Battle of Yorktown, 1781
James S. Baillie, Surrender of Cornwallis, 1845 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)
By the summer of 1781, the Revolutionary War had been dragging on for six long years. But with the arrival of a French fleet in Chesapeake Bay, George Washington seized the chance to trap a large British army under General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Washington quickly moved from his base in New York to Virginia. There, more than 17,000 American and French troops laid siege to 8,000 British troops.
The allies attacked on October 14, 1781, under the leadership of the Marquis de Lafayette, and on October 16, Cornwallis realized he could not escape the American forces and asked for a ceasefire. The British surrendered on October 19. Yorktown was the last major battle of the American Revolution. The loss led the British Parliament to end the war. Provisional articles of peace were signed in 1782, although the final treaty was not signed until September 1783.
