You call THIS a celebration? The 225th Anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown

Part 2 of my colonial adventure takes me to Yorktown, VA for a weekend "celebration" of the 225th Anniversary of the victory of the Battle of Yorktown. For the benefit of those of you out there (like me) who may not be particularly knowledgeable on the details of the Revolutionary War ... the Battle of Yorktown was the culmination of the war where Washington defeated Cornwallis (the British dude) and the British essentially gave up and said "fine have your own damn country." If you want a much more detailed lesson - find it here or for a site with pretty pictures go here

Every year the town has a Yorktown Day celebration around the time of the anniversary of the battle, but this year they decided to have a big fancy deal due to the 225th anniversary. I checked out the website and it sounded like it would be a cool event so off we went. The event started on Thursday October 19th which is the actual day of the surrender and apparently there was a ceremony with the Governor of Virginia and the Defense Minister of France laying a wreath at the victory memorial and a big parade. I had to work so we made it there for the weekend when there were promises of battle re-enactments, artillery demonstrations, Revolutionary War re-enactor encampments and what I thought would be a fair.

We arrived at the battlefield which is operated by the National Park Service and immediately we saw TONS of people in colonial dress. Apparently just about every Tom, Dick and Harry who likes to dress up and play Continental Army soldier or British Redcoat was there. We walked through an encampment with tents containing everything from woolen cloth to make your uniform, to a display of medical supplies that would have been used in that time frame. Interesting side note, it was fascinating learning about amputation and other battlefield medicine. They were shockingly effective and quick - and the person describing it was actually a trauma nurse who maintained a collection of artifacts.

From the encampment we entered historic Yorktown which has a lot of old homes and buildings with brass plaques outside saying things like, "Tom Smith's House. Tom was really important in the 1780s" We honestly didn't go into any buildings because we were starving and wanting to find the "fair." We made it down to the riverwalk area which had some exhibits from Jamestown including a replica of the Godspeed which was part of the expedition from the 1600s and behind it is a 1700s replica vessel.

There was a stage set up with ridiculously cheesy singers doing an "isn't America great" pop routine with choreography and on the grounds we saw TWO (2) booths of food. One was hotdogs and the other was put on by the local Lions Club and the line to each was RIDICULOUSLY long. So basically they plan this huge event, advertise it on the radio, in magazines and on the web, then have 2 booths of food?? Are you kidding me??? There's more options at Irish Days and that's just a celebration of people in my old hometown of Farmersville, IL (pop 750) who like to drink. In addition to the booths, there are two restaurants along the river and a Ben & Jerry's. We ended up going to a restaurant and waiting 45 minutes for a table because that seemed a better use of time than a 45 minute line for a hot dog.

So after eating, we headed back to the battlefield for an artillery demonstration. It was *supposed* to be the Americans and British volleying back and forth across the main battlefield, but on the side we were watching there was only one cannon (seemed a bit unfair to the poor British). According to the national park service intern standing by us, a lot of cannons were promised but they didn't all show up. So basically we got to hear an occasional boom from the cannons way across the field .... not - very - exciting.

Next up was a music demonstration and this was kindof cool. Two different fife and drum groups marched out and played some songs. If you live in New England or the Mid-Atlantic, lots of the historical towns have such groups. The smaller group in blue were actually a lot better musically and marched well.

Following the music was a battle re-enactment held at dusk to represent a nighttime raid by the British?? (honestly I don't recall the details, it's probably in the detailed websites linked at the beginning). There were several hundred participants and though it was very spread out - I mean it was a battlefield - it was cool seeing the flashes from the muskets as they fired down the line. After a while, there was smoke everywhere and throughout the event, a narrator was talking over a loudspeaker. Luckily it wasn't about "aiming" in these battles, you basically just got in a big line and fired all at once because after a while there was no visibility due to all of the smoke from the muskets. So we watched this battle for a while, then it got darker, and colder so we left.
All in all, the day was a bit disappointing and seemed pretty unorganized. While watching the "artillery" demonstration, a group next to us was complaining because they had come out with their families from the west coast for the event (apparently history buffs) and events were hard to find or just lame. It was interesting talking to the re-enactors and seeing their encampment, and the battle was pretty cool for the first ten minutes ... then got a little boring. I need to admit, however, that there is a Yorktown Victory Center which is a permanent museum that we did not make it to. Perhaps that would have redeemed the experience. If you're in the area, it's still worth a trip to drive the battlefield and see the town which is beautifully situated on the Elizabeth River.