""Yorktown: Battle for Victory" 225th Anniversary ..." Topic

….- Full Original Film

YouTube link

Amicalement
Armand

I was at the 200th.

I was in Yorktown for the 200th also.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

So the unique thing about the 225th event was that the Crown forces actually marched out to Surrender Field, unlike the 200th event. That said, the 200th Bicentennial event of 1981 had about 6,000 participants. I'd guess we had about 1,000 for the 2006 event. The battles for the 225th were held at Endview Plantation, about 10 minutes away from the Yorktown battlefield park.

Unfortunately the hobby has significantly decreased since both events. Not likely to ever see numbers like that again in our lifetime. :-(

You all were very lucky. I've attended the last 10 years including the last few days. While the virus wiped out almost all events this year, I'm saddened by the decline of the place. I think it's easily the worst NPS managed site I've ever been to. It's falling into quite a bit of disrepair and there doesn't seem to be any engagement or oversight. For example: almost all the cannon are gone, paths with rotting bridges, overgrown paths, etc. and this was happening years before the virus.

The State run museum there is very nice, well run and doing a great job keeping the next generation reasonably interested.

As for Yorktown, I can see why kids visiting today are disinterested visually. I have a 1956 park guide and the place looked amazing then.

I grew up watching French & Indian War re-enactments across western PA, and that's what captured my life long interest in history/toy soldiers. I'd like to see a revival of the hobby and of Yorktown. I think the re-enactors are the only thing that could do that. I can only Imagine seeing these folks encamped and marching on the same grounds. I'd settle for 10 troops per side at this point:) You guys were very lucky!

So the NPS site does not have a long history of hosting events. NPS sites are very hard to work with, and very re-enactor unfriendly, unfortunately.

Yorktown NPS has always been a hot mess as a park. Aside from the parts sliding into the river, the museum doesn't get proper funding (thank Congress for that), has had holes in the roof, lacks full displays, etc. I remember going there in the early 2000s when my son was an infant. The museum didn't even have a baby changing station in the bathrooms. I guess babies hadn't been invented yet when it was built. LoL

I too grew up watching F&I events in Western PA. Fort Ligonier days was my first, and I got bit by the re-enacting bug then. My guess is I saw an event there in the very early 70s. I think this year was the 60th anniversary of the event which was cancelled due to the pandemic. I did F&I re-enacting for many years, including running the unit out of Fort Pitt Museum for a few years. Great fun.

But just like the hobby of historical wargaming, re-enacting is changing too. :-(

Historygamer, I used to attend all those Royal American Regiment and colonial fairs at Ft. Pitt back in the day. We very likely crossed paths:)

I visited Yorktown on a fine May day in 2008. The museum waa fine, indeed I spent too long there. Back out in the sun I noticed how the earthworks were a little tired. I latched on to a talk by a ranger in a Smoky the Bear hat who answred to the name of 'Mac.' He spoke well and held the crowd but it might be fair to say he had strong opinions on Cornwallis who he asserted had no business leaving the Carolinas. I knew no better.

Afterwards, I confided that, according to family tradition, my forbear had been QMG to Cornwallis. In that case, he told me, my forbear must have sown his wild oats before he left for America, since he had his head knocked off while sitting at Corwnallis' dinner table (It went without saying that he had clearly been on the wrong side).

Bruised by the encounter, I returned to Blighty a sadder, wise man, determined to look out the notes compiled by an earlier generation regarding my forbear's military career and experiences in America, which led me, by a number of twists and turns, to this very site.

Those familiar with the Yorktown tradition may recognise that 'Mac' in his rebuff of my family tradition ( turns out forbear was QMG dept, not the QMG, and not in Yorktown but was languishing in Charlestown in 1781) was not entirely on top of his facts.

(I went for a bite to eat in Yorktown before heading back to Norfolk. A smile was definitely not on the menu at the shorefront restaurant where I had some forlorn fish and chips).

All in all, a pleasant and fruitful excursion nonetheless- although the Commonwealth of Virginia's highways were rough.

I understand that there is a plan to construct 240 new homes at Endview.

You are correct. I assume that will end future re-enactments there due to "noise". I attended a Yorktown re-enactment there in 2016 and believe that was the last one of those. They had an annual civil war one I think that was still going until the pandemic.

42flanker – Virginia highways are like a live episode of "CHiPs" the old tv show that always seemed to have 10 car pileups:)

My impression is that those plans are on again, off again, on again, I dunno. The site will host a couple of events next year – including one supposed smaller Rev War, and I think the national (??) Napoleonic event in Sept.

When we did the 225th event there it was 500 lbs of sugar in a 100 lbs sack. It was weird too in that on the Brit side, no one was really charge, the battles just kind of happened. Fortunately, we were good sports about being the losers. LoL

The 2016 event at Endview was a kind of invitation only event. It had about 90 Crown re-enactors for Saturday, only about half that come Sunday. Less Americans/French. The public battle, which you can find on YouTube, only last about five minutes. You can watch it for yourself. It's the classic problem (for re-enactors) of how do you do an assault on works, make it look realistic, yet give the public their money's worth. My opinion, that one failed since it was so short. The same thing happened at an event at Stoney Point a year ago. The battle was 15 minutes. While historically accurate, it is not much of a show for the public. I guess it depends on who you are doing it for.

In regards to the two museums, the state one was, and now is even more, heads above the National Park Service facility. The NPS site, like so many NPS sites, sufferes from a lack of adequate funding. NPS sites don't get to keep the revenue they generate. All that is kicked back to the general fund, as the sites only get the money that they are budgeted for that fiscal year.

I enjoyed the 225th. It was one of the last events we did as a family. Wife and daughter kind of grew out of the hobby after that.

I've "retired" from Rev War, but still enjoy Civil War and WW2, when we don't have pandemics, invasions of murder hornets, etc.

Eric