Saturday, May 23
Rainy day today, light rain but all day with brief periods of overcast skies. It's supposed to be like this the whole weekend.
Didn't do much of anything, which was nice. Just relaxing with our friends and their Black Labrador: Boomer.
Sunday, May 24
Larry H. drove us down to the Yorktown Battlefield Park where we checked out the visitor center.
Yorktown marked basically the end of the American Revolutionary War. It's where British General Cornwallis surrendered to forces under General Washington after a siege of the town of Yorktown.
The usual artifacts of course at the visitor center, but quite minimalist I thought. The focus is on an auto tour to view the defensive line and earthworks used by the British. We chose not to do the tour.
A couple of things that caught my eye:
A 1/4 replica of the British 44 gun Frigate Charon. Apparently, the largest warship during the siege/battle. Hit by French warship cannon balls which had been superheated prior to firing, she collided with another ship then drifted onto shore where she burned to the waterline.
The Lafayette Cannon was the other thing of interest to me.
This particular British 12 Pounder had a bit of history involving French Major General the Marquis de Lafayette, a famous military leader and ally of the American army
Note the "divot" on the side of the cannon.
It was part of the defenses of Redoubt #10, one of two remaining redoubts preventing the American besieging forces from completing a second and closer siege line as part of the Yorktown siege.
Heres the official story: LINK
Out side of the visitor center and a short walk towards Yorktown, is the Yorktown Victory Memorial. Built to commemorate the American victory in 1781. More on this monument here: Link













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