[6] 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.

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.

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.

The cabin is a post and beam hall house set on dry-laid fieldstone pier foundation, typical of what was in rural Virginia in the nineteenth century.

[4] The one-room interior of the Charles Sweeney Cabin has a loft accessible in the northwest corner by a dog-leg stairway.

The east side has a single centered four-panel door on the main floor that opens directly into the multi-purpose keeping room.

Hewn oak L-formed corner posts and knee braces alternate with the secondary members made of pine.