Yorktown Battlefield
Earthworks, fields, roads, artillery positions, Moore House, and Surrender Field preserve the landscape of the 1781 Franco-American siege and British capitulation.
Artwork inspired by Edward Beyer
Yorktown turns the 1781 siege from a familiar outcome into a legible landscape of pressure. Parallel trenches, redoubts, artillery positions, roads, and the river blockade reveal how Franco-American coordination steadily narrowed British options. Farms, homes, and enslaved lives also keep the campaign grounded in the civilian world through which the armies moved.
Begin at the visitor center, then let the battlefield roads establish the scale that a single monument cannot. Walk an earthwork slowly, distinguishing surviving fabric from reconstruction and later memorials, before continuing to Moore House and Surrender Field. Their separation clarifies artillery range, negotiation, lines of fire, and why capitulation was staged away from the trenches.
- Campaign
- 1781 siege
- Landscape
- Earthworks and driving routes
- Allow
- 2–4 hours
Quick guide
- Orient
- Visitor center map and film
- Walk
- Redoubts 9 and 10 area
Make the visit count
- Read the parallels
- Siege trenches brought artillery progressively closer.
- Include the French
- Allied troops and naval power were decisive.
- Find civilian ground
- War unfolded through farms, homes, and enslaved lives.
- Check road access
- Tour roads can close for weather or maintenance.
Good to know
The battlefield is distinct from the state-operated American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Much of the experience is an outdoor driving tour with limited services.
Notice these
- British earthworks
- Surrender Field
- Moore House