The British army surrendered at Yorktown in the final major land engagement of the Revolutionary War.
The Siege of Yorktown lasted from September 28 to October 19, 1781. American and French forces surrounded the British army commanded by General Charles Cornwallis, while a French naval victory in the Chesapeake Bay prevented effective British relief by sea. George Washington led the allied American forces, working with French commanders including the Comte de Rochambeau.
The allies captured key British defenses and brought artillery close enough to make Cornwallis’s position untenable. The surrender ceremony took place on October 19, although Cornwallis did not attend and sent Charles O’Hara in his place. More than 7,000 British and German troops became prisoners.
Yorktown did not instantly end every military action, but it led directly to serious peace negotiations. Those negotiations produced the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally recognized American independence.