Again, strictly by chance, the meeting was to be at Appomattox Court House, and the house that fit the purposes best was the two-story home of Wilmer McLean. He had, indeed, lived in Manassas, Virginia, before the war, and just prior to the Battle of Bull Run, his house in Manassas had been commandeered to serve as the headquarters of General Pierre T. Beauregard.

Soon after the Battle of Bull Run, Wilmer McLean had moved farther south, vowing he wished to have nothing to do with the war. Though it was not an immediate or “clean” move (he went back to Manassas for a time), it was again Wilmer McLean’s house that was chosen for the meeting between Grant and Lee. Of the many odd coincidences of the long war, this is one that is commented on, perhaps, the most.