Historic Yorktown, Victory Center, & Battlefield - Tuesday October 12th

  
    

   

            

   

First stop was at the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center where we watched a short film which related the events of the siege. From here we took a shuttle bus over to the Yorktown Victory Center, this museum of theAmerican Revolution chronicles the events leading up to the colonists declaration of independence from Britain, and the impact of the war upon ordinary lives.

Daily life during the Revolution is re-created in an outdoor Continental Army encampment & a 1780's farm where costumed interpreters fire muskets, tend crops, and discuss medical practices of the day. 

In Yorktown, ten 18th century buildings survived the 1781 Battle of Yorktown and can still be seen today. While most are private, several are open to the public, including Nelson House and Moore House. The restored Somerwell house, at Main & Church Streets, was once a 18th-century inn and is now a retail establishment that sells 17th and 18th-century reproductions of ceramics, glassware, furniture and prints. 

On the driving tour of the Battlefield, not only did we see where the Battle was but we also saw the place where Cornwalis proposed a cease fire, and the house belonging to Augustine Moore where both sides met to negotiate the surrender terms for Cornwalis's army on October 18, 1781. Next was the field where on October 19, 1781  Cornwalis's army marched onto the field and laid down its arms. Another site was General Washington's Headquarters.