The Siege of Yorktown was 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 led by George Washington joined French troops commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau, while French naval forces helped prevent British reinforcement or escape. Together, the allies surrounded the British army commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis.
The allied bombardment and capture of key outer defenses made the British position untenable. Cornwallis’s army surrendered on October 19, with more than 7,000 British soldiers captured. Cornwallis did not attend the formal ceremony; Charles O’Hara represented him.
Yorktown did not immediately end every military operation. Fighting continued at sea and elsewhere, but the surrender led to peace negotiations and helped produce the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which formally recognized American independence. Saratoga was an earlier major American victory, not the war’s final major land engagement.