{"id":672,"date":"2012-01-07T20:19:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T20:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technogypsie.com\/science\/?p=672"},"modified":"2012-01-07T20:19:08","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T20:19:08","slug":"yorktown-colonial-national-historical-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technotink.net\/science\/yorktown-colonial-national-historical-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Yorktown Colonial National Historical Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yorktown Colonial National Historical Park<\/b> * http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/colo<\/a> * PO BOX 210, Yorktown, Virginia 23690 * <\/i>

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Yorktown Battlefield
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Another National Park of the Historic Triangle lies a small museum and visitor center where the staff will orientate you on the history of the Yorktown Colonial National Battlefield with dioramas showing scenes from life around the battle as well as welcoming you aboard a mock ship from the era. The Visitor center is surrounded by British defensive earthenworks preserved from the battles. There is a 16 minute film on the history of the battle presented within on the “Siege of Yorktown”. General George Washington’s military tents can be viewed as well as artifacts from the siege. After the visitor center, drive the self-guided driving tour around the battlefields for seven miles viewing American and French siege lines, visit the Moore House, and the site of the surrender negotiations ending the Siege, where the British army grounded their weapons in an elaborate ceremony. I’m a history buff, but I’m not much on historic battlefield sites and exhibits, so I can’t say it was one of the highlights of my trip but for the history buff of the era I’m guessing its worth a gander. The center and park was put together very nicely though the driving tour was confusing. Rating 2.5 stars out of 5. Visited 5\/22\/2008.
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In the Spring of 1781 the American War of Independence entered its seventh year. Having practically abandoned their efforts to reconquer the northern states, the British still had hopes of subjugating the South. By trying to do so, they unwittingly set in motion a train of events that would give independence to their colonies and change the history of the world. <\/p>\n

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\nPowhatan’s Village<\/b> – Across the York river is the site of Werewocomoco, an Indian village, that was Powhatan’s ‘chiefest habitation’ in the early period of the Jamestown settlement. Captain John Smith was a prisoner there late in 1607.<\/p>\n

Jones Mill Pond<\/b>

\nThis old mill town and mill dam (now covered by the Colonial parkway) show on Civil War maps, and may have existed in Colonial times.
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\nA Union Advance<\/b>

\nOn May 5, 1862, Lt. George A Custer (who is 1876 made hist “Last Stand” on the Little Bighorn River in Montana) led a detachment along the roadway here over “Cub Dam Creek” to occupy the Confederate works on the bluff immediately beyond. This manuever in the Battle of Williamsburg came as the Union Army advanced toward Richmond in the Peninsular Campaign.
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British Inner Defense Line: After Washington and Rochambeau’s allied armies arrived, Cornwallis withdrew his trioops from ost of his outer defense to consolidate his position behind these earthworks.<\/div>\n


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Surrender Field<\/b>
On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis’s army marched onto this field and laid down its arms. This ended the last major battle of the Revolutionary War and virtually assured American Independence.

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Second Allied Siege Line<\/b>
On October 11, Allied troops began this second line within point blank artillery range of the British. The line could not be completed, however, because two small, detached British earthen forts, Redoubts 9 and 10, blocked the way to the river.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Directory of the Deceased
Yorktown National Cemtery<\/div>\n

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\nYorktown National Cemetery<\/b> * Yorktown National Historical Site * Yorktown, Virginia<\/i>. I Passed the Union Soldier’s Burial Ground … laid out in avenues and enclosed with a Virginia rail fence .. each grave having a headboard neatly marked telling the hero’s name, his company, and regiment … In this lonely resting place, on the plains of Yorktown, sleeps many a noble boy, far from his home and kindred, with no kind friend to drop a tear, or sing a funeral requiem. ~ Bartholemew S. DeForest, 1862.

In the spring of 1862, war again scarred Yorktown’s landscape, as a Union army prepared to besiege Confederate forces holding the town. On the night of May 3-4, 1862 – in the face of Union siege artillery, Confederate forces withdrew from the area. Yorktown then became a Union garrison for most of the Civil War, and provided hospital service to wounded and sick soldiers. By war’s end, the remains of approximately 600 Union soldiers had been buried in the area between the 1781 Allied Siege Lines. In 1866, the cemetery was designated a national cemetery, and Union dead from over 50 field burial sites within 50 miles of Yorktown were re-interred here. Of the 2,183 burials, two-thirds of the remains are unknown. Only 747 are identified.
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