SUNDAY JULY 4TH

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Yesterday, not far from here, we toured where the seeds of America were first planted. Fast forward to the Revolutionary War. Today we celebrated Independence Day in the town where the final battle was fought and Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington. Lots of red, white and blue going on here today!!!

We started at the Yorktown Victory Center. Many costumed historical interpreters explaining things.

This woman talked about what it was like to be a woman following the troops. Some were hired to help. There were only two job requirements to be hired. One you weren’t a thief and two you weren’t a drunk!




The soldier’s ration, when they had it, was 1 pound of bread per day (which they often got as a 6 pound round loaf), 1 pound of butter or cheese per week, some molasses and dried beans. Cripes, I could eat that in a day.






The doctor was very interesting with his talk about what was known at the time. They could perform surgeries such as to remove kidney stones, appendix, gall bladders, etc. It was a last resort and they had very little time to perform the procedure once started. 60% of the patients died. And there wasn’t any type of anesthesia yet.

They didn’t know about germs or virus, but they did understand contagion and that disease spread. They could make inoculations for smallpox from the pus from someone recovering from the disease. People would be contagious for 35 to 40 days after receiving the inoculation so would often gather family and friends and have an “inoculation party”. The doctor would take a needle and thread, run it through the serum and then through the surface of the person's skin. All would suffer a mild case of the disease, but during the quarantine would visit, play games and enjoy one another's company.

This Colonial soldier is leaning against a gabion. It was woven together with saplings and filled with dirt. The soldiers could take defensive positions behind them, along with earthworks.

A mortar was used to lob a shell in. Often these were cannon balls that were hollow, then filled with gunpowder and a timed fuse. It would cause great destruction.

The Victory Center was a great stop and we totally enjoyed it.

There is a trolley that runs through out Yorktown so we took it downtown were we grabbed some lunch.

The beach as we walked along the boardwalk. There was a steady stream of people coming into town all day, along with coolers and picnic baskets. Later in the day is a parade with drums and fifes, Navy bands and such, followed by fireworks. It must have been a very hot wait!

Ross and I did something crazy…..segway tour of Yorktown!

Roscoe did okay from the get go, but I was going every which way trying to balance and direct the thing. It was nerve wracking with so many people waking around. The people of Yortktown have no idea how lucky they are that they escaped! But by the end of the 90-minute tour, I felt like a pro.

We rode up to the actual battle site, where the earthworks are still visible. Washington had the British surrounded and along with the French, they hammered them until the British were out of supplies. The British reinforcements arrived to late to be of any help. The Spanish and Portuguese also helped in a way as part of the British Navy was over there dealing with them.

Some friends we made at the marina came over to Yorktown and returned us to the marina. They have been very graciously driving us around.

Watched the Yorktown fireworks from the back of the boat.