Yorktown

Established in 1691, Yorktown had become a thriving seaport by the 1750s, with a prosperous waterfront business district of wharves, warehouses, and pubs, while homes, outbuildings, stores, churches, taverns, and government buildings filled the bluff above the York River. In July 1781, Johann Conrad Doehla of the Anspach-Bayreuth Battalion in the British army described Yorktown, or Little-York, as a small city of about 300 houses on somewhat high, sandy, level ground along the river, with three churches, two Quaker meeting houses, and a beautiful court or meeting house. The town was extensively damaged during the 1781 siege and never recovered its colonial prominence. In October 1781, Dr. James Thatcher, a surgeon in the Continental Army, observed that the town contained about 60 houses, many greatly damaged and some totally ruined. Yorktown still preserves sights reflecting its past glory, including earthworks encircling the town, the 1881 Monument to the Alliance and Victory, and 18th century buildings, including the home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Virginia · United States