For those of you who have visited The Hornsby House before, you are probably familiar with our daily tradition of serving wine and cheese at 5 in the afternoon, relaxing on the porch rocking chairs with guests if the weather is good, and basking in the fresh air of the York River just a stone’s throw away and the history that surrounds this house. (If your first stay with us is still in the future, you’re in for a treat!)

Your hosts, Dave and Phil, will catch you up on all of the amazing stories of history surrounding the very place you’re communing in, including the most famous one – The Siege of Yorktown, the final battle which determined the colonies’ future as a country and ensured our independence from Great Britain!

In a VERY short summary of the siege, General Washington marched his troops from New York to meet General Rochambeau with his 8,000 French troops from Connecticut in Williamsburg. Together, they met with the Marquis de Lafayette and his 1,200 troops as well as 3,500 Virginia Militia under the command of Thomas Nelson, a Yorktown Native. The troops came and laid siege to Yorktown – 30-40,000 shells poured in on the town! Marquis de Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton then stormed readout 9 in the middle of the night, the final straw before British surrender. The formal surrender ceremony took place two days later on October 19, 1781, now known as Yorktown Day.

Now, history (and wine) are always made better with some playful stories and speculation mixed into conversation for entertainment, right? That’s why the Hornsby boys like to add their own little twist onto the end of the siege. Their version: Cornwallis came out of the cave by the river in which he was hiding during the battle and came up the hill to find out that he lost readouts 9 & 10, precisely in OUR front yard, leading to the surrender of the British! Voila, the great change of course of our nation’s history practically fallen into our laps!

Of course, there is no particular evidence for this version of the story. However, the surrender of Yorktown certainly would have happened close to the property! And it just makes a wonderful ending to the story of an epic battle in our nation’s history… don’t you think?