The New Student's Reference Work/Yorktown, Va.

York′town, Va., county-seat of York County, is on York River, ten miles from its mouth and about 60 miles from Richmond. Yorktown is noted for the surrender of Lord Cornwallis (q. v.) and his army to Washington in 1781, which was the virtual close of the Revolutionary War, and for the unsuccessful siege by General McClellan in the spring of 1862. Yorktown contains the oldest custom-house in the country, and is one of the oldest towns in the United States. Population 150.