British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.
The Siege of Yorktown began in September 1781 after British forces under Charles Cornwallis established a base on the York River. American and French armies surrounded the position, while the French fleet defeated or blocked British naval support in the Chesapeake Bay. George Washington commanded the combined American and French ground force.
Allied troops gradually tightened the siege by constructing trenches and capturing key defensive positions. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his army. He did not attend the formal ceremony, reportedly citing illness, so Brigadier General Charles O’Hara presented his sword on his behalf.
Yorktown did not legally conclude the war immediately. Fighting and negotiations continued, and the final peace settlement was the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783. However, the surrender undermined British political support for continuing the conflict and is commonly treated as the decisive military event of the American Revolution. Its alliance between American and French forces is a major part of the Revolutionary history remembered in America250 programs.