Which French commander helped lead the allied army at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown?

Comte de Rochambeau helped lead the allied army at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown.

Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, commanded the French expeditionary force sent to support the American Revolution. His troops joined George Washington’s Continental Army in the decisive campaign against British General Charles Cornwallis.

French naval forces blocked British relief by sea while American and French troops surrounded Yorktown in Virginia. Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, a victory that effectively ended major fighting in North America and opened the way to the peace negotiations concluded by the Treaty of Paris.

Rochambeau is often confused with the Marquis de Lafayette, another prominent French participant. Lafayette served as an American major general and had an important role in the campaign, but Rochambeau commanded the French army contingent.