Lord Cornwallis surrendered at the Battle of Yorktown, the decisive final major campaign of the American Revolutionary War.
The siege took place in Virginia from September 28 to October 19, 1781. American forces commanded by George Washington and French troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown. French naval control in the Chesapeake prevented effective British evacuation or reinforcement.
Cornwallis formally surrendered on October 19, 1781. The military defeat did not instantly end every combat operation, but it made continued British prosecution of the war politically difficult. Peace negotiations followed, culminating in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
A traditional story says Cornwallis avoided the surrender ceremony because of illness and sent General Charles O’Hara in his place. The surrender at Yorktown is therefore a military event, while the later Paris treaty was the legal settlement that recognized independence.