Jamestown & Yorktown - 6/27/16

This morning we picked up an Enterprise rental car.  They pick you up and take you to their office to complete the paperwork.  Problem was they weren't allowed on the Naval Station so I had to get to the gate to meet them.  It's about a 3 mile walk so I started out.  I made it about 1/2 a mile when someone coming out of the campground gave me a ride the rest of the way.  Then we were off to Jamestown.

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in America.  It was founded in 1604 by the Virginia Company of London and served as the capital of the Colony of Virginia from 1616 to 1699 when it was moved to Williamsburg.  The local Indian tribe was the Paspahegh Tribe who initially welcomed the colonists.  The colonists were not agriculturally inclined and spent a lot of their time looking for gold.  As a result they fell on hard times and over the winter of 1609 - 1610 over 80% of them died in what became know as the Starving Times.  In the spring a resupply ship brought essential goods and more colonists and the colony gradually prospered.  In 1698 the state house was accidentally burned down and then was relocated to what was known then as Middle Plantation and today is known as Williamsburg.  After this the town of Jamestown gradually declined and the land was used mostly for farming.

We were able to join a tour group led by one of the archaeologists that is researching the history and buildings.  They divided the area into 10 foot squares and they are digging in these squares 1 inch at a time and sifting the dirt they dig up to find artifacts.  Here are some photos we took.

This photo shows the lay out of the area.  It shows where the original fort was located in 1607 to the right and where the later larger settlement was established to the left.  At the time this drawing was made they thought that the tip of the fort was lost as the river eroded away the edge of the island.  More recent excavations has shown that all of the fort is still on dry land.

Due to accumulation of dust and wind borne dirt, the land builds up by about 1 inch for every 100 years.  However, the activities of man can increase this rate by many factors.  So in an area like Jamestown where there has been a lot of construction and farming activities over the years, you have to dig fairly far down as you can see in this photo.

Here you can see one of the 10 foot squares and worker digging down 1 inch at a time.  He places the dirt in a 5 gallon paint bucket which is then passed to the sifters.

Here you see one of the workers sifting the dirt for artifacts.  The girl in the background is measuring a piece of brick that was dug up.

Here you see them excavating right next to the foundation of the church that was built in 1907 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the building of Fort James which was the heart of the settlement.  Unfortunately, the folks who built the church didn't pay any attention to what was there previously so these workers are trying to find out about the original capital building that was in about the same location.

These crosses mark the location of burial sites from the Starving Time.  Only a couple of them have been excavated.

This excavation is of the original kitchen of the settlement.  If you look closely you can see the remains of the chimney for the original ovens.

This reconstruction is of the original chapel.  The construction method was one that was in common use in England at this time and was called post and mud.  Posts are set in the ground and then small strips of wood (wattles) are woven together and placed between the posts and then covered by mud.  The roof would have been thatch.

This photo is of the chancel area of the chapel and shows four graves that they have located under the chancel.  These are also from the Starving Time but were graves for high ranking individuals,

This is a reconstruction of the original barracks.  You can see part of the reconstructed wall of the fort behind the barracks.

This is the church that was built in 1907.

This area to the east is where the "New Town" was built in the later part of the 17th and early part of the 18th centuries.  There are pieces of foundation and some ruins in this area but as you can see it is mostly grass.

We then headed out to grab some lunch and then on to Yorktown.

Yorktown was a thriving seaport in the 18th century and was the site of the decisive victory of the Continental Army led by General George Washington and a French Army led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army led by Lt. Gen Lord Charles Cornwallis in 1781.  This was the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

Up until this point things had not been going very well for the Continual Army.  However, in 1780 a French Army landed at Rhode Island to assist the colonists.  The original plan had been for a combined American and French army to attack the British forces led by General Henry Clinton in New York.  However when they found out that Clinton had sent Cornwallis and a sizable contingent of forces to Virginia, they decided that was the best target.

When Cornwallis arrived at Yorktown his orders had been to establish a defensible seaport to support operations in the south and he was supposed to be reinforced by a British naval force led by Sir Thomas Graves.  However, the British ships were defeated and driven off in the Battle of the Chesapeake by a French naval force led by the Comte de Grasse.  In addition the land side was controlled by a contingent of the Continental Army led by the Marquis de Lafayette so Cornwallis and his forces were trapped in Yorktown.

In the summer of of 1781 the Continental and French armies united and decided to attack Cornwallis.  They marched south to Yorktown but left enough forces in the New York area to convince Gen. Clinton that New York was still their target,  On arriving they set up a siege line and started shelling Yorktown.  Blocking their further approach to Yorktown were to small forts know as Redoubts #9 and #10.  Here is a photo of Redoubt #10.

And here is Redoubt #9.

On October 14th, Gen. Washington sent two columns of forces to attack these redoubts, a French unit for #9 and an American unit for #10.  The American unit was led by Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton.  In order to make sure that surprise was complete the troops marched to the attack with unloaded guns but with bayonets attached.

Once this was complete, a second siege line only 400 yards from the British line was built.  Here is a photo of a recreation of a small section of that line.

They set up cannons, howitzers and mortars to bombard the British.  Here is a photo of a howitzer.

 With the second siege line established and in action, Cornwallis realized that his situation was hopeless and offered to surrender.  Here is a photo of the farm house where the negotiations took place.  This is the original house.

Here is a recreation of the table around which the negotiations took place.

Here is a photo of one of the bedrooms in the house.  Mattresses were straw filled and very lumpy.

Here is a view from the front of that farm house showing the York River.  Very pretty location.

Under terms of the surrender, all of the British forces had to march out of Yorktown to this field, now know as Surrender Field. place there guns and swords on the ground and then march back into Yorktown unarmed.  From there they were marched to POW camps to await the end of the war.

This is a photo of one of the walls of the monument at the Surrender Field with examples of cannons that were surrendered by the British.

The loss of Cornwallis and his forces prompted the British government to negotiate with the colonists and 2 years later in 1783 the war ended.

After our visit to Yorktown we headed in to Williamsburg to meet my niece Elizabeth Moonan for dinner at the King's Arms restaurant. Here is a photo of Elizabeth and Pat enjoying their dinner.

Tomorrow we will be back in Williamsburg for a day seeing the sites.