Hampton - Day 7. Yorktown

We are still in Hampton, VA, but tomorrow looks like we’ll be able to get back on the Loop. Literally, no pleasure boats moved until today. The Looper that was next to us in this marina left this morning. It looked like they had a rough ride due to a Small Craft Warning - 4-5 ft waves and wind blowing in their faces. We watched them on Nebo. They took a looong time to get to Deltaville which is 44 nm from Hampton.  It took them 8 hrs. and they generally cruise at 8 knots. 😳 

Today we rented a car and went to see Yorktown. I don’t remember doing this before so it was all new. It was a half hour drive from Hampton. The importance of Yorktown is that it ended the Revolutionary War. The French came and fought with the Americans against the British.  Yorktown is the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.  At Yorktown, in the fall of 1781, General George Washington, with allied American and French forces, besieged General Charles Lord Cornwallis’s British army.  On October 19, Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the war and ensuring independence. 

First we saw the inside exhibits


General George Washington with the trophies of war
from the British at the end of the Revolutionary War



Then it was time to get in the car and drive to the various encampments.  

It is amazing to go out in the fields and see long berms of dirt built by the soldiers to hide behind. First we saw the British defense lines:


British defense lines (berms)

Then we went to see the berms and trenches on the French siege lines.


French siege lines (berms)





Surrender Field, where American soldiers stood in a line on the left and French soldiers stood in a line on the right, and the British marched down the middle. The terms of surrender were they had to give up their muskets, but could keep their knapsacks. Apparently a lot of the British soldiers were not good sports about surrendering. Americans wrote that they slammed their musket on the pile, seemingly trying to break it. Others said they had sour looks on their faces. And many were biting their lips trying not to cry.



Trophies of War — Large Artillery 

These special trophies had the Surrender Quote engraved on them


Surrender quote



General Washington’s encampment

  


This cross marks the place of 50 unidentified French soldiers who died during the siege of Yorktown.


We visited the Yorktown Victory Monument; each of the four sides is different and very detailed.





Then we went to see Olde Yorktown as it was in the 1800’s.




More bricks with fingerprints





After Yorktown, we went to a seafood restaurant called Red Crab.  They are known for their seafood boil, which I have never had before. So I tried it - it was wonderful!

Seafood Boil


Seafood boil


And like I’ve said before, look up to see fish at a restaurant!

After lunch we went to Fort Monroe, built in 1840 on the site of three previous forts.  The first two wood forts were destroyed by fire and the other by disintegration of the wood.  

The major claim to fame in my opinion is that Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, was imprisoned in Fort Monroe after the Civil War.  

Jefferson Davis's prison cell








The moat right outside the Fort windows





Olde Yorktown








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