Civil War Illustrations

Siege of Yorktown 

The Battle of Yorktown or Siege of Yorktown was fought from April 5 to May 4, 1862 in York County and Newport News, Virginia.

In April 1862, Major General George McClellan's troops left northern Virginia to begin the Peninsula Campaign. McClellan's army encountered Major General John Magruder's small Confederate army at Yorktown. McClellan suspended the march toward Richmond, ordered the construction of siege fortifications, and brought his heavy siege guns to the front. In the meantime, General Joseph Johnston brought reinforcements for Magruder. On April 16, Union forces probed a point in the Confederate line at Dam No. 1 near Lee's Mill, several miles from Yorktown. Failure to exploit the initial success of this attack, however, held up McClellan for two additional weeks, while he tried to convince the US Navy to bypass the Confederates' big guns at Yorktown and Gloucester Point and ascend the York River to West Point and outflank the Warwick Line. McClellan planned for a massive artillery bombardment to begin at dawn on May 5, but the Confederate army slipped away in the night of May 3 toward Williamsburg. At dawn on the 4th, the Union army discovered Yorktown abandoned. Yorktown remained in Union control for the rest of the war and was maintained as a military garrison until the summer of 1864.

New York State troops that were involved in the Siege of Yorktown, according to New York in the War of the Rebellion (vol. 1), were Companies D, F, H and K, 6th Cavalry; 9th Cavalry, dismounted; Oneida Company Cavalry; field and staff, and Batteries A, B, D, E, G and H, 1st Regiment Artillery; Batteries A, B, C and D, 1st Battalion Artillery; Battery A, 2d Battalion Artillery; 1st, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Independent Batteries of Artillery; 15th and 50th Engineers; 5th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 25th, 33rd, 34th, 36th, 37th, 38th, 40th, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 49th, 52nd, 55th, 56th, 57th, 61st, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 65th, 66th, 67th, 69th, 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 77th, 81st, 82nd, 85th, 87th, 88th, 92nd, 93rd, 96th, 98th and 100th Infantry.

Note four illustrations in Harper's by artist Winslow Homer (May 3 and 17 issues).

Download a PDF file of all the images  (277 MB).