Lord Cornwallis surrendered the British army at Yorktown in 1781.
Charles Cornwallis commanded British forces in the Yorktown campaign in Virginia. His army became trapped on the Yorktown peninsula while American troops under George Washington and French forces under the Comte de Rochambeau surrounded the town by land.
French naval forces also played a crucial role by defeating a British fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, preventing Cornwallis from receiving supplies or escaping by sea. After weeks of bombardment and siege operations, Cornwallis opened surrender negotiations.
The surrender took place on October 19, 1781. Cornwallis did not personally attend the ceremony, reportedly citing illness; Brigadier General Charles O’Hara represented him. Yorktown did not instantly end every military operation, but it persuaded the British government that continuing the war was too costly. Peace negotiations followed and culminated in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.