Which general accepted the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781 for the Continental Army?

George Washington accepted the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781 for the Continental Army.

Washington commanded the allied American and French forces during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia. The British army under Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis capitulated on October 19, 1781.

The victory effectively ended major combat in the American Revolutionary War, although the peace treaty was not signed until 1783. French naval control of the Chesapeake Bay helped prevent Cornwallis’s evacuation.

Washington did not personally receive Cornwallis, who claimed illness; British General Charles O’Hara delivered the sword to American Major General Benjamin Lincoln. Washington nevertheless directed the allied campaign and accepted the formal surrender through his command structure.