Yorktown
a town and county-seat of York co., Va., on the York river; 7 miles W. of Chesapeake bay. Here is the oldest custom house in the United States.
YOSEMITE VALLEY The city has several public schools, and a monument commemorating the surrender of the British army under Lord Cornwallis. It is historically famous for its two sieges in 1781 and 1862. In the first the British, numbering 8,000, made a stand and threw up earthworks, in August, 1781, and were supported by several vessels in the York river. Washington with an army of 16,000, ineluding 7,000 Frenchmen, and aided by a French fleet, under Count de Grasse, forced the surrender of the place, Oct. 16, 1781. The total loss of the allied troops was about 300, and that of the British about 550. This was the last important action in the Revolutionary War. In the spring of 1862 the city was occupied by 50,000 Confederates under Generals Johnston and Magruder. On April 5, General McClellan laid siege to it with 90,000 men. The Confederates withdrew from the city on May 3, and were pursued till the 5th, when the battle of Williamsburg was fought, resulting in a victory for the Union army. Pop. about 150.
YORUBA (yō'-), a country of west Africa, N. of the Bight of Benin. It is peopled by a number of confederated tribes, and is now attached to the colony and protectorate of Lagos. Much of the country is fertile and well cultivated, and the inhabitants have made great progress in the industrial arts. They are chiefly pagans, but Mohammedanism has made way among them. Protestant and Roman Catholic missions have long been at work among them. Ibadan is the largest town.