The British army surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
The Siege of Yorktown began on September 28, 1781, when American and French forces concentrated against the British position in Virginia. George Washington commanded the American army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau joined the operation. French naval forces under the Comte de Grasse helped block British movement by sea.
After artillery bombardment and the capture of key outer defenses, British commander Charles Cornwallis recognized that his position was untenable. Negotiations followed his request for capitulation on October 17, and the surrender ceremony occurred two days later. Cornwallis did not attend, citing illness; Charles O’Hara led the British troops during the ceremony.
Yorktown was the final major land engagement of the Revolutionary War. Fighting and naval operations continued elsewhere, but the capture of Cornwallis’s army pushed Britain toward peace negotiations. The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, formally recognized American independence.