The Siege of Yorktown and Cornwallis's Surrender
American and French forces trap Cornwallis against the York River
Quick facts
- Location
- Yorktown, Virginia
- Date
- 28 September - 19 October 1781
- British commander
- General Charles, Lord Cornwallis
- Result
- Full British surrender; last major battle of the war
What happened
Cornwallis withdrew his army to Yorktown, Virginia, in the summer of 1781 to await resupply and reinforcement by sea. Instead, French Admiral de Grasse's fleet defeated a British relief squadron off the Chesapeake in early September, sealing Yorktown off from evacuation, while Washington marched his American troops south from New York and joined French General Rochambeau's forces to besiege the town by land. As allied artillery pounded the British lines through October, Cornwallis's situation became hopeless. On 17 October a British officer appeared under a flag of truce to request surrender terms, and on 19 October 1781, in a field outside Yorktown, roughly 8,000 British and Hessian troops marched out and laid down their arms between lines of American and French soldiers, their colors cased in defeat.
Why it matters
Yorktown was the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War in North America; news of the surrender effectively ended British political will to continue the fight, though the formal peace treaty took two more years to negotiate. It stands as the clearest demonstration of what the French alliance made possible, since American land forces alone lacked the naval power to trap Cornwallis against the coast.
How we know
American Battlefield Trust's siege narrative draws on the surrender's own terms and eyewitness descriptions of the 19 October capitulation ceremony.
Sources
- American Battlefield Trust. Yorktown: Battle Facts and Summary · Primary source (author-declared)battlefields.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- American Battlefield Trust. Cowpens: Battle Facts and Summary · Reputable sourcebattlefields.org · The domain "battlefields.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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