Nearly 40 percent of the American forces at Yorktown were Virginia Militia troops. Brigadier General Thomas Nelson, Jr., who was also Virginia’s governor, commanded the militia while also coordinating the state’s efforts to supply food and military supplies to the American and French armies. Organized by their home counties and serving for short durations under state orders to meet immediate threats, these militia units, the forerunner of the National Guard, included over 3,500 men during the siege. They provided labor to build fortifications, helped man the siege lines, herded cattle to the encampments, and after the siege escorted Cornwallis’s army to prison camps. After the siege, the units were demobilized, and despite the importance of their service, some of these men did not qualify for a pension based on their military service until 1832, more than 50 years after the victory at Yorktown.
