British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.
The Siege of Yorktown ended on October 19, 1781, when Cornwallis’s British army surrendered to combined American and French forces in Virginia. General George Washington commanded the American army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau supported the operation. French naval control of the Chesapeake Bay helped prevent Cornwallis from escaping or receiving effective relief.
Yorktown did not immediately end all fighting, but it became the decisive military victory of the American Revolutionary War. Political support for continuing the war weakened in Britain, and peace negotiations followed. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, formally recognizing American independence.
The surrender is sometimes confused with Saratoga, another major American victory that helped secure French support, or Trenton, Washington’s 1776 victory after crossing the Delaware River. Bunker Hill was an early battle near Boston and ended in a British tactical victory despite heavy British losses.