Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1893 — APPOMATTOX’ APPLE TREE. [ARTICLE]

APPOMATTOX’ APPLE TREE.

Tablets Erected by the War Department on Historic Sites. Work has just been finished on a project of unusual interest, undertaken by the War Department some months ago—the marking of the important spots at and around the old Appomattox court house, connected with the surrender of Lee to Grant in 1865. During the early summer Mr. Kirkley, one of the members of the board having in charge the publication of the records of the rebellion, that it was high time now to mark these spots,.as the landmarks were fast being obliterated. The Secretary immediately gave orders to have the idea carried out. Since then Major Davis, the head of the board, has been hard at work, and has at last succeeded in having all the points of interest at Appomattox marked in a permanent manner. The marking is done by means of cast iron tablets fastened to iron posts five feet long. The letters of the inscriptions are two and a quarter Inches high, and stand out in good relief. The work of ascertaining the exact spot was not an easy one, and without the aid of Mr. Peers, who is now clerk of the county court, and has lived near the courthouse all his life, it might not have been accomplished with tho certainty and exactness which now make the work especially valuable. Immediately after the surrender the famous apple tree was dug up by soldiers who saw its value as a relic. They went down several feet in order to secure tho roots. The site of this tree is, therefore, all that can be marked to-day. It stood a few yards west of the road and four hundred yards or so north of the courthouse. The tablet which has been placed there bears this inscription: ‘‘Near this spot stood the apple tree under which Gen. Robert E. Lee rested while awaiting the return of a flag of truce sent by him to Gen. U. S. Grant on the morning of April 9,1365.”