The Reconstruction Era at Appomattox Court House, 1865-1877

From the absence of many White men who had died in Confederate service, to the shattered local tobacco economy, and the emancipation of the enslaved (who constituted more than half of Appomattox County’s population), the impact of the Civil War was visible throughout the area following the CIvil War.

Provost Guard

Federal troops had left the Appomattox area quickly after the surrender on April 9, 1865, but a few returned in May. Cavalrymen of the 21st Pennsylvania broke up a local band of horse thieves led by County Sherriff William Hix and established a Provost Guard for the county. From issuing rations to destitute White and Black residents, to providing basic law and order, the soldiers’ tasks were a first step in the restoration of local government as well as economic recovery. By July, the 21st was replaced by Company D of 188th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Meanwhile, oaths of allegiance to the United States were sworn by most former Confederates soldiers in the county, leading to local elections in September. By November 1865, this first phase of Reconstruction in Appomattox County was all but over. The Federal military presence was gone from the village, the local government had been re-established, and the harvest of vital food crops had been a success. It was just the start of a long and difficult process.

Freedmen’s Bureau

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen's Bureau was established in early 1865 to assist formerly enslaved people and impoverished Whites in the South following the Civil War. The Bureau provided food, clothing, medical care, and housing, and also established schools. In late 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau established a school in the village to provide for the education of Black families in the area. Charles McMahon, a White man from Massachusetts moved to the village to instruct the students and establish the school. McMahon likely set up the school across the road from the McLean House on the property of Charles Diuguid, an African American blacksmith who was born free. Initially called the Ulysses S. Grant School, McMahon later changed the school’s name to the Plymouth Rock. His reports to the Freedmen’s Bureau indicate that between 50 and 75 students typically attended school each month, peaking at 150 students in January 1866.

On several occasions, disgruntled White citizens threatened violent action against McMahon and local Black residents, but the school persisted. The September 1869 Freedmen’s Bureau monthly report for Plymouth Rock School noted the number of students and “indifferent” public sentiment toward the school which soon relocated to Galilee Baptist Church. By 1870, 247 White and 133 Black students were regularly attending schools in the county.

Ladies’ Memorial Association

In the former Confederate states, women's groups were primarily responsible for the re-internment of the Confederate dead. In 1866, the local women of Appomattox County created the Ladies’ Memorial Association. Twenty-eight women organized the group, “to procure and enclose a suitable place for the internment of Confederate Soldiers killed or deceased in this part of the country." Local farmer John Sears donated a parcel of the land west of the village of Appomattox Court House that included part of the former battlefield. On December 1, 1866, the remains of 18 Confederate soldiers killed in the final battles near Appomattox Court House were re-interred in the new cemetery. Of these, only 7 were identified. In later years, an unidentified Federal solider was also found and buried within the cemetery.

The First African American Church

African American churches in the area played a vital role not only in the religious community, but also in political and social circles, much as they do today. It served as a safe haven from racial violence, and in many cases, a place of education for freed people. Worshiping freely, however, did not come until after emancipation. In 1867, freed people in the vicinity formed what came to be known as Galilee Baptist Church, one mile west of Appomattox Court House. This not only was a house of worship, but also a safe meeting place for Union League members, and the grounds on which Plymouth Rock School was later established.

Appomattox's First African American Delegate

James Bland was an African American teacher and politician. Born free in neighboring Prince Edward County in 1844, during the Civil War years, he worked as a teacher in Union occupied Norfolk, Virginia. On October 22, 1867, Bland and White Union veteran Edgar Allan were elected, with the help of African American voters, to represent Appomattox and Prince Edward counties at the state constitutional convention. Voting with the "Radical" Republicans in the convention, Bland helped create a new constitution for Virginia that expanded civil and voting rights to African Americans while not disenfranchising former Confederates.

End of Reconstruction

This new Underwood Constitution was ratified in 1870. Among other things, the new state government reformed the tax system, created a segregated system of free public schools, and ratified the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. With these accomplishments, Virginia officially regained its full representation in the U.S. Congress.

The disputed presidential election of 1876 led to the Compromise of 1877, which resulted in the removal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. In the months and years to come, African Americans in Appomattox County and throughout the South sought to exercise their civil rights, educate their children, establish churches, testify in court, vote, and become truly free, despite the continued realities of racism, Jim Crow segregation, and the failures of Reconstruction.

 

For more information on Reconstruction checkout these links:

Booker T Washington National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)

History & Culture - Reconstruction Era National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Overview | Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress