The Battle of Yorktown, more precisely the Siege of Yorktown, is widely regarded as the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War, remembered during America250.
American and French forces surrounded the British army commanded by General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, in September and October 1781. George Washington led the allied army, while French naval power helped prevent British reinforcement or evacuation by sea.
The British surrender on October 19, 1781, badly weakened Britain’s ability and political will to continue large-scale operations in North America. Fighting and negotiations continued in other forms afterward, so Yorktown was not technically the instant end of the war.
The conflict formally ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Yorktown is nevertheless the conventional military endpoint because Cornwallis’s surrender became the decisive battlefield event that led to peace negotiations.