Which 1781 battle ended with the surrender of British forces under Charles Cornwallis?

The Siege of Yorktown ended with the surrender of British forces under Charles Cornwallis in 1781.

American and French forces surrounded Yorktown, Virginia, in September and October 1781. George Washington commanded the Continental Army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau supported the operation. A French naval victory in the Chesapeake prevented British relief by sea.

After sustained artillery bombardment and the capture of key defensive positions, Cornwallis’s army surrendered on October 19, 1781. The victory did not formally end the war, but it made continued British efforts to defeat the United States politically difficult.

Peace negotiations followed, producing the Treaty of Paris in 1783. That treaty recognized the independence of the United States. Yorktown is therefore remembered as the decisive military victory of the American Revolutionary War, while the treaty marks the conflict’s formal conclusion.