Yorktown
Final Battle
of the American Revolution
Yorktown,
VA.
October 23rd, 2001
Yorktown, 
Virginia is
one of the centers of American History. One of the best places to
see this history reenacted is at the Yorktown Victory Center.
Here through placards and living interpreters, the final days of
British Rule in America is told. Yorktown was created in 1691, by
a decree from the Virginia house of Burgesses, the governing body
in colonial times in the Virginia Colony under British rule. It
served the British by controlling commerce that came and went and
collecting the various tariffs required. By 1775 the Colonies,
especially those in the North, had all they could stand of
England bailing out her own economy by taxing her colonial
citizens. From the tea tax to the stamp act, money flowed out of
the Colonies and into the 
English coffers to fund things unrelated to the
Colonies. When negotiations and demonstrations failed, a handful
of farmers and shop keepers in Lexington, Massachusetts, stood up
against the British regular army and a shot was fired that was
heard around the world. The minutemen farmers were little
challenge to the trained professional soldiers of the British
Empire and their Hessian mercenaries. But the Colonies population
had swollen to more then two million. The rebellion, that was
expected by the English to be put down in a matter of months,
became a popular belief in the minds of the rank and file
colonists who kept the idea alive in thought and deed, as the war
dragged on and on, year after year, neither side winning or
losing. Seven years later, the British colonial expedition force
under General Cornwallis had ground to a stand off in the North.
Cornwallis, desiring a victory, turned to the southern Colonies
in hopes of subduing the dissidents. 
With 6000 men he sailed to Wilmington, N.C., and
marched across the Carolinas chasing General Nathaniel Green and
his ragtag Army of the Carolinas. All the way to Kings Mountain
in the Appalachians, where he found that he couldn't extract the
militia from the top. Finally he gave up and returned to
Wilmington. Behind every tree and under every rock there seemed
to be a musket firing at them as they withdrew unable to force
any meaningful engagement. Arriving in Wilmington with a little
over 600 men remaining in fighting condition, he was ordered to
return to Virginia and fortify a seaport in preparation for the
arrival of substantial British reinforcements.
The British had elected to fortify Yorktown at the mouth of the
York River. Washington, who had his main army surrounding New
York City, was given a defining break, unbeknownst to his British
counterpart; the French had entered the war on the American side.
Initially sending 5000 well trained and equipped infantry. In
addition two French
fleets, one from the West Indies and the other
from Quebec were made available. In one of his most brilliant and
daring decisions, Washington, grasping an understanding that he
had the British forces divided, sent his trusted and long term
fighting friend, General Lafayette, to shadow and harass
Cornwallis. Lafayette finally settled in Williamsburg to await
Washington. Washington created several deceits, with multiple
shifting of large amounts of troops and setting up empty tents
around New York, while his main army slipped out of town and
headed south to Virginia. When Sir Henry Clinton in New York,
realized what had happened, it was to late to intercept. His
response was to load up some 5000 infantry and sail to Yorktown
to reinforce Cornwallis. Not only had Washington predicted this
move, he had hoped for it.
