British forces surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War.
The siege took place in Virginia from September 28 to October 19, 1781. American forces under George Washington and French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded the British army commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. A French naval victory in the Chesapeake Bay helped prevent British relief by sea.
Washington’s army and its allies captured key outer defenses on October 14, bringing artillery close enough to make the British position untenable. Cornwallis requested capitulation terms on October 17. The surrender ceremony occurred two days later, although Cornwallis did not personally attend and sent Charles O’Hara in his place.
Yorktown did not instantly end every military action, but it persuaded Britain to negotiate seriously. Those negotiations produced the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally recognized American independence.