At the Touch of a Button, History Comes Back to Life in Yorktown

The memorial is humble but not inappropriate: just a small brick pavilion at the edge of a quiet meadow.

Split rail fences discourage visitors from entering the large field, thereby maintaining its serenity. The only movement is that of a squirrel scampering along a wooden fence, the only sound a crow cawing in the distant woods.

No ornate monuments clutter the meadow and no maps outlining military tactics are in the modern pavilion. No grand paintings or sculptures immortalize heroic deeds. No stirring words are etched in brass or marble.

The circular building, like the tranquil field it overlooks, is empty--except for a red button on the far wall above the words “Surrender Story.”

Push the button and what happened in the field, on an autumn day nearly 209 years ago, comes back to life in a stirring taped narration that concludes: “On this open field, it might be said, the United States of America was born.”

On Oct. 19, 1781, a battered British army marched out of the nearby village of Yorktown to the isolated field and surrendered to combined French and American forces under Gen. George Washington, after the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

Surrender Field is preserved as part of Yorktown Battlefield, a 4,500-acre unit of Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia.

Yorktown is eclipsed in popularity by nearby Colonial Williamsburg, but history buffs who visit it will not be disappointed. The battlefield, which overlooks the wide York River, has more artillery pieces and reconstructed earthen fortifications than many Revolutionary War sites.

And although more American soldiers died in winter encampments at Valley Forge and Morristown, N.J., earlier in the war, what happened at Yorktown was more dramatic and certainly more decisive.

A visitor easily can spend a full day exploring the area--taking two battlefield driving tours, a walking tour through the small town and seeing two worthwhile museums.

No admission is charged to visit the parklike battlefield. In winter, especially on weekdays, visitors may feel as if they have the place to themselves. Unfortunately, a couple of historic buildings are closed at this time of year.

Anyone who goes will better appreciate France’s role in helping the United States gain its independence. After joining the war against England in 1778, France provided troops and financial support. Without the French the Americans would have been defeated at Yorktown and the Revolutionary War might have been lost.

“Washington could not have done anything at Yorktown without the assistance of the French,” said National Park Service spokesman Douglas Thompson.

In 1781 Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis had fortified Yorktown as a British naval base. (The York River has the deepest natural channel of any Chesapeake Bay tributary.) But a French fleet under Adm. De Grasse blockaded the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, cutting off Cornwallis and any relieving force for him from New York.

On Sept. 5 of that year 24 French ships fought 19 British ships off Virginia Beach in the Battle of the Virginia Capes. The damaged British ships returned to New York City. No Americans were involved in that engagement, which assured a British defeat at Yorktown.

Cornwallis deliberately sank more than a dozen supply ships off the Yorktown beach as a barricade against a possible French invasion.

About the same time George Washington ferried American and French forces west across the Hudson north out of sight of the British in New York City, and marched them 450 miles south to attack Cornwallis by land.

After arriving in Virginia, Washington used Williamsburg as his base before starting the attack. The French fleet put 3,000 troops ashore at nearby Jamestown to join Washington’s army.

Nearly half of Washington’s 17,600 men were French soldiers under Gen. Jean de Rochambeau. Cornwallis had 8,300 men--about one third of Britain’s forces in the United States. They included some American troops who fought for England. “In many respects, the Revolution was a civil war as well as a war between the United States and Britain,” said Thompson.

On Sept. 28, 1781, French and American forces marched 13 miles to Yorktown and began digging a mile-long siege trench 800 yards from the British defense line.

The battle began Oct. 9 when French and American howitzers, mortars and field guns began bombarding the occupied town. Washington fired the first American siege gun.

“Yorktown was unique because it was the only major siege of the Revolution,” said Thompson, adding that more than 15,000 artillery rounds--both solid cannon balls and exploding bombs--were fired during the eight-day siege, mostly from French guns. Half the town’s buildings were destroyed. Considering the intensity of the battle, casualties were not high. British dead totaled 156 and the Americans and French lost 72 men. Many more were wounded.

By Oct. 11 most British guns had been knocked out of action and the Redcoats pulled back from their outer defenses.

Three days later, after fierce hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, American and French troops captured two small British fortifications, Redoubts 9 and 10, allowing completion of a second siege line only 300 yards from the enemy. Both reconstructed redoubts can be visited, although part of one has eroded into the river.

Menacing pointed pikes called fraises protrude from the walls of the tiny forts. The sharp “timbers” look exactly like gray wood, but are modern reproductions made of reinforced concrete.

On Oct. 16 the British attempted a counter-attack but were repulsed. Late that night they tried to evacuate Yorktown by crossing the York River in small boats, but a violent windstorm forced them to abandon that idea.

Cornwallis was outmanned and outgunned. He was short of supplies and the town he occupied was being subjected to a continuous bombardment at close range. On Oct. 17, with no hope of escape or reinforcement, he proposed terms of surrender. The next day, officers from both sides met at the Moore house to negotiate terms. Visitors can go inside that restored house in summer.

The formal surrender ceremony took place two days later. Cornwallis’ army, which included German mercenary forces, marched out of Yorktown between two lines of Allied soldiers that stretched more than a mile. Cornwallis did not attend, claiming to be ill. His second in command, Gen. Charles O’Hara, tried to surrender his sword to Rochambeaurather than to the Americans. But the French general directed O’Hara to Washington. The sword was accepted by Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, Washington’s second in command.

When the British laid down their arms, some flung down their weapons, damaging them so they could not be used by their enemies. Mounted vertically at the base of the Surrender Field pavilion are 11 British artillery pieces surrendered at Yorktown. The defeated soldiers were marched to prison camps in Maryland and western Virginia. Many later became Americans.

In March, 1782, the British Parliament passed a resolution to end the war against the United States. But the war did not formally end until the Treaty of Paris was signed in September, 1783, almost two years after the victory at Yorktown.

Immediately after news of the battle reached the federal capital in Philadelphia, a jubilant U.S. Congress authorized construction of a victory monument, but construction did not begin for 100 years.

The 98-foot-tall Yorktown Victory Monument--erected to commemorate both the victory and the alliance with France--was completed in 1885. It overlooks the York River between the town and the National Park Service Visitors Center.

The center, open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., is a good first stop. A 16-minute film explains the battle, as does an illuminated map display. In the center’s museum you can walk inside a full-size reproduction of one-fourth of a British frigate (watch your head).

Other artifacts include Washington’s field tent and a British cannon dented by enemy fire at Yorktown. The roof of the visitors center, which is behind British lines at the south edge of town, has a battlefield observation deck.

For more about Yorktown, write to Superintendent, Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown, Va. 23690. Or call (804) 898-3400.