Bocock-Isbell House

The Bocock–Isbell House is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. It was registered in the National Park Service's database of Official Structures on June 26, 1989.HistoryThe Bocock–Isbell House has major importance to the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park by virtue of its association with the history and the site of General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant of the American Civil War. It was constructed in 1849 to 1850 by Thomas S. Bocock and Henry F. Bocock, brothers. Thomas was a member of the United States Congress and Speaker of the Confederate House of Representatives. At the time Henry was Clerk of the Court for Appomattox County. Lewis Daniel Isbell (1818-1889) was Appomattox County Commonwealth Attorney during the American Civil War (Judge later) and occupied the house at the time General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant in 1865. He was Appomattox County's representative to the Secession Convention of 1861 and voted to secede from the Union.Historical significanceThe Bocock–Isbell House has importance because of its distinctive characteristics of a type, period, and method of construction during the nineteenth century in rural Virginia. The building with its resources associated with the Bocock–Isbell House are typical of both a county government seat ("court house") in Piedmont Virginia in the mid-nineteenth century and of a farming community in Virginia.