We will meet at the NPS Yorktown Visitors Center (1000 Colonial National Historical Pkwy, Yorktown, VA 23690). Our 90-minute battlefield tour will be conducted by none other than Mark Schneider. We will tour the battlefield stopping in our cars at several sites as Mark Schneider shares his vast knowledge of the final significant battle of the Revolutionary War.
We will meet at the Yorktown Beach Hotel (the old Duke of York located at 508 Water St, Yorktown, VA 23690)...in the newly renovated lobby. This tour will be conducted by renowned historian J. Michael Moore. We will move to the top of the hotel for a view of the York River. There we will discuss the French role at Gloucester and Cornwallis's ghost fleet that is sitting on the floor of the York River (courtesy of the French artillery). This location was also part of Nicholas Martiau's plantation. He was the French Huguenot who founded Yorktown in the 1600s and was the 3rd great grandfather of George Washington and Thomas Nelson Jr.
From there we will walk along the river and discuss the role of the French supply ships during the war, Lafayette's return in 1781, the Siege, the French occupation after the siege, the return of Lafayette in 1824, the arrival of the Hermonie in 2015 and the connection between France and Yorktown today.
12:15pm Lunch in Yorktown (tbd).
Copyright The American Friends of Lafayette 2016"The American Friends of Lafayette" is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Mail correspondence to: 302 Hart Rd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878 Email: americanfriendsoflafayette@gmail.com
