We have spent the last two days paying tourist and thoroughly enjoying soaking up the history of this famous town. In 1781, Yorktown was the site of the defeat of the British General, Charles, Lord Cornwallis and his troops by the American and French Allied armies under the command of Washington and Rochambeau. This significant defeat marked the end of the Revolutionary War and the beginning of American Independence. Yorktown itself is beautifully preserved as one large Historic district which is easy to explore on foot or on one of the frequent, free, air-conditioned trams that circulate around the town.

As we approached from the York River the Victory Monument is very prominent. Consisting of an 84 foot pillar of granite from Maine, the monument was commissioned shortly after the war was over but was not actually built for another 100 years.



The main street of Yorktown is preserved much as it was back in the 1700's. Many of the buildings are original and can be toured. Some still have canon balls embedded in their walls.



The battlefields are also preserved and much of the defense and siege lines can still be discerned. As usual for a State Park there is an excellent and informative museum. You really need some form of motorized transport to do the battlefields justice but just by standing on a recreated redoubt we certainly got a flavor of what was involved in the Battle of Yorktown.


It is amazing to me that two key British positions; Redoubt #9 and Redoubt #10, were captured by Allied troops armed only with fixed bayonets on their muskets which were not loaded. Apparently the logic behind this tactic was that the men would rush purposefully to their target and not waste time firing and then reloading their weapons. The Americans captured their redoubt in 15 minutes whilst the French took 30 minutes. In each case there was minimal loss of life and casualties due to the nature of the attack and the quickly ensuing capture of the redoubts. Once these positions were captured the allied troops were able to bombard the British lines at almost point blank range and that was the end of it. Cornwallis realized that he was trapped with no means of escape and no possibility of reinforcements (the French Navy had blockaded the mouth of the Chesapeake). He therefore surrendered. When Lord North, the British PM learned of the defeat he cried "Oh God! It is all over!"