Wars & Yorktown

Yorktown and the lower Chesapeake Bay have been strategic since early colonial days, when a fort was built there to protect the colony from warring European powers. In the 17th and 18th centuries, tobacco ships formed convoys at Yorktown and awaited royal gunships to guard them against privateers and pirates on Atlantic crossings. Yorktown was most famously the site of the Siege of Yorktown, the last significant battle of the American Revolution. During the American Civil War, Confederate troops encamped behind reinforced earthworks from the Revolutionary War era, and in 1862 Union forces seized Yorktown after the Confederates abandoned it, denying the Confederacy use of the York River for the rest of the war. Yorktown later supported military efforts during World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and more recent and ongoing conflicts, while active Navy, Coast Guard, and Armed Forces training bases are located in York County along the York River. York County’s Monument on Main Street honors citizens who sacrificed their lives in military service dating back to Bacon's Rebellion.

Yorktown, Virginia · United States