Appomattox is a town in
Appomattox
County
, Virginia
, United States
. The population was 1,761 at the
2000 census.
It is the county seat of Appomattox
County.
Appomattox
is part of the Lynchburg
Metropolitan
Statistical Area.
History
The town was named for the
Appomattox
River, itself named for the
Appamatucks branch of the
Powhatan tribe - who actually lived somewhat to the
east of the present town, around the area of present-day
Petersburg. The area of Appomattox county, above the fall line, was
actually within the territory of the
Monohoac tribe, who were
Siouan.
The town
is located three miles west of the restored historic village of Appomattox Court House
(a.k.a. Clover Hill), the site of
Confederate General
Robert E. Lee's
surrender to Union General
Ulysses
S. Grant on April 9, 1865,
nearly ending the
American Civil War.
The site of the historic courthouse village
of Clover Hill, location of the original Appomattox Court House, is
now preserved as Appomattox Court House National Historical
Park and is administered by the National Park Service.
At the
time of the Civil War, the present community of Appomattox was the
site of a railroad depot on the line
between Petersburg
and Lynchburg. The town was first named "Nebraska,
Virginia", in 1855 until 1895 when it was renamed to "West
Appomattox". The first postmaster of "Nebraska, Virginia", was
Samuel D. McDearmon.
Near the end of the Civil War,
Robert
E. Lee made a last desperate
attempt to reach this depot, hoping that he could move the
Army of Northern Virginia south to
meet
Joseph E. Johnston's larger
Army of Tennessee which was
then located in Greensboro, North Carolina.The arrival of Federal
troops blocking Lee's army from the depot led to Lee's surrender on
April 9. Johnston later surrendered 98,270 Confederate troops (the
largest surrender of the war), marking the end of the conflict on
April 26, 1865, although small bands continued fighting until June,
1865.
The inconvenience of the railroad's location to the original
Appomattox Court House in the village of Clover Hill led to the
decline of the courthouse community. After
fire
destroyed the courthouse building in
1892, the
county relocated the court to the depot area, which formally became
the
county seat in
1894.
In
1990 there were 11,971 residents reported
for Appomattox County while the Town of Appomattox had 1703
residents.
Geography
Appomattox is located at (37.358973, -78.826438) .
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of
2.2 square miles (5.6 km²).
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 1,761
people, 716 households, and 469 families residing in the town. The
population density was 808.7
people per square mile (311.9/km²). There were 767 housing units at
an average density of 352.2/sq mi (135.8/km²). The racial
makeup of the town was 66.89%
White, 32.14%
African American, 0.28%
Native American, 0.11%
from
other races, and
0.57% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 0.23% of the
population.
There were 1 households out of which 29.3% had children under the
age of 18 living with them, 42.7% were
married
couples living together, 20.0% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 30.4% of all
households were made up of individuals and 17.2% had someone living
alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size
was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.92.
In the town the population was spread out with 23.9% under the age
of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 27.4% from 25 to 44, 20.8% from 45 to
64, and 19.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
39 years. For every 100 females there were 82.3 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.2 males.
References
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