YORKTOWN, a town and the county seat of York county, Virginia, U.S.A., on the York river iorn. from its mouth, and about 6om. E.S.E. of Richmond. In 1930 the population of Nel son district, which includes Yorktown town, was 1,146. It is served by a steamship line, and about 61m. distant is Lee Hall, a station on the Chesapeake and Ohio railway. Large deposits of marl near the town are used for the manufacture of cement. In the main street is the oldest custom-house in the United States, and the house of Thomas Nelson (1738-1789), a signer of the Declara tion of Independence. In commemoration of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis in October 1781, there is a monument of Maine granite (iooft. 6in. high) designed by R. M. Hunt and J. Q. A. Ward; its cornerstone was laid in 1881 during the centennial cele bration of the surrender, and it was completed in 1883. York town was founded in 1691, as a port of entry for York county. It became the county seat in 1696, and although it never had more than about 200 houses its trade was considerable until it was ruined by the Revolutionary War. In that war the final victory of the Americans and their French allies took place at Yorktown.
Baffled by Gen. Nathanael Greene in his campaign in the Caro linas, his diminished force (fewer than 1,400) sadly in need of reinforcement, and persuaded that the more southern colonies could not be held until Virginia had been reduced, Lord Cornwal lis marched out of Wilmington, N.C., on April 25, 1781, arrived at Petersburg, Va., on May 20, and there, with the troops which had been under William Phillips and Benedict Arnold and with further reinforcements from New York, raised his army to more than 7,000 men. Facing him in Richmond was Lafayette, whom Washington had sent earlier in the year with a small force of light infantry to check Arnold, and who had now been placed in com mand of all the American troops in Virginia. Cornwallis's first attempt was to prevent the union of Lafayette and Gen. Anthony Wayne. Failing in this, he retired down the James in the hope, it is thought, of receiving reinforcements from Gen. Henry Clinton.
While Cornwallis was marching from N. Carolina to Virginia, Washington learned that a large French fleet under De Grasse was to come up from the West Indies in the summer and for a brief period co-operate with the American and French armies. At a conference on May 21 at Wethersfield, Conn., with the French commanders, Washington favoured a plan for a joint at tack on New York when De Grasse should arrive. An attack on the British in Virginia was, however, considered. The minutes of the conference with some suggestions from Rochambeau having been sent to De Grasse, he announced in a letter received on Aug. 14 that he would sail for the Chesapeake for united action against Cornwallis. About the same time Washington learned from La fayette that Cornwallis was fortifying Yorktown. Sir Samuel Hood with 14 ships-of-the-line arrived at the Chesapeake from the West Indies three days ahead of De Grasse, and proceeding to New York warned Admiral Thomas Graves of the danger. Graves took command of the combined fleet, 19 ships-of-the-line, and on Aug. 31 sailed for the Chesapeake in the hope of preventing the union of the French fleet from Newport, under Count de Barras, with that under De Grasse. He arrived at the Chesapeake ahead of De Barras, but after an encounter with De Grasse alone (Sep tember 5), who had 24 ships-of-the-line, he was obliged to return to New York to refit, and the French were left in control of the coast. Leaving only about 4,000 men to guard the forts on the Hudson, Washington set out for Virginia with the remainder of his army immediately after learning of De Grasse's plan, and the French land forces followed. The allied army was transported by water from the head of the Chesapeake to the vicinity of Williamsburg, and on Sept. 28 it marched to Yorktown. Receiv ing, on the same day, a despatch from Clinton promising relief, and fearing the enemy might outflank him, Cornwallis abandoned his outposts during the following night and withdrew to his inner defences, consisting of seven redoubts and six batteries con nected by intrenchments, besides batteries along the river bank.