Which British commander surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781?

Charles Cornwallis was the British commander who surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781.

Cornwallis surrendered his army to the Franco-American forces on October 19, 1781, after the Siege of Yorktown in Virginia. George Washington commanded the Continental Army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau and the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse helped trap the British position.

The surrender followed weeks of bombardment and the capture of key British defensive positions. Cornwallis did not personally attend the surrender ceremony; Brigadier General Charles O’Hara represented him when the British force capitulated.

Yorktown was the last major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War. Fighting and negotiations continued elsewhere, but the defeat made continued British efforts to defeat the United States politically and militarily unsustainable.