Yorktown

Yorktown historic town (1990 pop. 270), seat of York co., SE Va., on the York River 10 mi (16 km) from its mouth on Chesapeake Bay; settled 1631, laid out 1691. It is included in the Colonial National Historical Park (see National Parks and Monuments , table). The town, once an important tobacco port, reached its zenith c.1750. The Yorktown campaign (1781) brought to a close the American Revolution; the battlefield surrounds the town. In the Civil War, Yorktown was besieged (Apr.-May, 1862) by McClellan in the Peninsular campaign , and the city was taken by Union troops on May 4. Places of interest in Yorktown include the customhouse (c.1706; restored 1929); Grace Church (1697); the Moore House (c.1725), in which the terms of Cornwallis's surrender were negotiated; and the Yorktown Monument (1881), commemorating the victory of 1781.

Bibliography: See B. Davis, The Campaign That Won America: The Story of Yorktown (1970).

Yorktown An American Revolutionary battlefield on the peninsula between the York and James rivers, in Virginia, USA. In August 1781 the British General CORNWALLIS, his southern army exhausted after the vain pursuit of Nathanael GREENE, seized and fortified the area for winter quarters. Thanks to the promise of French naval support from the Caribbean, George WASHINGTON was persuaded by the French to march from the Hudson and concentrate all his forces on a siege. With relief by sea cut off by 36 French warships, Cornwallis was forced to surrender on 19 October and American independence was assured.

Yorktown, Battle of a Revolutionary War battle at Yorktown, Virginia starting in August, 1781, when British troops under Gen. Charles Cornwallis were attacked by American land forces. The Americans were later joined by forces approaching by sea and in early October began a formal siege. On October 17th Cornwallis surrendered along with his 8,000 men. It was a turning point in the war since Cornwallis's army was the only British force that was surplus to garrison requirements in North America and British popular opinion began to suspect that there were not adequate resources available to win the war.