Which British general surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown in 1781?

Charles Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown in 1781.

Cornwallis commanded the British army defending Yorktown, Virginia, during the final major campaign of the American Revolutionary War. American and French forces surrounded the town while a French fleet prevented effective British evacuation or reinforcement by sea.

The siege ended on October 19, 1781, when Cornwallis’s army capitulated. Cornwallis did not personally appear at the surrender ceremony; Brigadier General Charles O’Hara represented him and offered Cornwallis’s sword to the allied command. Washington instructed Benjamin Lincoln to receive the surrender.

The Yorktown victory did not legally end the war immediately. Fighting and negotiations continued, but British political support for further military operations collapsed. The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, formally ended the conflict and recognized American independence. Cornwallis later served as governor-general in India and lord lieutenant of Ireland.