Yorktown,VA…The War of Independence…The Battlefields

The first thing that we did this morning was to take the Colonial Parkway over to Colonial Williamsburg. Now you can make Colonial Williamsburg as simple or as complicated as you want to as far as visiting. Admission is free. If you want to just walk the town, you can see period dressed people who talk to you like you were back in their time frame of the Revolutionary War period.

Colonial Williamsburg

If you want to go into specific houses and get detail reenactments, then you need to pay the admission. We wanted to see the general layout of the town. This is no small area. One mile long by 3/4 mile wide. A 1/4 mile walk along working period farm and flowering forests will take you from the Visitor Center to the outskirts of Colonial Williamsburg. It was an interesting forenoon and about two and a half miles of walking and we had covered the entire town. It was interesting enough, but I’m glad we didn’t pay for the tour.


Matt our Park Ranger
standing next to a 24 pound cannon

Next, on our marathon day, was to get back on the Colonial Parkway heading in the opposite direction to Yorktown Colonial National Historical Park. The National Park Service never fails to do a good job in their presentations. The American Revolution’s last major decisive battle was fought here in Yorktown. I won’t go into details, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is “The American Revolutionary War” and not part of “Civil War”. Here is the twist… while visiting the battlefields in Yorktown our Park Ranger mentioned several times that the Confederate Army used a lot of Revolutionary War defensive positions. They simply reinforced and replaced whatever was needed. I was happy to have visited Yorktown and its history!
That is what we did and saw!