Appomattox Court House NHP was created by law on August 3, 1935. The next several years saw the arrival of National Park Service (NPS) personnel to establish an NPS site to commemorate the foundational historical events that occurred at Appomattox C.H. in 1865. After much discussion with local politicians and leaders, the decision to erect a "national peace Monument" on the site of the original courthouse green was replaced with a plan to return the now defunct original county seat town to its 1865 appearance. Although not a lot had changed in the area surrounding the McLean House, there was a Herculean amount of work that needed to be done before the park could be established.   

The Civilian Consercation Corps (CCC) was up for the task. The CCC, a federal agency created during the Great Depression to put Americans to work on municipal projects of all sorts throughout the nation, ultimately had two companies of enrollees that worked in Appomattox. During this Jim Crow era- all White enrollee Company 2391 built Holliday Lake State Park, while the all Black enrollee Company 1351 created Appomattox Court House.  

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Company 1351 enrollees consisted of African American World War I veterans, some hailing from the 369th Infantry of the New York Army National Guard. The regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters and the Black Rattlers, gained notoriety for seeing more action and suffering more losses than any other American unit during the war. Among the first American units to arrive in France, the Hellfighters were highly decorated for their service with the French Army. Co. 1351 worked on the Winooski River Flood Control Project in Vermont in 1933 and at Colonial Parkway in James City, Virginia  in  1934 before arriving at Appomattox Court House in 1940.

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The 369th  NY Infantry Regiment- the "Harlem Hell Fighters" on parade Feb. 17, 1919 to a heroes' welcome in the streets of New York City.