the education of henry

Day 27: Yorktown Battlefield and Alliance II

2023-10-10

Today we went to Yorktown to see where the siege took place. We started out at the visitor center - which was small, but very cool, and it had some nice artifacts. One of which was the contents of George Washington's tent - which we didn't take a picture of because it was behind glass and in low light to protect the items. But we have pictures to share, don't worry.

This is the Lafayette cannon. The story goes that when Lafayette retur to America in 1824, he came to Yorktown and recognized this cannon by the distinctive dent in it's side. Lafayette was overcome with emotion and he then hugged the barrel.

This is Cornwallis's campaign table.

There was a partial recreation of one of the French ships from the Battle of the Capes.

More low ceilings.

Checking out the interactive map.

A diorama of some of the earthworks.

A diorama of the surrender.

We were supposed to go drive the road around the site of the siege, but Mom had a surprise: sailing!

On the walk to the dock, we went past the Yorktown Victory monument.

The statue at the top is missing a hand - it was struck by lightning!

A little bit of beach on the York River. Which is actually salt water at Yorktown. You have to go another 14-20 miles up river to find freshwater.

Here's the schooner we sailed on, the Alliance II.

They had a baby cannon!

We got to be the crew and raise the sails!

Raising the sail.

Raising the the other sail.

And one more sail needed to go up.

And we are underway! Dad was happy it was a mostly calm day.

The round thing in the water marks where the British scuttled their ships to make it harder for the French to land troops at Yorktown. The wrecks are still there, so the markers keep modern sailors from running into trouble.

Hanging out with Captain Mayhem. His real name is Tyler.

The captain is away from the wheel...

So I am steering the ship!

I actually got to give the commands and turn the wheel all the way starboard and hold it until we turned around.

And then I turned the wheel to port to get us on the right heading.

Checking the nav computer - and the captain is back!

Dad and I rode in the back - in the shade. I think Dad still got sunburned.

We went under the big bridge - the boat is almost too tall.

This bridge is a swivel bridge - the captain thought it might be the last one operating.

Back at the dock. That was awesome!

Some fun sculptures in the little cluster of shops. From left to right: General Washington, General Lafayette, General Rochambeau, and Admiral de Grasse - the big played for the Americans and French at Yorktown.

I gave Lafayette a hug.

We got lucky - the bridge opened up while we were there.

They had to let the big guy on the left through.

This ship is the Philippine Sea, a Flight II Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser. This ship has seen multiple deployments, and was notably the ship that carried the remains of Neil Armstrong when he was buried at sea.

We celebrated with ice cream! It was the first time for all of us at a Ben and Jerry's.

Sailing and then ice cream for lunch? Awesome.

After the ice cream we walked back to the car and did the drive around the various sites of the Yorktown siege. We went to a lot of different site with earthworks, showing where the American and French lines were initially located, and then where they were moved as the siege progressed. Like the other battlefields, it was great to see how the locations fit together in the world. These battlefields are so much bigger than you think they will be. It's not like they could take place in a stadium - more like over the land that mightontain a whole city.

The big fun was the second siege line, and Redoubts 9 and 10.

With some cannon on the siege line.

Redoubt no. 9, which 400 French soldiers swarmed to take it away from the British.

A commemorative plaque for the French soldiers.

I'm in Redoubt no. 9! I can't believe it!

Atop Redoubt no. 9. I suppose it doesn't look like much, but it was exciting to be where it happened. Taking Redoubts 9 and 10 made it possible to move the American and French lines so close to the British that they had little choice but to surrender.

The picture doesn't show it well, but there is a six-foot deep trench under those spiked logs.

Over by Redoubt 10, which was captured by 400 American troops.

A plaque for the Americans.

Redoubt 10 was not open like no.9. There was a chainlink fence around it. So we could just look from the outside.

Some beautiful scenery on the way to the Surrender site.

The house of Augustine Morgan, which was where the terms of surrender were negotiated for the Siege of Yorktown.

Just happened to see the ship we rode on from the Morgan house!

More lovely scenery. The road we were on when this was taken has been in use for more than 300 years!

This field is where General Lafayette's men were camped.

A quotation from Cornwallis.

And one from Washington.

This is the field where it happened.

A captured mortar. There were quite a few captured artillery pieces, and they all had a variation of this script on the outside. "Surrendered by the capitulation of York-Town, Oct. 19 1781.

And that was almost that. We made a stop after the battlefield to go back into the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown just to watch the fancy video about the siege. It was actually better the second time around - we noticed a lot of new details we had missed before.

And that was the day: take care!