The British army surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, a decisive victory in the history celebrated by America250.
American and French forces surrounded the British army commanded by Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. George Washington led the Continental Army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau supported the operation.
French naval control of the Chesapeake Bay prevented British relief by sea. Allied troops then captured key defensive positions and brought artillery close enough to make Cornwallis’s position untenable. The surrender ceremony took place after negotiations that began on October 17.
Yorktown was the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War, but it did not instantly end all fighting. Naval actions continued, and formal peace came with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Cornwallis did not personally attend the ceremony; his deputy, Charles O’Hara, represented him.