Yorktown

A column by Jim Jenkins in this morning's News & Observer has me thinking about Yorktown and the importance of the place in my personal and (dare I say?) professional life. Not that this is the only time I have thought about Yorktown lately. In preparing my Master's thesis for North Carolina State University, I felt the need to pause and reflect upon those people who influenced me along in my continuing journey as a historian. The first of these was my father and it was through innumerable walks with him not only at Yorktown, but also at nearby Newport News Park, itself home to earthworks from the Civil War battle of Yorktown. Nearly every weekend, sometimes both days, for four or five years we visited these places, the walks ending on the precipice of puberty and the struggle for autonomy that begins then.

Those walks were my first history lesson, and one of the forces that led me to become a historian, albeit of medieval Europe. They also helped instill a love of country that endures despite constant disappointment with those in power of whatever party, as well as the respect and admiration for those soldiers and patriots who, for complicated and often contradictory reasons, fought for America's independence.

As the Fourth of July approaches it seems appropriate to think about this and just how fragile the seemingly solid edifice of history is. It would be easy to look back, see how things happened, and think that they could not have happened otherwise. But Yorktown offers a different lesson. The situation was precarious. Had the French fleet of Comte de Grasse not defeated the British fleet which had come to relieve Cornwallis, cutting off not only reinforcement, but also escape, the result could have been vastly different. Consideration of how close-fought this was, of how close-fought every pivotal moment is, should be a corrective against hubris, or claims of divine favor.

As I reach milestones on my personal journey as a historian, it is nice to pause and reconnect with those places that were important along the way. It is heartening to see that the place that touched my life so profoundly continues to touch the lives of others.