Читать книгу Travels Into Our Past: America's Living History Museums & Historical Sites - Wayne P. Anderson - Страница 13

For a memorable step back in time to 1781 we visited Yorktown, Va., where the last major battle of the Revolutionary War was fought. A 15-minute film at the Colonial National Historical Park, managed by the National Park Service, covers the early victories of the British general, Lord Cornwallis, over the southern section of the Revolutionary army. As he chased his opponents around the colony, he kept losing troops until his army was markedly reduced.

A National Parks ranger prepares a group of children to load

a cannon to illustrate an aspect of the Battle of Yorktown.

Meanwhile, Gen. George Washington fooled Gen. Henry Clinton into believing he was planning to attack in New York while he instead sent his army 450 miles south to attack Yorktown. Half the troops who helped us win at Yorktown were French, led by Comte Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau with the assistance of one of the planners, young Marquis de Lafayette. Without the French navy to prevent the British from bringing in more troops, the battle could not have been won. We owe much to the French in gaining our freedom.

The 50-minute guided tour around the battlefield clearly indicated the earthworks and siege lines marking the positions of the two armies and emphasized the use of the cannons on display. The Americans and French had better cannons than the British, an important factor in our victory.

A second tour focused on how the cannons were loaded and fired. After a brief introduction to cannons and the equipment necessary to make them work, our guide assigned roles to six children and took them out to a cannon to demonstrate how to fire it. She did one run-through, and then had them perform the procedure with no further guidance to see how fast they could work. It took them 1 minute and 40 seconds—a bit longer than the 40 seconds a seasoned cannoneer could do but still impressive for a group of children.

The small museum in the visitor center includes part of a ship rebuilt to show cannons and crew quarters, one tent used by Washington as an office and another used as sleeping quarters, and a field command table used by Cornwallis. Other buildings at the park were well-designed, with impressive displays.