The Siege of Yorktown is generally considered the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War.
The siege took place from September 28 to October 19, 1781, in Yorktown, Virginia. American forces under George Washington joined French troops commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau, while a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse blocked British relief by sea.
British Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis commanded the besieged army. The allied forces surrounded Yorktown, built siege lines, and captured key defensive positions before Cornwallis surrendered. More than 7,000 British soldiers and their allies were taken prisoner.
Yorktown did not instantly end every military action, but it made a negotiated peace likely. The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, formally ended the war. Saratoga was a major earlier American victory that helped bring France into the conflict, while Trenton and Bunker Hill occurred much earlier in the struggle.