Yorktown, Virginia

Yorktown was founded in 1691 as a port for shipping tobacco to Europe. 

Geography makes Yorktown a strategic place in control of the rivers of Virginia and access to the Chesapeake Bay.  Yorktown was the base of British General Charles Cornwallis during the 1781 Battle of Yorktown, the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War. Nine buildings still survive from this period, as well as many of the earthworks dug by the besieging American and French forces. There is also a memorial to the French war dead of the Battle.  Moreover, Yorktown was used as the base for the Federal Army of the Potomac under General George McClellan in the 1862 Peninsular Campaign.