Civil War -Yorktown

Sessions House and Nelson House photo taken during the Civil War.  

National Archives Photo

These structures may still be seen today on Main Street.

             Yorktown is known primarily as the place where American Independence was won, and this is as it should be.  However, during the American Civil War, other significant events transpired here and should not be overlooked.  The 1962 campaign for Yorktown did not culminate in a bloody battle and is generally looked upon by historians as a Federal defeat.  It is no wonder that the campaign was not commemorated at the turn of the century the way other more famous Civil War battlefields were.  Yet, Yorktown has much to offer the student of the Civil War as well as the student of 19^th century warfare.  Here two siege operations, one in the 18^th and one in the 19^th century, show the contrast between the two periods.  The 1862 campaign showed the early use of joint operations on a large scale between the Army and Navy, the first real use of siege operations in the American Civil War, and the use in the field of not one but two federal balloons for aerial observation.  Other innovations included the use of a “fire balloon” by the confederates (a forerunner of the modern hot air balloon), the use of incendiary shells by the Federal Navy, and the use of land mines or “torpedoes” by the Confederates when they withdrew.  The Federal siege train included a battery of breech loading Whitworth cannon.

             Many of the well-known officers in this campaign later faded into obscurity and many of the obscure personalities subsequently went on to greater fame.  Maj. Gen George B. McClellan was later relieved of command but ran against Lincoln in the presidential campaign of 1864.  Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder was transferred to the Tran Mississippi area after a poor performance near Richmond.  Many of the brigade and regimental commanders on both sides went on to command divisions, corps, or even armies later in the war.

             Due to the nature of the soil and the early forestation and preservation of the surrounding land, many of the earthen fortifications in the area, both confederate and Federal, appear much as they did in 1862.  This is in sharp contrast to the hastily constructed field works in the war’s later years, which have become barely perceptible ripples in the ground.

             The 1862 campaign was mainly about individual soldiers who overcame incredible hardships to support a cause in which they believed, and this is ultimately what makes these fields hallowed ground.