Which 1781 campaign is considered the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War?

The Siege of Yorktown is considered the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War.

The siege took place in Virginia from September 28 to October 19, 1781. American forces under George Washington and French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded the British army commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. French naval control of the Chesapeake Bay helped prevent Cornwallis from escaping or receiving effective relief.

After artillery bombardment and attacks on British outer defenses, Cornwallis’s army capitulated on October 19. More than 7,000 British and German troops were captured. Cornwallis did not attend the surrender ceremony, citing illness; Charles O’Hara represented him and handed over the sword through the formal ceremony.

Yorktown did not end every military action instantly. Fighting continued at sea and in other areas, and the peace settlement came with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Yorktown is called the final major land engagement because its scale and political effect forced serious peace negotiations, not because every later skirmish stopped that day.