Five Things You Didn’t Know About The Battle of Yorktown
The Battle of Yorktown ended the American Revolutionary War, but what have we forgotten about it?
On the morning of October 17th, 1781, a drummer boy, clad in red, mounted the parapet surrounding the British encampment at Yorktown. It’s unknown whether anyone heard his drum over the sound of booming cannons and exploding shells, but in either case, the bombardment which had begun three weeks before soon ended.
The formal surrender — two days later — brought to an end far more than just one (relatively) bloodless battle.
Upon hearing the news of Cornwallis’ surrender, Lord North, British Prime Minister, famously replied, “Oh, God! It’s all over!”
And indeed it was.
Yorktown proved to be the final battle of what we now call the American Revolutionary War or the War of Independence.
Two hundred forty years later, Yorktown is now a National Historic Park. The men who led and fought there — Washington, Layfayette, Hamilton — have long since passed from living men to myths.
So what have we learned — or forgotten — about this most decisive battle in American history? Here are a few lesser-known facts about Yorktown.
