British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.
The Siege of Yorktown lasted from September 28 to October 19, 1781, in Virginia. American forces commanded by George Washington and French troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded Cornwallis’s army, while a French fleet blocked British relief by sea.
The allied army’s artillery and trench operations steadily tightened the siege. Cornwallis recognized that his position was untenable and surrendered his army on October 19. The formal surrender took place at Yorktown, although Cornwallis did not attend the ceremony and sent General Charles O’Hara in his place.
Yorktown did not legally end the war immediately, but it made continued British offensive operations politically difficult. Peace negotiations produced the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which recognized American independence.