Wilmer McLean

Wilmer McLean was a Virginia businessman whose homes were associated with the First Battle of Bull Run and Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. The surviving record places this person within the historical events represented in Ann Rinaldi’s fiction.

Historical fiction may reconstruct private conversations, motives and emotional responses that sources do not preserve. The relationship is included because the person is portrayed under a real historical identity, while invented details should not be treated as documentary biography.