Surrounded by enemy fire, and blocked from receiving aid by the French fleet that had arrived in Chesapeake Bay, Cornwallis was trapped. On the morning of October 19, the British sent forward a red-coated drummer boy, followed by an officer waving a white handkerchief to the parapet.
All guns fell silent—Cornwallis had surrendered. But the demoralizing loss at Yorktown diminished the British will to continue to fight the rebels. On September 3, , the Revolutionary War came to an official end with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. It included two crucial battles, fought eighteen days apart, and was a decisive victory for the Continental Army and a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary In the Battle of Trenton December 26 , Washington defeated a formidable garrison of Hessian mercenaries Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts.
On the night They clashed with a larger force of American soldiers led by General Horatio Gates Enjoy free outdoor concerts, open-air farmers markets, art strolls and wine festivals throughout the year. And if you need a venue for a special event, consider the Freight Shed , a charming facility with stunning waterfront views. Nearby at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown , a living history museum, you can experience the American Revolution firsthand through film, galleries, and re-creations of a Revolution-era farm and a Continental Army encampment.
Costumed historical interpreters may even recruit you to join a cannon crew or help tend the crops. Skip to main content. Battlefields, boutiques and a beach — Yorktown has a variety of things to do. Stroll the waterfront, grab a bite at a historic restaurant and admire the 18th-century architecture of a place known as much for its current charm as its storied past. Lord Cornwallis surrendered, on ground known today as Surrender Field, October 19, , effectively ended the American Revolution.
The battles which began in covered much of the eastern seaboard. This final major battle was the culmination of numerous back-and-forth movements between the Franco-American f and British forces. What caused Cornwallis to dig in for a siege in Yorktown? How was Washington able to move his massive troops so quickly to Yorktown? How did the French fleet know to move to its critical location at just the right moment? A visit to Yorktown's many historic sites will answer some of those questions and inspire even more questions along the way.
It's the culmination of the stories of Washington, Cornwallis, Lafayette, De Grasse, and the thousands of soldiers and sailors of the American, British, and French nations that make up the collective story of Yorktown. Changing Positions The streets of Yorktown today bear little witness to the town's importance in and bear little resemblance to its appearance at that time.
In early , Yorktown was still a bustling port and mercantile center - but it's heyday had clearly passed as other larger more convenient ports became more prominent. The town, however, still had homes, stores, warehouses, storage buildings, public buildings, and other structures packed tightly along its unpaved main street and side streets. Along the river, numerous wharves and associated buildings stood as testament to Yorktown's importance, waning though it was.
Buildings of every nature stood chock-a-block along the town's short main street with no thought of our present-day zoning concerns, and, in fact, were monuments to the town's professional, mercantile, and residential prosperity and prominence. After October 19, , Yorktown was in a considerably different position after suffering dramatically during the siege, with numerous buildings either destroyed or heavily damaged. Many of its occupants left the town, never to return, and several remaining damaged buildings were demolished with little thought of rebuilding.
But thankfully, there were those who did stay and repair their homes and businesses. As a result, the story of Yorktown continued. In , a second disaster struck Yorktown when a major fire destroyed nearly all the buildings along the waterfront as well as many properties "on the hill" in the town--including the church and the courthouse.
During this time, the waterfront area was occupied, not by prominent businesses, but by the poorest of the residents of the community. As time and pride had passed Yorktown by, little was done to rebuild most of the destroyed buildings.
The county Courthouse was completed a few years later, and the church, renamed Grace Episcopal Church, took nearly 30 years to repair its original marl walls. Finally, the War Between the States brought Yorktown's second siege in
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