Last Battle

On another really cold day we went to Yorktown which I had to practice not calling Yorkton from Canadian history. We aren't in Canada Dorothy, not even Kansas. I am constantly surprised at how many original buildings there are from the mid-1700's despite 2 wars and wood fired heat and cooking: 88 in Colonial Williamsburg alone. And brick sidewalks.

Yorktown is the town and site of the last battle of the American Revolution, October 1781, although the Treaty of Paris wasn't signed until 1783.
Yorktown is all about the battle field and museum. There is a tiny town and a very good pub along with a 'fancy' river front (York river) development of shops and restaurants. There's a free shuttle between the museum on the escarpment and the fancy area below. Fancy that!

We started at the museum and met the guide-who-went-too-far. It was cold enough that he took us into a classroom for the introductory information. An hour later he had covered the entire Revolution, northern campaign, southern campaign, everything in between, and with more names of battles, generals and colonels that you would think possible. And after all that some rotten little 10 year old asked questions. Sigh. We left the guide shortly after we finally went outdoors as he launched into a blow by blow description of the American and British lines of defense and we were freezing. Then we toured the museum and got the 5 minute version which made more sense of the ebb and flow of the conflict.

In the museum they also had a replica ship, much of Yorktown's history was the result of the naval battle at the mouth of the Chesapeake, and Washington's actual field tent. People are really into local history here and they save things in case it ever matters. The Washington battle memorabilia was saved by a slave. The ironies never end.
What I had forgotten from high school history was that the American Revolution wouldn't have ended in favour of the colonies without the French. Not then anyway. Also interesting is that Lafayette was only 19 when he became a general and acolyte of Washington.