Yorktown harbor, Virginia. Photochrom print by the Detroit Photographic Co., copyrighted 1903.

Yorktown is the county seat of York County, one of the 8 original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1634. It is most famous as the site of the surrender of General Cornwallis to General George Washington in 1781. Although the war would last for another year, this British defeat at Yorktown did effectively end the American Revolutionary War. Yorktown also figured prominently in the American Civil War, serving as a major port to supply both northern and southern towns, depending upon who held Yorktown at the time.

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