Seawell’s Ordinary, on the road from Gloucester toward the York River, found itself a place of significance in final days of the Revolutionary War. The British were camped in Yorktown and at Gloucester Town, the present-day Gloucester Point. According to a display at the Gloucester Museum of History, Oct. 3, 1781, was a fateful day. The French forces allied with America, and the British forces on the north side of the York River, were looking for each other. The French were close to Seawell’s Ordinary, called Seawell’s Tavern in some accounts. The English were all over lower Gloucester at that time, and under the command of Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, had stopped close to the tavern at the home of Elizabeth Seawell Whiting. They were helping themselves to livestock, corn and other valuable provisions. According to the histories, an alert Gloucester militiaman, Philip Taliaferro, sent a note to Brig. Gen. Gabriel de Choisy, in charge of the French forces, that “A party of the Enemy are ...