The British surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, a decisive Revolutionary War victory remembered during America250.
The Siege of Yorktown ended on October 19, 1781, when Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis’s army surrendered to combined American and French forces. General George Washington commanded the Continental Army, while French troops and naval power played an essential role in trapping the British at Yorktown, Virginia.
The victory effectively ended major fighting in North America, although the war did not formally conclude that day. Peace negotiations continued, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. That treaty recognized the independence of the United States.
Yorktown is sometimes described as the end of the Revolutionary War, but the more precise statement is that it was the war’s decisive final campaign. British forces remained in some locations, and military operations continued until the peace settlement.