British General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. The surrender ended the Siege of Yorktown, the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War.
American forces commanded by George Washington joined French troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau, while French naval power helped prevent British relief. The allied army surrounded the British position in Virginia and captured key defensive works, leaving Cornwallis’s army unable to continue effectively.
The surrender did not legally end the war immediately. Fighting and negotiations continued, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. Yorktown was nevertheless decisive because it persuaded the British government that continuing the conflict was too costly. The surrender date is therefore distinct from both the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the 1783 peace treaty.