National Museum of the United States Army

Following the great victory at Yorktown, Congress in October 1781 directed that the first national memorial be erected to commemorate the event.

However, it took a century for this direction to come to fruition. For many years after it was in place, an enlisted Army Soldier was assigned to stand guard over it.

"That the United States in Congress assembled, will cause to be erected at york, in Virginia, a marble column, adorned with emblems of the alliance between the United States and his Most Christian Majesty; and inscribed with a succinct narrative of the surrender of earl Cornwallis to his excellency General Washington, Commander in Chief of the combined forces of America and France; to his excellency the Count de Rochambeau, commanding the auxilliary troops of his most Christian Majesty in America, and his excellency the Count de Grasse, commanding in chief the naval army of France in the Chesapeake."

Continental Congress, 29 October 1781

Sources

https://www.nps.gov/york/learn/historyculture/vicmon.htm
Massachusetts Historical Society

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