Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-05
NATIONAL COLONIAL
MONUMENT CREATED
Government Is Linking Triple Shrines
of History, jamestown, Yorktown
and williamsburg.

portioned and suitably restored house
Of worship, with q tower dating back
beyond the middle Of the seventeenth
century, surrounded by fragmentary
tombS Of the early settlers.
There is little else to be seen on the
island. Foundations Of the State
House, burned by Bacon; foundations
of several early residences; various
monuments, including one erected by
the Federal Government, statues Of
Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas and
the ruins of the Amber House, q pre-
Revolutionary mansion. are the princi-
pal objects which meet the eye Of the
visitor, In addition to the church.
Glory Lies In the Past.
Thus Jamestown's glory lies almost
wholly in its past. Like the ruins Of
Kenilworth Castle. standing in the
quiet English meadows, or the deserted
temples at Paestum thrusting UP, after
20 centuries, like gray colossi from the
bare italian plain, 1t Is a place for
meditation and reverie. One can sit in
the old church yard as the river ripples
jure up visions in the dusk of the
heroic and indomitable men and
women who bled and died on this soil
TO found a nation. Cavaliers In knee
breeches and silver buckles who fell in
combat with the redskins; honest yoe-
men who managed to ward of the
scalping knife but yielded to the still
more deadly malaria: cody ministers
of the Church of England who liked
their dreams to be as regular as their
homilies, and who cared for the souls
Of the colonists until laid low by disease,
famine or an arrow streaking from q
nearby thicket: and strong-willed wives
who came undaunted TO this wilderness
with their husbands-these and many
others haunt this little spot Of earth.
Under the terms Of the Cramton bill
the island will be connected with WI
liamsburg and Yorktown by q winding,
forest-guarded roadway. A wide strip
Of land on both sides Of the road viii
be owned and controlled by the Federal
Government, thus making 1t possible
for all billboards, filling stations and
similar eyeSores to be eliminated.
The highway will either pass through
Williamsburg or skirt its edge. This
ancient town. restored to its eighteenth
century state and containing literally
scores Of historic buildings, viii, Of
course, be visited by every tourist TO
the area.
Plans for Surrender Field.
A few miles farther on. at Yorktown.
the surrender field will be made an
important part Of the monument, while
the battlefield will be taken over and
the trenches and redoubts restored.
The act provides that as much as 2.5OO
acres may be acquired at Yorktown.
The 150th anniversary of the surren-
der Of CORVALLIS will be observed there
in an elaborate manner in October of
next year, and those in charge Of ar-
rangements for this celebration are
anxious for the program of development
and restoration to be carried forward
as far as practicable by that time. It
Is possible that a great memorial hall
will be erected on the battlefield.
The landscape in and about York
town today Is not greatly unlike that
which met the eyes of the opposing
armies there nearly a century and q
half ago. Along the streets of this
sleepy little village, perched on bluffs
above the York River, are quaint build
ing OF the colonial era. with dormer
windows and brick walls feet thick.
The atmosphere is largely that of the
eighteenth century, and one almost ex-
poets, on turning ones gaze toward
chesapeake Bay, to. see far down the
river the feet Of De Grasse spanning
the channel.
Prominent among the landmarks in
the town are the Nelson House, the
stately mansion of Gen. Thomas Nell
son, jr., who not only gave his entire
fortune to the patriot cause, but ordered
the French gunners to fire on his home
when he found that CORVALLIS was US
ing 1t for his headquarters. Several
cannon balls may still be seen in the
walls. A block away is the oldest Gus
toms house. in America, built about 1706,
and beyond the town limits the Moore
House, where the terms Of the surren-
der were drawn up. The Moore House
has been reconditioned by Mr.. Rookie
Teller.
Memorable Events visualized.
Those who visit Yorktown after the
now obliterated trenches and redoubts
have been restored should find it an
easy matter to visualize the events Of
that memorable siege. CORVALLIS per-
mitted Lafayette and Steuben to ma
neuver him into q precarious position
there during the Summer Of 1881. The
American and French forces were soon
augmented by thousands Of other troops
under Washington and Rochambeau,
while the French fleet under De Grasse
arrived at the psychological moment
from the West Indies. After q desperate
resistance CORVALLIS saw that his less
than 5000 men could not cope with the
10000 who hemmed them In. Nothing
was left but surrender.
The surrender field where, for all
practical purposes, the American Revo.
luton came to an end, is still to be seen
today. 1t will be set apart by the Fed
eral Government, along with the field
on which the battle was fought. Under
the terms imposed by Washington, the
British were required to march out with
Shouldered arms, colors cased and
drums beating q British or German
march, and to ground their arms at O
place assigned for the purpose
Accordingly on October 10, 1881, the
captive army marched out with colorS
cased. its band playing appropriately
enough THE World Turned Upside
Down" When the order to ground
arms was given, many of the soldiers
are said by an eyewitness In the Con-
tinental Army to have manifested q
sullen temper, throwing their arms on
the pile as If determined to render them
useless"
Thus ended the siege Of Yorktown,
which brought the colonial era in
America to a close. That era had its
beginnings few miles away In the az.
ony and travail the fortitude and valor
Of the early settlers at jamestown, and
reached one Of its highest peaks in the
picturesque pageantry and civilized con-
VITALITY of nearby Williamsburg. Sure
ly National Colonial Monument which
links three such spots will surpass In
historic interest anything Of the kind In
the Western Hemisphere.