Day 6 - Yorktown

October 2016 - Williamsburg VA

Today we are covering the Siege of Yorktown. Our Triangle pass includes the American Revolution Museum and the Yorktown Battleground.

September 28 1781, General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War.

We drive to Yorktown and stop to check out a monument French Trench.

Memorial to the French soldiers killed in the Siege of Yorktown.

We stop for lunch at Riverwalk, not making the same mistake as yesterday and finding nowhere for lunch.

Bridge over the York River.

The George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge (known locally as simply the Coleman Bridge) is a double swing bridge that spans the York River between Yorktown and Gloucester Point. The bridge is the only public crossing of the York River, though State Route 33 crosses both of its tributaries (the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers) at just above its source at West Point.



The movable span is needed to allow ship access to several military installations that are upstream of the bridge, most notably, the United States Navy's Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. The roadways are almost 90 feet (27 m) above the river at the highest point of the bridge. The bridge is the largest double-swing-span bridge in the United States, and second largest in the world.

Statues of General George Washington, Commander of the American forces, and Admiral Francois De Grasse, Commander of the French Fleet.

Riverwalk has several restaurants and shops. Parking is free, nice.

Lunch was delicious at the Water Street Grille.

A couple of Patriots joined us for lunch.

Some sights along Riverwalk.

American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.

George Washington!

This museum is chock full of history and names that we know. Don't forget, we are Canadians, so don't really learn this history in school like Americans do.

But we know all the names!!

Thomas Jefferson

The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains (10,000 troops were to be stationed on the American frontier for this purpose).

Soldiers continuously walked by.

We watch a short film about the siege complete with sound and smell effects along with your seat vibrating.


We step out to the encampment and farm. It is cold out in the shade.

We head over to the cannon demonstration. They initially do a trial run using kids from the crowd, funny but took a long time. It's cold out.

Looking around the farm.

Once we're back in the sunshine it is warm. We decide to drive by the Battlefield to see if we wanted to do it today. The beauty of a 7 day ticket. We decide not, it is not warm enough and we know it is getting warmer.

We instead walk down Yorktown Main St. closed to traffic.

The town is most famous as the site of the siege and subsequent surrender of General Cornwallis to General George Washington and the French Fleet during the American Revolutionary War on October 19, 1781. Although the war would last for another year, this British defeat at Yorktown effectively ended the war. Yorktown also figured prominently in the American Civil War (1861–1865), serving as a major port to supply both northern and southern towns, depending upon who held Yorktown at the time.

This home was built in 1720 by Cole Digges, and over the centuries has been both a residence and used for commercial ventures.

The Courthouse.

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