town in SE Va.: scene of the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington (1781)
See Yorktown in American Heritage Dictionary 4
(yôrkˈtounˌ)
A village of southeast Virginia on the York River north of Newport News. It was the site of Cornwallis's surrender of the British forces (1781) in the American Revolution. During the Civil War Union troops occupied the town after a siege in 1862.