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Book Reviews

A Place Called Appomattox.

By William Marvel.

Illustrated, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 400 pp., 2000. The University of North Carolina Press, P.O. Box 2288, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2288, $34.95 plus shipping.

Appomattox, a small village in southern Virginia, was only several decades old when two great commanders met there to conclude the end of the Civil War in the east. It symbolized the finality of the war for succeeding genera-tions, but its identity as a town in its own right has been eclipsed by that symbolism, at least until now.

William Marvel in this offering portrays the growth and decline of Appomattox, which is probably characteristic of many similar Virginia villages that were founded in the same period. Samuel McDearmon’s unsuccessful efforts to have the railroad pass through the town from Petersburg and Lynchburg were made as much for his own personal benefit as for the development of the community. He bought up available land and entered political office to do eve-rything possible to foster internal improvements.

As time went on, sectional differences predominated and Appomattox County, which had most of the state’s slaves and, concomitantly, most of its secessionists, elected one of them to the state convention in Richmond.

Most of the inhabitants supported themselves by farming, primarily tobacco. Militia service was encouraged and served to condition the populace for war once it arrived, and Marvel discusses the military units formed from the area. Although the village did not suffer the physical destruction other towns did, after the first year of war it lost many of its people to disease, partially from infections brought back by the soldiers on furloughs.

With the absence of so many males, it was only natural that the birth rate declined as well. Both of these factors worked together to cause the death toll to nearly reach the birth rate which was hardly a harbinger of a community’s prospects for growth.

Despite their war-time ardor, some of those in skilled trades took advantage of the exemptions under the Confeder-ate conscription law as did farmers who were allowed to remain if they had sufficient quantities of livestock to man-age.

To keep the slaves under security, the law also allowed another adult male to be exempted for every plantation hav-ing 20 slaves. Marvel details some of the men who served in various units and battles in which they participated. Of course, he does not neglect the battles in the environs of Appomattox either. In fact, his recitation of the waning days of Lee’s army as it trudged back from Petersburg is done quite well.

Marvel does not stop there, however. The surrender is detailed, along with dispelling the myth that both sides quickly became brothers again once Lee rode out of the McLean home. The village was affected by Reconstruction in later years, particularly in voting issues where political divisions between whites and blacks were strained despite the outward semblance of social integration.

Appomattox, even without its significance as the surrender site of Lee’s army, is really a microcosm and an ex-ample of the effect of war on a small village just trying to grow and prosper. Unlike Atlanta and Richmond which were already economically viable towns and suffered massive physical destruction from the ravages of the war, the effect on Appomattox’s fortunes was more indirect. The war sucked the very life-blood out of the community when it needed it the most.

Not that the village would have ever become as great and as populated as other towns in the Virginia Tidewater area, but the war certainly dampened whatever could have been accomplished had there not been a war. The only thing left was its symbolism as the place for the demise of the Lost Cause that, in effect, mirrored its own decline.

Thanks to Marvel’s treatment, we have an even better appreciation of the significance of Appomattox beyond its common perception today.

Frank Piatek

Frank Piatek graduated from Geneva College with a B.A. in history. He received his J.D. from Duquesne Uni-versity in 1972. He is a member of several reen-act-ment groups and past presi-dent of the Mahoning Valley Civil War Round Table.

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