here at leramie taj. i think i mentioned that 90 slaves is roughly 10 times the number of enslaved individuals you would have expected to be living here. so that's an extremely unusual circumstance for this area. you know, like i said, they are about 20 x 34 feet. that's just under 700 square feet of living space. if in fact there were only six structures total, one can assume there were somewhere between maybe as many as 12 or 15 people living in each these dwelling houses which probably sounds like a lot, so i -- i would -- i would guess or assume that these may have been extended family units, for example, living together. multiple generations of families. like i say, these are pretty

utilitarian, simple, expediently constructed buildings, and they probably were constructed about the same time as the secondary house, and it was probably the family's first order of business to get these buildings constructed and get these people housed so that they can then start working the land and being productive and ultimately generating income. for the family. there are not a lot of instances out there where you have a complete collection of multiple dwelling houses preserved in an archaeological context so there's a great deal of research potential here in terms of understanding more about the context and the study of slavery in general. there are not that many national park service units that have this kind of resource preserved so we're just really fortunate that as a result of this land

being set aside and preserved, as a result of the battle of monocacy, we also have these other stories and other resources that are preserved as well. and even though the laramie taj plantation was long gone by 1864 when the battle of monocacy was fought, the story of the family and the slave people is still a great platform from which to talk about slavery as a causative aspect of the civil war. at the park level we're going to be working on developing some new interpretive programs and other interpretive products that will talk about the history of this site and this project and start to look at african-american experiences here at the monocacy battlefield in general. we'll also be working on the development of some web-based resources, again that will sort of help tell the story and help

present this information to the public. and in the longer term what we would like to have are actually separate permanent exhibits that will focus on kind of the broader historic context of the battle of monocacy and the civil war. obviously slavery and plantation life would be a big part of that discussion. so down the road, again, funding dependant, that's something we would like to have so should we be fortunate enough to get additional funding to do more field work, that's certainly the goal, and if not, we'll do the

best we can with the resources that we have, and obviously, you know, almost 400 units of the national park service out there, everybody has research needs and compliance needs and so there's never enough money to go around so we were -- just like in any sort of federal funding process, we had to wait our turn. and i think alex had mentioned to me, you know, living in washington, d.c., you think of the national park service and think monuments or maybe you think, you know, mountains or geysers or something. and i think one of the things that was helpful with this project was it kind of helped some of these students get a sense of the diversity of resources that the national park service preserves. and i think maybe get them just a little bit interested, maybe a career in the national park service or a career in archaeology. or if not, you know, hopefully these guys go on to, you know, do something else for a career or to work for a different agency, hopefully they will always look back on that experience and they will sort of think about the national parks in a different way and be more engaged in and interested in

kind of that stewardship aspect of what the national parks do. each week american artifacts takes viewers to museums and historic sites around the country. on april 9th, 1865 general e. lee met grant in the village of the courthouse and while armies were still active in the field, the surrender of the fighting force effectively ended the civil war. next, e we tour the courthouse national historical park to learn more about the events surrounding that day. >> welcome to american artifacts historical park. i'm the park historian and now we're standing in front of the clover hill tavern. this is the oldest building in the village built in 1819.

in fact, this area was called clover hill before it became appomattox courthouse in 1845. this county was one of the later counties formed, and they took part of the four surrounding counties and formed appomattox county in 1845. this county had about 9,000 people in it. more than half of them were enslaved, working on the tobacco farms. as of 1860, about 120 people lived here in appomattox courthouse. folks would stay at the clover hill tavern as they traveled along the stage road. the courthouse was built in 1846, maybe finished in 1847. there was a jail that burned during the war and a new jail was built across the road. interestingly enough, when people come to appomattox courthouse, they learned in their schoolbooks that the surrender took place at appomattox courthouse.

the actual slaying took place in the house of mclean. if you're talking about the building, courthouse would simply be one word. this is where the most significant events with the military took place in the spring of 1865, april 1865, with lee's surrender. now we're going to walk down the richmond lynchburg stage road and discuss the battles of appomattox station, the battle of appomattox courthouse which effectively ended lee's retreat. we are standing on the historic richmond lynchburg stage road, which was a critical part of general lee's retreat on april 8 and april 9, 1865. many people wonder why general

lee was even heading toward appomattox court house after leaving lynchburg and petersburg on april 2nd, 1865. the idea was he was going to concentrate his army at amelia courthouse and link forces with general johnston in north carolina. general grant was a bit different than former generals of the union army, and he blocked general lee's line of retreat, thus general lee had to continue further west, searching for rations and hoping to get around grant's army. the next place general lee could gather supplies was about three miles from us here at appomattox station. supplies had been brought over from lynchburg to feed general lee's army. it's everything the army really

needed. hundreds of thousands of rations, new uniforms, equipment, and that's where they're heading for on april 8 after leaving cumberland church on the night of april 7. general lee's advance is led by confederate reserve artillery under general rubien lindsay walker. they go to camp about a mile from the station on the afternoon of april 8. and general custer's cavalry advances on that station and captures the supplies, then encounters general rubien lindsay walker's general artillery and fight for about four hours the battle of appomattox station. a very unique battle in the civil war because it's mounted cavalry attacking unsupported artillery. no infantry involved other than they picked up weapons. the battle lasted until after dark, and then general custer overruns the remaining guns of

walker, captures about 1,000 prisoners and 200 wagons. the advance of custer's men continue over that ridge and into the village here where they are repulsed at the eastern edge of the village, and during the night, the federal cavalry form on the ridge west of town. during the night, general lee has a council of war with general john gordon, james longstreet and fritz lee, asking, should they surrender or try to break out? it's determined they will try to break out on the morning of april 9. general lee brings his troops to the village on the morning of april 9. he files off to the right and left into these fields. he's going to attack that ridge. there is a federal cavalry brigade under colonel charles smith. general gordon has about 5,000 men. he's supported by fritz lee on the right with about 4,000 cavalry. the attack begins a little after 7:30 that morning and they successfully drive the federals

off that ridge doing a left wheel. but hard-marching infantry from army of the james, the 24th corps and division of troops from the united states colored troops had covered over 30 miles on april 8. and they come up and closed the road back down and begin to push gordon's men back into the appomattox from the river valley. they come from the army of the potomac, and further to the south and east is general custer and general devlin's cavalry swinging around the left flank. behind general lee, about four miles from here is general meade with army of the 6th corps, and general lee is effectively surrounded. white flags are flown to stop the fighting, and in the course of the fighting, lee's army had dwindled from 60,000 men to 30,000 men here at appomattox court house. he had lost half his army.

he determined it was time to meet with general grant and surrender his forces. they did that over here in the mclean house on the afternoon of april 9, 1865. we're now inside the parlor of the home of wilmer mclean, appomattox county resident, who moved here in the fall of 1862. general lee and general grant corresponded for over three days, and finally after being effectively surrounded here, general lee wished to have a meeting with general grant to surrender his army. lee sent lieutenant colonel charles marshall of his staff into the village to find a suitable place to meet, and he encountered william mclean and mclean offered his own home. lee arrived here about 1:00, sat here at this marble-topped table.

general grant, after riding over 20 miles, arrived about 1:30. when he came in, he sat at the oval wooden table here. the two had met each other in the mexican war, and that was their first discussion. they talked about the mexican war for quite a while, and the conversation got quite pleasant, and general lee reminded general grant the nature of this meeting and asked general grant to put his terms in writing. grant sat down and set his terms in writing for general lee. principally the confederate officers were going to be paroled and allowed to go home. he was going to allow the officers to keep their sidearms and personal baggage. and general lee later requests, asks if his men can keep their horses. grant initially said no, that that is not in the terms, but

thinks about it for a minute and says that he understands that most of these men are small farmers and they could use these horses, and he will not rewrite it into the terms but will allow the confederate soldiers to keep their horses if they owned one. general lee said this would have a very happy affect upon his army. the terms are read over by general lee and given back to general grant. general grant calls forward theodore bower of the staff to write out these terms in ink. bowers is nervous. he botches the job and turns it over to eli parker. he is said to have the best penmanship of the staff and he actually writes out the formal terms for general grant. general lee's staff officer is lieutenant colonel charles marshall. he writes the acceptance letter. they exchange those letters. that's how the surrender is affected, the exchange of the letters. they both do not sign one document. over the course of the meeting,

general grant introduces officers of his staff to general lee. some of them general lee knows very well, such as seth williams who was lee's agitant when lee was a commandant at united states military academy at west point. another interesting aspect of general grant's staff, there was a young captain named robert lincoln on his staff, and he, of course, was the son of president abraham lincoln, and he was here in the room. another interesting participant in this ceremony was -- at least, maybe not participant, but a witness to this ceremony was this rag doll of lula mclean, youngest daughter of wilmer mclean. it was sitting on the couch when the officers came in, and they moved it to the mantle during the meeting. after the meeting, some of the officers took the doll off the mantle and began tossing it around. captain thomas moore of general phillip sheridan's staff took the doll home with him as a war souvenir.

in the 1990s, the family wanted the doll to come back to appomattox court house and it is now on display in the park visitors center. the meeting lasted about an hour and a half. it was said to be a gentleman's agreement. general grant was very generous with the terms. in the end when general lee said he had nothing to feed his men, general grant ordered rations to be sent to feed lee's army. the men shake hands, general lee departs, goes out into the yard, calls for his horse traveler and rides back to the confederate army, bearing the news of his surrender. the gentleman that owned the house at the time of the surrender, wilmer mclean, was originally from alexandria. he had married a wealthy widow from manassas and that's where he lived at the time of the

first major engagement there. after the second battle of manassas, he decided to move south. he could not conduct business up in northern virginia. he got into sugar speculation. he was not a farmer, as many people will put out. he got into sugar speculation, and this area was convenient because he could access the south side railroad and make trips through the south to deal in that sugar. he owned the house here at the time of the surrender, and then in 1867, they are not able to keep up with the payments on the house, and the house is sold and the family moves back to northern virginia. after the house is sold, the raglan family owns it for a time, but in the early 1890s, a group of union veterans have a plan. they're going to start a retirement community for union soldiers here at appomattox courthouse, and they buy up land west of the village. they are unsuccessful in selling off these lots to union

veterans, and they decide they're going to dismantle the house in 1893 and move it to washington, d.c. and create a civil war museum out of it. the house is dismantled. parts of the house are stacked out in the yard. unfortunately, there is a financial panic in 1893 and the firm goes bankrupt. and all the supplies outside the house, all the materials, either start to rot away or are taken as souvenirs. the park service, when it is -- takes over the facility in 1940, determines the one thing they're going to do is rebuild the mclean house. fortunately, the same company that took the house apart got the bid to rebuild the house, and they still had the plan. so it's been rebuilt on the exact location using the original plans. there are a few bricks to the hearth and the basement. 5,500 original bricks are used on the front of the house. so when you're walking up to the house, you will pass bricks that were here in 1865. we're back in front of the clover hill tavern which was owned in 1865 by wilson hicks. i'm going to take you inside and tell you what important events took place in the tavern with the printing of parole passes for the confederate soldiers so they could return home.

we're now inside the clover hill tavern where parole passes were printed for the confederate soldiers to return home. part of the agreement was that general lee's army would be paroled rather than sent to prison camp. general lee and general grant met a second time here at appomattox on horseback on the morning of april 10, and general lee requested some safeguard for his men that were going home. general lee surrendered only one

army, the army of north virginia. there was richard taylor with troops in louisiana and alabama, kirby smith out in texas. his soldiers will be passing through these areas where armies could still be fighting. they don't want these soldiers to be picked up and sent off to prison camp. they don't want to be pressed back into the confederate army because they've given their word not to serve anymore until exchange. and in the extreme, these soldiers, if they're traveling home, passing through confederate lines, could be considered deserters and executed. so general grant thinks it's a good idea to have something for

these confederate soldiers to go home. that's what the idea of the parole pass comes about. john gibbon, a core commander of the army of the james, said he has a printing press with him. he calls out for them to come work these presses around the clock until they struck off 28,231 parole passes for the confederate soldiers. that's how we know how many confederate soldiers actually surrendered here at appomattox. general george sharp was put in charge of this process, and the men printing those passes worked on printers similar to this, and they kept those passes going. they would have to ink the printers and strike off paroles that would look like this. they would actually have to be hung and dried, and then they were cut into individual parole passes. these were sent over to the confederate army where the officer and their command would fill in the soldier's name and sign the parole. and that was giving -- made into a master list of paroles that

was turned over to the united states forces and that's how we know what confederate soldiers were paroled here. each soldier would take this pass and on the way home, grant afforded them to receive rations from united states forces should they encounter. they could use them for transportation on ships and railways. we've even seen occasions where soldiers are being issued shoes and clothing on their way home. so it was a very valuable piece of paper to have. and it was one that was treasured by the confederate soldiers because it was physical proof that that soldier had made it to the end here at appomattox with general lee. he did not desert the army. next i want to take you to the place where general lee and general grant met on horseback on april 10. it is also the area where the confederate army came up to stack their arms on april 12th in the formal surrender ceremony. behind me is the appomattox where the confederate army camped, and at the top of the ridge is where general lee's headquarters was located in april 1865. there was a second meeting

between general lee and general grant here at appomattox. they met four times during their life. once at the mexican war, at the mclean house on april 9, here where we're standing on april 10, and when grant becomes president, lee pays him a courtesy call at the white house. but where we are now is where they were on april 10. general grant said he wanted to meet with lee one more time before he headed for washington, and he asked general lee to surrender all the confederate soldiers. he had only surrendered soldiers in north virginia. there were some not surrendered. lee declines to surrender them saying he couldn't communicate with general gordon to find out his wishes.

once lee's army surrenders, those other armies follow suit. two weeks after lee's surrender here at appomattox, he surrendered to general william sherman. lee surrendered his troops on may 4, and actually, andrew johnson declared the war over on may 10, 1865 just a month after the surrender here at appomattox. however, there was still kirby smith with the army down in texas, and his official surrender is not until june 2nd, 1865. the surrender here at appomattox was a few-day process. they appointed commissioners to work out the details of how the surrender will take place. that is done by those commissioners on april 10, and

the confederate cavalry is set to surrender their sabres on april 10, the artillery on april 11 and the bulk of general lee's army, the infantry, surrenders on april 12. 10,000 men would infiltrate and i'll take you to the road where they surrender now. we are once again standing on the richmond lynchburg stage road. in front of me is confederate artillery piece that signifies where the last artillery shots were fired on the morning of april 9th. also in front of me is the home of george pierce. he was the county clerk. and on the evening of april 11, 1865, he had a special guest for dinner, general joshua chamberlain, who had set up his headquarters tent in his yard. at this dinner, chamberlain brought with him coffee, real coffee that pierce hadn't had in well over a year. and over the course of their dinner conversation, pierce

undoubtedly learned that chamberlain was in charge of the actual surrender ceremony for the confederate infantry on the morning of april 12th. chamberlain has his men lining this road from the lee grant meeting site all the way up to the mclean house on the morning of april 12th at about 5:00. his men are out here for several hours before the confederates approach, and they start leaning on their rifles, talking amongst themselves. but as the confederate troops approach, general chamberlain calls his men to attention. they straighten up, and then he calls out shoulder arms. they lift their rifles from the ground to this position here. he's got about 4,500 men lining the road, both on the north and south side, and they're presenting a salute to the confederate soldiers.

general gordon at the head of the confederate column coming up, returns a salute and calls his men to return soldiers arms as well. they face front. they stack their arms, take off their equipment and turn over their flags. and that's probably the hardest thing for those confederate soldiers because those flags meant everything to them, and giving them up symbolized the end of the war. the confederates would counter-march, go back to the appomattox valley. they would then reform. these ceremonies went on all morning and into the afternoon. very emotional and touching ceremonies, but very respectful on both sides. as the last confederate troop stacked their arms out here on

the road and returned to their camps, from the camps they were allowed to start their journey home. the war was over for those soldiers. now we're going to go to the park visitors center where we have our museum, and i'll show you some of our special objects in our collection. we're now in the park visitors center museum where i'll show you some of the items on display, including this original painting done by louis giuyome done of the surrender. it's the most accurate painting of the surrender, but it does have some inaccuracies in it. lee and grant never sat at the same table, and lee was a

three-star general, not four stars as in the painting. guiyome was born in france. he emigrated to virginia and lived there. the parks service acquired this painting in 1954 for $1250. that money was collected from locals and schoolkids here in appomattox county to purchase the painting. what i'd like to show you next is what's left of the first truce flag that was sent out to the federal forces that was carried by captain robert sims. he bought this towel in richmond prior to leaving the campaign. he said he spent 20 to $40 confederate money for it. he was given this flag to stop the advance of custer's cavalry that were preparing to make an assault on the confederate left flank. throughout the events of the day, it ended upcoming to the possession of a staff member named whitaker, and whitaker presented it to custer. over the years, libby custer

would cut off pieces of the truce flag to give out to souvenirs to people who were favorable to her husband, especially after his death at the little big horn. they appointed three commissioners each. grant appointed given, griffin and leslie merritt. leah pointed william nelson pendleton, james longstreet and john gordon. they went to the tavern to have their meeting, but they said it was a bare, cheerless place, so they repaired to the mclean house where givens had set up his headquarters. there was no furniture left in the room because the tables had been taken as souvenirs after the meeting on april 9. so givens used his camp table and had it inscribed after the commissioners' meeting. this is our display on the apple tree. what is the apple tree? well, it's one of those myths about appomattox, about lee's

surrender. why is it a myth? because the event that supposedly took place there wasn't what it seemed. lee and grant had been corresponding for several days, since april 7, about the possibility of lee surrendering his army. and on the morning of april 9, when lee is finally ready to surrender his army, he sends a message to general grant. but general grant is moving his headquarters, he's on about a 20-mile ride, so lee's message catches up with him maybe about 11:00 that morning. he has to dispatch men to rida head to make the arrangements to meet with general lee. he dispatches william babcock and lee dunn ride ahead and meet lee. they findley resting under an apple tree at the appomattox river. general lee's artillery are on the hills behind this apple tree and they see general lee talking with him under it. he dispatches his orderly to