Behind what were American lines at Yorktown in 1781 is an earthen dam (37.2168N, -76.4919W) across Wormley Creek over which American troops travelled to and from the siege lines. At one time, a grist mill operated by Augustine Moore was located here. It was at Mr Moore’s home nearby that the British surrender was given and accepted.

The same battlefields and ramparts of the Revolutionary War were used during the Civil War with the Confederates holding Yorktown as did the British and the Yankee armies laying siege where the French and Americans had done so 80 years earlier. There is a Union cemetery on the grounds but most of the region focuses on the Revolutionary War.

This was the same area where McClellan’s forces were held back in 1862 by Confederate General Magruder and where 2nd Lt George Custer first came to prominence. Today’s Colonial Parkway roughly follows what was the Warwick Line of 1862.

Now part of the Colonial National Historic Park and surrounded by a Navy ammo depot and Coast Guard training center, the dam is now crossed by the “Historical Tour Road”. The road is one way and just off the main tourist area of the battlefield. Because the road is one way leading away from the main area along the York River, there is less traffic here even though it does lead to “Surrender Field”.

When I lived in Williamsburg, I spent a lot of time between Jamestown at one end of Colonial Parkway and Yorktown at the other. If I were ever to go back east – not likely but never say never – this would be one area I’d return to.

One evening, I caught this swan swimming by on Warwick Pond …