Which general accepted the British surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781?

Benjamin Lincoln accepted the British surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

The surrender followed a Franco-American siege that surrounded British forces commanded by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. George Washington led the American army, while French troops under the Comte de Rochambeau and a French naval force under the Comte de Grasse helped make the British position untenable.

Cornwallis did not attend the ceremony, reportedly citing illness. His deputy, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara, first approached Rochambeau and then Washington. Washington directed O'Hara to Major General Benjamin Lincoln, his second-in-command, who accepted the sword on Washington's behalf.

Yorktown was the final major land engagement of the Revolutionary War, although fighting continued elsewhere and a formal peace treaty came later. The surrender captured more than 7,000 British and German troops and led to negotiations that produced the Treaty of Paris in 1783.