4th Annual March To Yorktown Day In Westfield To Be Held Aug. 27

WESTFIELD, NJ — The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association New Jersey, W3R-NJ is holding the 4th Annual March to Yorktown Day in Westfield on Sunday, Aug. 27 from noon to 4 p.m. to commemorate an event that occurred 242 years ago during the Revolutionary War.

This year’s event kicks off with a noon opening ceremony at Mindowaskin Park on Mountain Ave. There, families with children and others will be able to meet General George Washington and French Generals Rochambeau and Chastellux and hear about how they and their troops marched from Newport, Rhode Island to Yorktown, VA (an almost 700 mile, nine state, and a land and water journey) in the summer of 1781.

This route has been designated as the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, a unit of the National Park Service.

At noon the procession steps off and the community is invited to join in a symbolic march re-enactment into an Mindowaskin Park accompanied by the Generals, the New Jersey Sons of the American Revolution Color Guard, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Fifes and Drums, the Miller-Cory Museum colonial living history group and Heard’s Militia.

Classic cars will be on display near the encampment from drivers traveling on the Trail from the Hermitage Museum in Ho-Ho-Kus, History organization from Liberty Hall, Union, Chatham, and Westfield will have informational tables set up.

An encampment with tents, cooking demonstrations, fife and drum music, musket firing and marching drills will occur during the festival.

Following Washington’s "Grand Plan" to rapidly move the more than 7,500 allied troops, oxen drawn wagons, cattle and artillery through New Jersey, the forces were split in three and ordered to follow separate roads starting from Suffern, NY and converging in Princeton before moving on to Trenton to cross the Delaware River and then proceed on to Yorktown, VA to carry out a siege of that town where British General Cornwallis had established his troops.

On the eastern most route, a Continental line was led by General Benjamin Lincoln and it passed through Westfield on August 29, 1781. Lincoln’s line included among other regiments, the integrated and fantastically outfitted, Rhode Island Regiment which was comprised of both Native Americans and African Americans.

After arriving in Yorktown, VA, Washington and Rochambeau’s armies carried out such a precise siege war plan that after a few weeks of fighting and being surrounded by land and sea by the allied armies and French Navy, General Cornwallis capitulated the British’s hold on Yorktown and the United States thus liberty for the country was won. Accepting Cornwallis’ surrender sword was none other than General Benjamin Lincoln who just weeks before marched with his line through Westfield, NJ.

This event is made possible by support from the Mayor Shelley Brindle, the Town Council, the Town of Westfield, PNC Bank, The Westfield Inn, Chez Catherine, the West Fields Chapter SAR, the Westfield Chapter DAR, the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association, New Jersey (W3R-NJ), the National Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association (W3R-US) and the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail.

This is a rain-or-shine event but will be canceled for severe weather.

For more information, email info@W3R-NJ.org Follow on Facebook @W3RNJ and www.w3r-nj.org.

— Submitted by Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association New Jersey, W3R-NJ