The Siege of Yorktown was the last major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War, remembered by America250.
The siege took place from September 28 to October 19, 1781, in Virginia. American forces under George Washington joined French troops commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau, while French naval power helped prevent British reinforcements from escaping or arriving. The allied army surrounded the British position commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis.
Cornwallis’s army surrendered on October 19, 1781. Yorktown did not immediately create a peace treaty, but it was decisive enough to persuade the British government to end major offensive operations. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, formally ending the war.
Saratoga was a major turning point that helped bring France into the conflict, and Bunker Hill was an early battle near Boston. Charleston was also important, but none of those engagements was the war’s final major land action.