Which 1781 battle was the last major American Revolutionary War battle in the United States?

The Battle of Yorktown was the last major American Revolutionary War battle in the United States.

The Siege of Yorktown ended on October 19, 1781, when British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to the allied American and French forces commanded by George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau. The victory trapped Cornwallis’s army on the Virginia peninsula with the French fleet blocking escape by sea.

Yorktown did not instantly end all fighting. Military operations and negotiations continued afterward, and the peace settlement was signed in 1783. Nevertheless, the defeat badly weakened British political support for continuing the war and led directly to peace negotiations.

Yorktown is sometimes confused with Saratoga, an earlier American victory in 1777 that helped bring France into the war as an American ally. Trenton was a smaller 1776 victory, while Bunker Hill was a costly early battle near Boston. Together, these events show the long military path from the 1776 declaration to the 1783 peace treaty.