Painting of George Washington firing the first cannon at Yorktown.
Henry Alexander Ogden, 1900.

Just like that guy who takes a little more than is socially acceptable at the hotel breakfast buffet (dry cereal or oatmeal, dude — just pick one and live with it), Virginia isn’t satisfied with only celebrating one holiday on the second Monday in October. Today in the Commonwealth is also Yorktown Victory Day, which serves to celebrate the Colonies’ victory at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781 in the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War.

Not to be confused with the Battle of Yorktown during the Civil War, which was a much-less conclusive affair that took place up the road from the Revolutionary battle, this fight featured George Washington and French military leader Comte de Rochambeau laying a smackdown on the British Army led by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis. The hefty defeat led the British to negotiate terms of defeat. But the siege of the port itself was just the final act: the battle was preceded by a nearly month-long journey by American and French soldiers, which is now known as the “celebrated march” — an approximately 600-mile hike beginning in Newport, Rhode Island which was designated a National Historic Trail last March and cuts its way through what is now the Northwest quadrant of the District of Columbia.

The best part of the story has to be that after the Wash-Beau Connection beat the Big Bad Brits on the battlefield, British Prime Minister Frederick Lord North is reputed to have said “Oh God, it’s all over.”

For those looking to get their history on during this Yorktown Victory Day, Wikipedia actually has an incredibly well-sourced account of the march, the siege and the aftermath of the engagement.