First Battle of Bull Run The initial engagement on July 21, 1861, of what would become the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) took place on McLean's farm, the Yorkshire Plantation, in Manassas,
Prince William County, Virginia.
Union Army artillery fired at McLean's house, which was being used as a headquarters for
Confederate Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, and a cannonball dropped through the kitchen fireplace. Beauregard wrote after the battle, "A comical effect of this artillery fight was the destruction of the dinner of myself and staff by a Federal shell that fell into the of my headquarters at the McLean House." McLean was a retired major in the Virginia
militia but, at age 47 he was too old to return to active duty at the outbreak of the Civil War. He made his living during the war as a sugar broker supplying the
Confederate States Army. He decided to move because his commercial activities were centered mostly in southern Virginia and the Union army presence in his area of northern Virginia made his work difficult. He undoubtedly was also motivated by a desire to protect his family from a repetition of their combat experience. In the spring of 1863, he and his family moved about south to
Appomattox County, Virginia, near a crossroads community called
Appomattox Court House.
Appomattox Court House On April 9, 1865, the war revisited McLean.
Confederate General
Robert E. Lee was about to surrender to Lieutenant General
Ulysses S. Grant. He sent a messenger to Appomattox Court House to find a place to meet. On April 8, 1865, the messenger knocked on McLean's door and requested the use of his home, to which McLean reluctantly agreed. Lee surrendered to Grant in the parlor of
McLean's house, effectively ending the Civil War. Once the ceremony was over, members of the Army of the Potomac began taking the tables, chairs, and various other furnishings in the house — essentially, anything that was not tied down — as souvenirs. They simply handed money to the protesting McLean as they made off with his property. Major General
Edward Ord paid $ (equivalent to $ in today's dollars) for the table Lee had used to sign the surrender document, while Major General
Philip Sheridan took the table on which Grant had drafted the document for $ (equivalent to $ in today's dollars) in gold. Sheridan then asked
George Armstrong Custer to carry it away on his horse. An authentic recreation of McLean's second home is now part of the
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park operated by the
National Park Service of the United States
Department of the Interior. ==After the war==