The Quick Tour

We elected to go on the short, half-hour battlefield tour. A ranger took us out the side and around to the back where benches and a number of artillery pieces stood. She gave a competent account of the events leading up to the battle, then it was on to the next stop, just behind the British siege lines.

Jumbo Battlefield Map (very slow: 337K)

Here she talked about the defensive terrain and so on, as well as that sinking feeling Cornwallis must have felt as the siege tightened and his predicament worsened.

At the last stop, perhaps 200 yards from the Visitor's Center in front of the British lines, we learned the shocking truth--the siege lines festooned with the Union Jack were not really British earthworks. They were Confederate lines from the siege of 1862, using more or less the same lines that the British did.

The Union Jack flutters in the breeze above the British siege lines, later used by the Confederates during the American Civil War.

Photo of Confederate Siege Lines (49K)

A few cannon are scattered around these inner works.

She also pointed across the field towards the American and French lines (the closer ones), as well as the two redoubts: 9 and 10. At this point she ended the talk, took questions, and then headed back into the Center.

Photo of "No Man's Land" between the British fortifications and the French Grand Battery siege line. (slow: 103K)

More Yorktown Battlefield

Introduction
Historical Preliminaries
Visitor's Center
The Quick Tour
Forward March...Ouch! Ouch!
Redoubts 9 and 10
Grand French Battery
Augustine Moore House
Surrender Field
Yorktown Victory Monument

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com