Prelude to Victory is a grand yearly event which commemorates the September 1781 arrival of Generals Washington and Rochambeau with the Continental and French Forces, with an estimated 17,600 soldiers. General Lafayette had over the summer engaged British General Cornwallis in numerous "cat and mouse campaigns," ultimately cornering him, with an estimated 8,300 soldiers, on a southern Virginia peninsula at the deep sea port of Yorktown, 13 miles east of Williamsburg, the former capital of Virginia. Victory was certain. French General Rochambeau recommended that this was the perfect situation for a siege.
We have been to many Prelude to Victory programs, which like Under the Redcoat, are unique programs in that Colonial Williamsburg invites reenactors from across America to represent the soldiers to occupy the town for the weekend. They arrive on Friday night to build their encampments. Saturday morning shows a very different historic area from the norm, with a massive array of tents, soldiers in drill, smoking campfires preparing dinner...immersing a CW visitor into a more complete 18th century experience. Part of the fun is engaging with the reenactors. In June Under the Redcoat portrays the actual dreaded and difficult British occupation of the town in June 1781 where the Redcoats provide much fun opportunity to the visitors for angst. Redocoats have been known to try to arrest me and my children because we do not have passes nor do we swear allegiance to the king which sets up for many fun scenarios. My children and I live for these opportunities at this event and enjoy scheming our way out of British difficulties! During Prelude to Victory the encounter with the soldiers are much different. They are more gentlemanly because they are the Continental forces, our brothers, neighbors and friends! Yet part of the fun of it is that quite often they are the same reenactors wearing different colored coats! Many thanks to all the reenactors for their sacrifice of time and money to make history LIVE. As a degreed teacher I love this and highly recommend that if you can only come to one event, come to either UTR or PTV! They are the best of any immersion living history program! Thank you, thank you, thank you reenactors! And thank you Colonial Williamsburg for providing the venue and opportunity! In fact I have some friends in one of the regiments and one of them made sure we hid our season passes so we'd look more like them!
For the weekend I gave my son the schedule and he chose all the programming we attended. There were so many we couldn't attend them all. Also for all the time I spent with the regiments, I never got a picture of the camps. Nor did we get pictures of everyone we met. However I did try to vary it from my past posts on PTV. The weekend was wonderfully busy.
Our costumes were most carefully planned for the setting of the occasion. My son wore the hunting frock for the first time. He had implored me for one of these, though I had no pattern so I looked at lots of pictures to design and handsew it. While waiting for various events, he passed away the time in his favorite 18th century hobby...playaing his fife. He is self-taught with a few kindly expert tips from one of the wonderful CW drum majors!
Meanwhile I chose my handsewn chintz jacket, based on the one in
Costume Close-Up, with petticoat. Many patriot ladies put aside their silks and gowns to support the troops, as I chose to do for this occasion. Many ladies, even reenactors and interpreters, delight in the floral trim on my hat and ask where I got it. I got it as part of a hat trimming class I took at the Colonial Williamsburg Costume Design Center a few years ago. While I waited for various programs I partook of my favorite 18th century hobby, sewing by hand with period accurate materials! Here I am sewing boning channels on my stays, that were patterned specifically to me in a recent Burnley and Trowbridge workshop with the amazing CW tailor!
This attracted the attention of a few photographers. Hmmm, any photos floating around the internet? It's happened before! One of the reenactors came over to strike up an interesting conversation about historical fibers! When he introduced himself we were delighted to hear that he was part of our friends' regiment!
Ah! Then the moment that we've all been waiting for! The generals have finally arrived in Williamsburg after their long, long trek from New York!
The Continental troops have arrived as well!
There were even some British prisoners of war who made the weekend interesting. Stay tuned for more of them!
The generals had much to say about their arrival and the manner of their time in the city of Williamsburg, assuring us that we'd be safe.
After the announcements to the town, the generals left in haste to Washington's headquarters at the Wythe House where there was much planning to be done. My son and I were thrilled that despite their most urgent task, Generals Washington and Lafayette paused to specially greet us with kind words while tipping their hats!
Then my son and I searched for my friends at their regiment on the Palace Green. We renewed aquaintences with members of their regiment and met new friends, including the kindly gent who had discussed fibers with us earlier that morning! As we chatted some guests came and asked terrific questions about our costumes and specifically our stays. Funny coincidence how many ladies asked me about my stays that I was wearing that weekend. Yes they are comfortable. In fact I prefer to wear them since they help my back which sustained injuries during a traffic accident when I was in college. Stays are completely different from corsets, which most people are familiar with. We even met some guests from Texas who are reenactors themselves.
After a bite of lunch my son and I went to the Wythe House where we were privileged to peek into the strategic planning of the generals.
Here we met with
General "Mad" Anthony Wayne of Pennsylvania (seated)! I don't think I'd dare call him "mad" to his face though! He had a most forceful yet positive personality, and discussed the extreme value of bayonets over muskets! This was great because my son and I have done extensive research into the matter ourselves and we had to concur with his every word! My mom's family immigrated from Europe and settled in Pennsylvania in the early 18th century, so I've often wondered if any family members fought under Wayne. My family was quite poor country folk so I don't think we have any papers documenting the possibility of this. Too sad because I'd love to join the DAR. If I recall correctly, the man standing is
Colonel Cortland, He rarely got a word in edgewise due to the verbosity of the audacious General Wayne. =)
Then we got to listen to General Washington himself strategize with many of his officers as they analyzed maps of Yorktown! Quite often we heard that there was to be a seige, which was a new idea to the Americans. The French were siege experts and they were indeed sharing all their secrets to General Washington to combat their age old enemy.
After General Washington stepped aside, he again most kindly noted us, tipped his hat in grand greeting, then asked another lady's pardon, explaining that my son and I are old friends of his! (Indeed, we are neighbors and anticipating dinner again at Mount Vernon soon after the war!) Oh, the interpreters are great at making the guests feel special! He also answered some of our questions, including mine about why the Oneida Confederation was there. The Oneidas, being allies of the French, became our allies when the French allied with the Americans. When French General Rochambeau traveled south to Virginia with the allied forces to attack Yorktown, the Oneida Confederation wanted to follow him in his support, meet General Washington and see the action! Washington was most definitely supportive of this, in part because they needed all the Indian allies they could get, since many allied with the British. Also the Indians were amazed with all the French weaponry and seige plans.
You can read more about them and see grand pictures of the occasion if you have a facebook account here. I was to meet the Oneida Confederation again later in a most unexpected place, which told more of the story in the above link....so stay tuned for that!
After General Washington left we eavesdropped on more planning with
Colonel Tench Tilghman, Colonel Ennis, Colonel James Monroe and the minister whose name I forgot. Being in costume I didn't take notes and now I can't remember but he had a great story! He led the drumhead church service the next morning.
Col Ennis was hilarious. He told us in private (shh!) that Washington's stepson, Jackie Custis, wasn't a great asset because he had zero experience, zero knowledge base and zero streetsmarts (to put his words into modern day words)... so Ennis kept finding busy work for him. At that moment Custis arrived and quite gullibly accepted a mission to scout the possibility of digging a tunnel under Yorktown! Ennis said that should keep him busy for a few hours.
Here is the famed
General Knox who is self-taught in artillery. We read a biography on him last spring and learned that before the war he worked in a bookstore and in his free time he read books on artillery. (Many of the generals lacked battle experience but incredibly made up for it in self-education and street smarts.) He is famed for the ingenious idea to gather the cannons from Fort Ticonderoga and haul them to Boston to chase out the British. It was a risky idea in that he hauled 62 tons of artillery over 300 miles from Lake George, New York to Boston Massachusetts (and we understand the distance because we've been to both places) in the midst of winter, but there was nothing to lose. One morning the British awoke to a barrage of artillery staring down at them from the heights, resulting in their hasty departure from Boston.
We also got to meet
General Hand who engaged my son in theorizing possible scenarios for the seige!
In the midst of our discussion with him, a British prisoner of war was marched in by guards for interrogation. My son immediately whispered to me, "Mom, he is part of the Coldstream Guard!" There was much bantering back and forth as to the terms and conditions of the prisoners. The prisoner did not like the arrangements but General Hand assured him that they were being treated as prisoners of war and not as common prisoners. However after much persistence, General Hand worked on improving conditions. I don't think the prisoner helped matters when he passed his regards to General Washington, casually mentioning that
he had served with him under Braddock "at that unfortunate escapade." Washington doesn't like to be reminded of that incident! More on this prisoner of war later!
Then we went into the Wythe house where we got to visit with
Generals George Washington and
Benjamin Lincoln for a brief time when Mrs. Wythe entered to invite the generals to dinner! As the generals went to their delicious meal, my son and I went to the Palace Green where I got to visit with my regimental friends while my son visited and played colonial games, like trapball, with some of his CW friends.
When my son went to the artillery demonstration, one of my regimental friends and I went to the
milliner shop for Silk Saturday, which is so grand it got its own post! Meanwhile at the artillery demonstration, one of the cannons failed to fire the gunpowder, so cautionary procedures were executed to safely take out the charges.
Afterwards my son and I joined up again to attend a brand new PTV event! My son got to help build earthwork fortifications!!!
These beautiful fortifications can be seen today at Yorktown, left behind from both the American Revolution and the Civil War.
These are one type of earthwork structure, called a gabion. They are vine wrapped cylinders (the shell of which is comprised entirely of wood) which are then filled with dirt, hence the dirt pile in the above picture.
Inside is a layer of dirt in the bottom...
He's dumping in a bucket of dirt...he recruited my son and other boys to help with this job!
He's layering leaves around the edges to keep the dirt from seeping through...
More dirt...
In the back you can see three men wrapping vines around sticks for the shell of another gabion...
Close-up of the vine wrapping for another gabion.
Layering more leaves...
My son dumping in dirt...
And yet more dirt dumped in by my son. These structures are obviously built and filled quite quickly. When the
sappers and miners of the Continental forces began building these earthwork fortifications on Septemeber 30, 1781, the work went quite speedily. Some of you may be familiar with Joseph Plumb Martin who wrote his memoirs in
Private Yankee Doodle. He was one of the Yorktown sappers and miners.
Whereas Saturday was warm and sunny, Sunday was cold, windy and rainy. The morning began with a drumhead church service. Because of the rain, they couldn't stack the drums like they normally do.
Afterwards we revisited the regiments. This time we visited the tent that supported the medical staff at the Palace. There was a beautifully dressed woman in a lovely red and black riding habit with her delightful daughter, about age 4, who stole my heart. Her daughter was reveling in her role as a reenactor. She sat at her period accurate little table with her quills, ink and paper and charmingly asked all who came by, "Would you like to see me write?" My son went over and sharpened her nibs for her, after receiving permission from the mother. I think that little girl is hooked on history and reenacting for life!
Then we went to the Courthouse where we planned to listen in on the generals' secret plans. As we arrived we saw the British prisoners of war taken inside. Oooo, this interaction should be great! In the course of time we entered the courthouse and eavesdropped on all the generals' plans. We completely forgot all about the prisoners. Where did they go? Stay tuned for...the rest of the story later!
After the program we went to see the tailor, hoping for a bit of advice about my stays. When we arrived, the Orientation Interpreter told us the Oneida Confederation was inside! Oh! Were we allowed in? Yes, we could go in too! When we entered we found a room full of members of the Oneida Confederation, including their French speaking interpreter. A few of them were engaging the tailor in a fascinating discourse on clothing, one of which I do believe was the
blue "Bavarian" hunting suit. I was fascinated by their array of clothing, a mix of English and Indian components, which you can see at the link. Meanwhile I tried subvertly to admire the attire of the Indian standing closest to me, who wore a sort of chain mail on his English shirt. At one point this Indian sat on the stool nearby with his hands clasped upon the table as he looked upon the action on the Duke of Gloucester Street. I wondered what the guests might think, those who would take a peak into the milliner shop to see an Indian looking at them! This was truely a grand and unique moment in all my numerous visits to the Mary Dickenson Shop!
Later that day my son watched rifle tactics. When he saw that on the program he was wondering if the program writer meant "musket" instead of "rifle" so he had to see this program to verify the information. He was delighted to learn it was indeed about rifle tactics, as used by sharpshooters like the famed Daniel Morgan. We learned all about their strategy, technique and form.
Later, we checked upon the progress of the earthworks. These gabions had been quite quickly completed the afternoon before and had survived the rainy, rainy day! The sides were layered with large leaves from the trees above, which effectively did their job in keeping the dirt from sifting out.
Tired soldiers were sitting upon fascines, another type of earthwork fortification. Here is more information on the
earthworks at Yorktown (including renderings, diagrams, glossary, etc) from the US Army.
The British prisoners of war walked by and stopped to chat with the American soldiers! They were free to walk about town because they were gentlemen of honor. They told the story of how they had been taken to the Courthouse and stuck in the backroom where they got to overhear all the generals' plans for Yorktown. They knew they wouldn't be permitted to leave the town any time soon! Their word of honor that they would not seek to escape granted them the privilege to walk freely about town. My son was fascinated with the Coldstream Guard!
Later we watched a few Revolutionary City scenes but I wasn't able to get many pictures.
The dragoons grandly showing off!
Preacher Gowan Pamphlet giving us hope!
My son has lived for this moment for years! He's finally old enough to be recruited to go to Yorktown! He's still waiting for a Brown Bess Musket though!
They gave their oath!
They practiced their drills!
Meanwhile
William Lee, General Washington's man servant, rode by!
More drill...
Obviously the new recruits were a source of teasing...
The troops moving out to begin the seige on Yorktown!
This two day action filled reenactment portrays Washington's and Rochambeau's arrival on September 14, 1781, to their departure for Yorktown on September 28, 1781. Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781. Britain began peace negogiations which culminated in American victory in September 1783. During peace negotiations there were some smaller battles, but Yorktown was the last major engagement of the American Revolution. Last summer we were watching the DVD,
Drummers' Call, where a funny story was shared. In the early days of the Colonial Williamsburg Fife and Drum Corps, some CW representatives were driving some British corps members passed Yorktown. One of the Brits looked at the other and asked, "Who was it that lost that battle?"
(Note: The last story is from memory and now we can't find it anywhere on the DVD. If anyone can point me to it I'll fix my mistakes!)
