Yorktown

After leaving Colonial Williamsburg but before heading to Washington, D.C., we visited Yorktown.  I had some of the same feelings at Yorktown that I did at Jamestown - feeling overwhelmed at standing in the same spots, on the same battlefields, as George Washington and thousands of men who fought for our country.  It was pretty great.  There was a hard freeze that morning, so we were all quite chilly as we toured the battlefields - gorgeous today, but bloody some 235 years ago.

Actual piece of George Washington's field tent, which he used at Yorktown. 

Elizabeth was obsessed with the privy - and when she found this one on a replica ship, she squeezed right in.   

Lafayette's cannon, which bears the scars of British small cannon fire (below). 

There was a cemetery in the middle of the battlefields for soldiers that died, in battle there, during the Civil War.  Many of them looked like this.  I won't lie - it was very emotional to think of the thousands of mothers that mourned their sons, having no idea of the location of their final resting place.  In 1866, the cemetery was designated as a national cemetery and Union dead from over 50 different field sites within a 50 mile radius were re-interred here.  There is now a total of 2183 burial sites; only 747 were ever identified.

Cannons and other types of firepower were everywhere - and original.  That blew my mind. 

Part of Redoubt 9. 

The Moore House, sight of the signing of surrender papers. 

At Surrender Field, the spoils of victory of victory - 11 British cannons - are on display.  

The village of Yorktown. 

Yorktown Victory Monument - stands 100 feet tall and took 100 years to build.