Turns out, cabin in Appomattox isn't from Civil War era

A structure on land in Appomattox that will be leased to the Museum of the Confederacy is not the Civil War-era log cabin officials previously thought.

Two weeks ago, a team of experts gathered on the land to take a closer look at the cabin and sort out its roots, said S. Waite Rawls III, the museum’s director. What they learned was the building likely was built between 1900 and 1920, using old logs from nearby, he said.

The team, which included museum officials, county Tourism Director Anne Dixon, Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park historian Patrick Schroeder, archaeologists from the state Department of Historic Resources and experts from the private and academic sectors, “went over the cabin with a fine tooth comb to see what we could determine,” Rawls said.

By examining how the logs were put together, the types of nails used and other characteristics, the conclusion was that the cabin was built between 1900 and 1920 and used logs from another structure, likely a barn, Rawls said.

“Logs used in houses tend to be squared off a lot so they fit tightly with each other,” Rawls said. “Logs in a barn are not squared off much and there’s bigger gaps between the logs. And this one’s got big gaps between the logs.”

Reusing logs was relatively common because it saved work and time, Rawls said. “They were green before green was in.”

Another characteristic that helped the team determine the building’s age was looking at the nails used. The nails found in the wood were round wire nails, similar to what are commonly used today, Rawls said. Those nails weren’t in wide use until the late 1800s — the types of nails in common use before the Civil War era were cut nails, which were square.

Initial reports about an abandoned house on the four acres of land that will be purchased by the town of Appomattox and leased to the museum were that it likely was built prior to the Civil War, Rawls said. The logs were hidden by boards and plastering and only discovered after the former owner began tearing the structure down in the fall.

Museum officials had hoped to move and restore the structure to be used as a homestead exhibit, but the museum now plans to take the building down, Rawls said. “Given the fact that they are old logs, we’ll be looking for another user. We don’t want to demolish it like putting it in a pile and burning it up. We don’t want to do that.”

But, Rawls said, the museum still wants to re-create a living history exhibit on the property.

“We would still like to interpret a homestead and cabin, a typical home of the period from Central Virginia, and at a future date we’ll probably get another Civil War-era log cabin and move it there.”