Who commanded the British forces that surrendered at Yorktown in 1781?

Charles Cornwallis commanded the British forces that surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.

The siege took place in Virginia from September 28 to October 19, 1781, during the American Revolutionary War. American troops under George Washington joined French forces commanded by the Comte de Rochambeau, while a French fleet helped prevent a British naval rescue.

Cornwallis concentrated his army at Yorktown, expecting British support by sea. That support failed after the French victory at the Battle of the Chesapeake, leaving his position surrounded by allied land forces and cut off from easy evacuation.

Cornwallis claimed illness and sent Brigadier General Charles O’Hara to deliver the surrender. The capitulation ended major combat in North America, although the war formally continued until the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Cornwallis himself did not attend the surrender ceremony.