City: Yorktown, VA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (757) 898-2410

Description: The Park Service’s visitor center is a small brick building nearly hidden by the 10-foot high earth works. The center has an interesting set of indoor exhibits (including the actual tents George Washington used as his field headquarters), and a concise ’70s-era film using re-creations to give some sense of the siege.In other words, the visitor center is intentionally understated and serves to keep the attention where it’s due—the acres of open fields and earthen fortifications. To truly appreciate the scale of the battle, you need only walk the fields, or drive the seven-mile self-guided tour of the sprawling battlegrounds.You can view samples of the types of cannon and mortar the siege forces used, tucked behind earthworks a half-mile south of the visitor center. You can stare across the fields—just as Washington, Rochambeau, and Cornwallis did—to gauge the distances and effect of the artillery.Most evocative, however, is Redoubt 9—one of two earthen fortifications that were linchpins of the British defensive line. (Nearby Redoubt 10 is fenced off—the meandering banks of the York River have washed out chunks of the river bluffs over the past 200-plus years, leaving the redoubt teetering at the edge of a cliff.)In a few bloody minutes one moonless night, a few hundred British, French, Americans and German mercenaries fought hand to hand. The Franco-American allies prevailed. Within a few hours, their artillery was firing into town at almost point-blank range; within three days, British Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis surrendered.There is no single preferred way to view the battlefield. The 15-minute film The Siege at Yorktown provides excellent context (the actor portraying Cornwallis lays on arrogance to the verge of campiness), and a re-creation of a Revolutionary-era warship gives a glimpse of life aboard (hint: duck). Outside, park service rangers lead 30-minute guided walking tours that describe the historical context and the allies’ siege tactics. To get a broader view (including some insight into the difficulties of marching massive troop numbers through a marshy, heavily forested region), pick up a free map at the visitor center and take the self-guided driving tour through the fortifications or the slightly longer nine-mile tour that includes the troop encampments.Many visitors, however, simply choose to walk the grounds, taking in the sweep and imagining the epic events that occurred on these quiet, wide fields.Admission to the park is $10, good over a seven-day period for both Yorktown Battlefield and Historic Jamestown. An annual pass is available for $40.For $83.75, you can purchase a five-day combination ticket, good for both the park service facilities; Colonial Williamsburg; and the state’s Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center.