Wilmer McLean and the wrong place at the right time

As a participant at www.findagrave.com, I receive emails from time to time about people who are researching their family’s genealogy and are looking to obtain photographs of headstones in local cemeteries.

One Saturday morning not long ago, I received such an email from someone who was looking for a grave at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.  I knew the Church was located in Old Town on South Pitt Street, so I decided to take a drive down there to get a picture.

St. Paul’s is a lovely old church (the topic of a future post) and as many of the older buildings in Alexandria, has a history reaching back many years.  Some of the church members who happened to be there for a meeting directed me to the cemetery which is actually located off of Route 1 on Wilkes Street.

It turns out that this area of Alexandria is home to many cemeteries, thirteen of them in fact.  Besides St. Paul’s, the Alexandria National Cemetery, Christ Church Cemetery, and a slave cemetery are all found in the same area.

While walking through St. Paul’s graveyard, I happened across a familiar name on one of the headstones, Wilmer McLean.

Wilmer was the son of one of the founders of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.  He operated a grocery business with family members, and opened a store near Centreville, Virginia at the beginning of the War.  Unfortunately, his family home was in the middle of the Battle of First Manassas on July 21, 1861.  His home was damaged by artillery fire, and his barn used as a Confederate hospital.

Following the battle, his family relocated to Richmond, where he hoped they would be safe from the privations in Northern Virginia.  In Richmond, Wilmer speculated in purchasing supplies and selling them at greatly inflated prices to the Confederate quartermaster.  As the War pushed south, he relocated his family yet again to Appomattox Court House.

Unfortunately for the McLean family, the War followed close behind them.   On April 8, 1865, McLean gave reluctant permission for his home to be used for the surrender of General Lee to General Grant.  McLean was quoted later as saying, “The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor”.

The McLean house in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, 1865.

Following the surrender, Union troops took furnishings from the house as souvenirs, going so far as to even steal a doll belonging to McLean’s young daughter, Lulu.

The McLean family moved back to Alexandria, where Wilmer McLean worked for the Internal Revenue Service.  He died in 1876.

Lulu McLean’s doll, which was taken by an officer on General Sheridan’s staff, was returned to Virginia over 100 years later.  The doll was donated by one of the officer’s descendants to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park in December 1992, where it is now on permanent exhibition.