understanding reverse proxy using squid

I am just visualizing how a reverse proxy works.
Squid, a open source tool can be configured to work
as a reverse proxy.

Actually a reverse proxy lies inbetween the Internet and the Web
server. When a request from a client comes in , the request first goes
to the proxy server. The proxy server will look in its cache for the
requested page,if it is there in the cache, it will send the requested
page to the client or it will forward the request to the original web
server.
In such a scenario, the proxy server listens at port 80 and the web
server listens at some other port other than normal port 80.The squid
is also configured in such a way that request for dynamic contents are
forwarded to the original web server.


My confusing is regarding the how the web browsers will know that it
has to first contact the proxy server instead of the web server.
One way that can be done which I am thinking is, when I get a
registered ip address for my web server , instead of assigning the ip
address to the web server , I will assign it to the proxy server. The
proxy server is configured in such that any request that comes to it ,
it will forward it to the web server if the request is not available
in its own cache . In that case , the web server will have a private
ip address.
The advantage with reverse proxy is that security of my web server is
increased because it is not visible in the internet and also the load
on the web server is reduced because the static web pages are served
by the proxy server.

Is my understanding is correct. If any guys have implemented reverse
proxy , please let me know whether the fact that the DNS will resolve
for proxy server instead of web server is correct or not as I
mentioned above .