British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, effectively ending major fighting in the American Revolution.
American and French forces surrounded Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown, Virginia. George Washington commanded the allied army, while French naval forces under the Comte de Grasse helped prevent British relief by controlling the Chesapeake approaches.
The surrender followed a siege that began in September 1781. Although fighting continued in other places after Yorktown, the defeat convinced the British government that continuing the war in North America was no longer practical.
The war formally ended with the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783. Yorktown is therefore best described as the decisive final campaign or the end of major combat, not the date of the peace treaty.