The Shadow
APPOMATTOX (AP) – The famed sword of Gen. Robert E. Lee will make its home in Appomattox, where it was to have been surrendered 146 years ago.
Museum of the Confederacy CEO Waite Rawls announced on Thursday that the sword belonging to the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia will be among the artifacts featured at the Appomattox branch of the Richmond-based museum.
The News & Advance reports that the uniform Lee wore in his surrender ceremony on April 12, 1865, to end the Civil War also will be among the items on display.
Rawls said the main exhibits in the museum will tell stories of the war before Appomattox, the surrender itself and life after the war.
But the piece de resistance is the sword, which Rawls said will be seen as visitors walk in, and when they leave.
“The sword is a great metaphor for the beginning of the war and for the surrender at Appomattox,” he said.
Rawls said the organization will present its plan for the museum to Appomattox officials in a few weeks, before construction begins on the site near the intersection of U.S. 460 and Virginia 24.
There’s no opening date set in stone, but Rawls hopes the museum will be up and running by April or May of next year.
