Lord Cornwallis’s army surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. The surrender followed the Siege of Yorktown, the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War.
American and French forces trapped the British army on the Virginia peninsula. George Washington commanded the allied army, while French naval forces helped prevent a British relief effort by defeating a British fleet near the Chesapeake Bay. The siege began in late September and tightened through October.
Cornwallis did not personally attend the surrender ceremony. Brigadier General Charles O’Hara represented him when the British army laid down its arms. The Articles of Capitulation established terms concerning soldiers, officers, supplies, and property.
Yorktown did not end every military action immediately. Fighting and negotiations continued elsewhere, but the defeat made Britain’s position increasingly difficult. The eventual peace settlement came with the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783.