Charles Sweeney Cabin

The Charles Sweeney Cabin 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.HistoryCharles Sweeney was the cousin of Joel Sweeney, the person that popularized the five-string American banjo. In the 1840s the Sweeney clan lived on the stagecoach road northeast of Clover Hill, the name of the village now known as the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park. John Sweeney, a wheelwright and Charles' brother, lived in the old family home on the north bank of the Appomattox river with his wife and four children. When Joel was not touring the country entertaining he would stay at John's cabin. Just up the road the four children of John's, being nephews and nieces of Charles, could see their uncle's small cabin. Charles lived in the tiny cabin with his wife and two remaining children. Charles Sweeney's older son Robert, a left-handed fiddle player, lived in even a smaller cabin with his wife and baby daughter downhill from John. Charles Sweeney was born in 1794 as was his wife, Mary.Historical significanceThe National Park Service states the Charles Sweeney Cabin is meaningful by virtue of its association with the site of General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant. There is some evidence, in the form of a circa 1930 post card, which indicates that General Fitzhugh Lee and his staff stayed in this house the night before the Surrender. It was originally built between 1830 and 1840 by Charles Sweeney, altered between 1940 and 1950, and restored in 1988 and 1994.