Continued… After we finished at the museum, we went back to the military area for the cannon firing demonstration. The Americans had multiple types and sizes of cannons. The first line of defense was the big canons. The French army had brought heavy siege cannons that fired 16 – 24 lb shot, which did serious damage to the base, but they couldn’t be easily moved. The Americans also had field canons, which were mobile, shot straight and were meant for disrupting lines (columns) of soldiers. The Americans also had 8″ howitzers. The howitzers were also smaller and could be moved around the battlefield where needed. They would shoot up over walls and could hit people behind walls. And they had mortars. The British only had light artillery that fired 3 – 6 lb shot, so the Americans had superior weapons in this battle.

Just as the bayonet on the end of the musket was more important to the troops as a psychological fear tactic than as a weapon, cannons were also more of a psychological fear tactic than a physical danger to the opposing soldiers.

The character talked about the various types of ammunition that was used. Classic cannonballs had explosives inside them, hard shells were solid, and grape shot blew up in the air and sent shrapnel everywhere. mortars,

Just as the bayonet on the end of the musket was more important to the troops as a psychological fear tactic than as a weapon, cannons were also more of a psychological fear tactic than a physical danger to the opposing soldiers.

When they did the field demonstration, they went through each step of the process of loading and shooting the canon very slowly, and they had kids from the audience doing the various steps (although they had the kids use imaginary gunpowder and fire). There were quite a few steps involved! Someone’s job was to do the math on the angles and distance to ensure that the targets were hit. One of the things we found interesting was that they had two soldiers standing still next to the canon mouth when it was fired. It was completely safe to be there since the canon jerked backwards. The reason they did this was so that the other soldiers could put the cannon back at the same exact spot for the next shot (or, if they had missed, to ensure that this time it would be put in a better spot to not miss the next time). She mentioned that the soldiers stationed next to the cannons probably lost their hearing very quickly. Then they had the kids back away and showed what it looked like in real time to load and shoot the canon. It was definitely loud and smoky!

At this point, we’d seen the entire site, so we went to the Historic Yorktown Riverfront (where the ships were clustered together in the middle of the map), for dinner. It was a small cluster of adorable buildings about a mile east of the museum. We were pleased to see there was free parking in a parking garage on the south side of the street.

We weren’t sure if the buildings were original or replicas of the originals. We ate at a restaurant called Water Street Grill.

Since the weather was cool and pleasant, we sat on the back patio and enjoyed the view of the river. It was still very windy and ominously grey. The temperatures had cooled down enough that Christi even put on a sweatshirt! This was the bridge that connected Gloucester Point and Yorktown. This was the stretch of water that General Cornwallis was unable to cross in order to escape from the Yorktown Siege. The idea that the British military, known for its impressive navy prowess, couldn’t cross this thin stretch of water was mind-boggling for us. It was a windy enough day that there was a small craft advisory for the mouth of the Chesapeake, and as windy as it was, it didn’t look that rough here. How big could the waves get in the river? Or was the inability to retreat tied to the French navy ships along the shore as much as it was tied to the weather? A sign near the bridge said that during the Yorktown Siege, there had been more than 18,500 ground troops and almost 25,000 naval troops on the ships, which conflicted with the numbers the museum had cited.

We also had a nice view of the marina, which looked pretty rolly. We were glad Kosmos wasn’t docked there.

We believe this was the marina office, though we weren’t sure.

After dinner, Keith got some ice cream at Ben N Jerry’s.

And Eric had a chat with General Washington, Major General Lafayette, Lieutenant General Rochambeau, and Admiral de Grasse.

Another sign that we saw noted that there had been a significant battle in Yorktown during the Civil War, too. Confederate troops had taken over Cornwallis’s old encampment and reinforced it with heavy artillery. In 1862, Union troops exchanged fire with the Yorktown encampment. The Confederates abandoned the encampment and the Union troops seized it. Controlling the camp kept the Confederates from being able to utilize the York River for the rest of the war.

If we understood properly, the National Park Service visitor center showed a movie and then gave ticket holders a map so they could do a self guided driving tour of the historic sites in the area. We were guessing that it was like Colonial Williamsburg, where anyone could drive by the various sites, but one had to have a ticket to go inside. So we drove by a few sites that were marked on Apple Maps to see if anything was visible from the street. One was! It was the Yorktown Victory Monument. The Continental Congress had authorized its construction in 1781, but it took them 100 years to start construction and it wasn’t completed until 1884. The base was 84 feet tall and the statue of Lady Liberty was another 14 feet tall. The original lady liberty was destroyed by lightening in 1942 and was replaced in 1956.

And we saw a deer nearby.

There still wasn’t rain in the forecast, but the sky was a deep grey and it was feeling ominous. After driving by a few closed sites, we decided maybe we should get back home. It never did rain.