Charles Cornwallis surrendered the British army at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, after a Franco-American siege.
Cornwallis commanded British forces defending Yorktown, Virginia. George Washington’s Continental Army joined French troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau, while French naval forces under the Comte de Grasse blocked British relief by sea. The combined operation trapped Cornwallis’s army on the York River.
The formal surrender followed weeks of bombardment and the capture of key British defenses. Cornwallis did not personally attend the ceremony, reportedly citing illness; his aide-de-camp Charles O’Hara delivered his sword, which was accepted on Washington’s behalf by Benjamin Lincoln.
Yorktown did not immediately end all fighting, but it effectively ended major combat in North America. Peace negotiations led to the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, which formally recognized United States independence.