“Atop the giant monument now stands a
figure of Victory, which was put in the
original figure of Liberty’s place, after
it was struck by lightning in 1942.”
The location was originally chosen because of
the 600 original burials that took place there.
These 600 were the Union soldiers that were
dead in this spot from battle and various
wounds. Because the battle was spread over
an amount of days, with many being injured or
killed, a lot of soldiers from both sides were
spread out and buried in various spots around
the battleground. In 1866, the Yorktown Na-
tional Cemetery pledged to remove the sur-
rounding dead that had been buried within a
50 mile radius of Yorktown, and reinter them
with the original 600.
The Yorktown Victory Monument is one of sev-
eral major sites to visit within the Colonial Na-
tional Historical Park. It wasn’t erected until
1884, even though plans to build the monument
were underway just five days after the surren-
der in 1781. Money to build the monument was
an issue, but just before the surrender’s cen-
tennial, the nation pulled together to re-moti-
vate the construction. Atop the giant monument
now stands a figure of Victory, which was put
in the original figure of Liberty’s place, after it
was struck by lightning in 1942. The nearby Nel-
son House makes for an eerie visit as well, as it
is believed to have been Cornwallis’s head-
quarters during the final battle.
No matter which monument you decide to visit,
or which battlefield you choose to walk
through, you’ll be getting a great amount of
knowledge about the history of this country and
what foundations it was built on. These two
American Revolutionary War destinations, how-
ever, are the pivotal sites that brought true res-
olution to an ongoing conflict that definitively
shaped our nation.