For more than 225 years, the Franco-American victory at Yorktown has been commemorated with a host of ceremonies, monuments and re-enactments.

Across the York River in Gloucester an important Revolutionary War engagement that took place simultaneously called the Battle of the Hook had never—not once—been commemorated until a group of Gloucester citizens decided to host a re-enactment of that fight at Warner Hall in Gloucester.

Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, commander of General Cornwallis’s cavalry, engaged with Duc de Lauzun’s hussars and the Virginia militia at The Hook on Oct. 3, 1781. Tarleton withdrew to the British earthworks at Gloucester Point. The Battle of the Hook was Tarleton’s last fight.

That was five years ago. Gloucester residents who attended the re-enactment and Revolutionary War re-enactors who participated in the exceptional event are still talking about it. Everything they’ve been saying has been positive.

"It will be f...