The Siege of Yorktown is widely regarded as the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War. The British army under Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781.
American and French forces trapped Cornwallis’s army on the Yorktown peninsula. George Washington commanded the American army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau joined the campaign. French naval victory in the nearby Battle of the Chesapeake prevented effective British relief.
The surrender did not legally end the war immediately. Fighting and negotiations continued, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. However, Yorktown made continued British offensive operations in North America difficult and shifted political opinion in Britain toward ending the conflict. The event is therefore remembered as the decisive military climax of the Revolution.