Cornwallis Headquarters

During the siege of Yorktown, General Charles Lord Cornwallis established his headquarters in the prominent two story mansion of Thomas Nelson, former secretary of the royal governor's council before the American Revolutionary War, on the level plain above this ravine within the British Inner Defense Line. When the American and French bombardment began on October 9, 1781, the house was extensively damaged, forcing Cornwallis to seek safer quarters from which to direct the defense. According to eyewitness accounts after the siege, he moved his headquarters to an earthen bunker in this ravine for greater protection from the intense artillery barrage, a place an American officer later described as a bombproof, where Cornwallis and his staff continued their duties as the possibility of defeat grew and their defenses crumbled.

Virginia · United States