On what date did Lord Cornwallis surrender at the Siege of Yorktown?

Lord Cornwallis surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

Yorktown was the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War. American forces led by George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded the British army in Virginia. French naval forces under the Comte de Grasse blocked British relief by sea after the Battle of the Chesapeake.

The allied armies began the siege on September 28. American and French troops captured key British redoubts on October 14, allowing their artillery to move closer to the British defenses. Cornwallis requested capitulation terms on October 17, and the formal surrender ceremony took place two days later.

Cornwallis did not attend the ceremony, claiming illness. Charles O’Hara represented him and offered the sword to Benjamin Lincoln, Washington’s second-in-command. More than 7,000 British soldiers were captured, helping prompt the peace negotiations that produced the Treaty of Paris.