Who won the Battle of Yorktown?
The Americans and their French allies won. George Washington, the Comte de Rochambeau and a French fleet under Admiral de Grasse trapped Lord Cornwallis's British army at Yorktown, Virginia, a port on the York River near Chesapeake Bay, by land and sea. Cornwallis surrendered on 19 October 1781. It was the last great battle of the American Revolution and the victory that effectively won American independence.2
Anniversary 19 October 2026 marks 245 years since the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781.
In the autumn of 1781, on a peninsula in Virginia, the American Revolution reached its decision. A British army had marched into a corner it could not escape, and the trap that closed around it was sprung by land and by sea at once. When the surrender came, an empire realized it could no longer win a war it had once expected to win in a season. Yorktown was the last great battle of the Revolution, and the one that finally made the young United States a fact the world had to accept.3
Where was the Battle of Yorktown fought, and what was the result?
The Battle of Yorktown, also called the Siege of Yorktown, was fought around the small port of Yorktown, Virginia, on the York River, with the British also holding Gloucester Point on the opposite shore. The river opens into Chesapeake Bay, and a French fleet under Admiral de Grasse blockaded the mouth of the bay, so Cornwallis could get no help and no escape by sea.4
The allied army arrived before Yorktown on 28 September 1781. Washington commanded the Americans, the Comte de Rochambeau the French army and de Grasse the French fleet, against Lord Cornwallis. After days of heavy bombardment and a failed attempt to slip his army across the river to Gloucester Point, Cornwallis asked for a cease-fire on 17 October and surrendered on 19 October 1781.5
The American Battlefield Trust counts 7,416 British soldiers missing and captured, the historian Harold E. Selesky puts the army that surrendered at about 8,000 men, and the National Park Service notes that the surrender took away about a third of all British forces in North America. The result was a decisive Franco-American victory and the last major battle of the war. For the Southern campaign that brought Cornwallis to Virginia, read our profile of Nathanael Greene and the story of the Battle of Cowpens.6
Part of The greatest battles of the American Revolution · Before: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse · Key figures: The Marquis de Lafayette, Baron von Steuben
Cornwallis cornered in Virginia
After years of hard campaigning in the American South, the British general Lord Cornwallis pulled his army back to Yorktown, a small port on the Virginia coast, expecting to be supplied and supported by the Royal Navy. It was a fatal choice. George Washington, commanding the American army, and the French general Rochambeau saw the opening and made a bold, secret march south from New York to fall on him, covering hundreds of miles before the British grasped what was happening.7
The French fleet slams the door
The move only worked because of what happened at sea. A French fleet under Admiral de Grasse arrived off the coast and defeated the British navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake, driving it away and taking control of the water around Yorktown. With the bay in French hands, Cornwallis could not be rescued, reinforced or evacuated. The escape route was gone, and the door to the trap was shut behind him.8 › Battle of the Chesapeake, 1781
The siege
On land, the allied army dug in and began a classic siege. Trenches were pushed steadily closer to the British lines, and heavy guns pounded the defenses day and night. On the night of 14 October, American and French troops stormed two key strongpoints, Redoubts 9 and 10, which guarded the flank of the British line, tightening the ring still further. With his works crumbling, his men sick and hungry, and no help coming by sea, Cornwallis had no way out.9
Surrender and independence
On 19 October 1781, some 7,000 to 8,000 British and allied soldiers marched out and laid down their arms. Cornwallis, citing illness, stayed away; his second in command, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara, offered his sword, and Washington directed him to his own second in command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who accepted it.10
The loss of an entire army was more than the British government was willing to bear, and support for the war collapsed in London. Peace talks followed, and in 1783 Britain recognized the independence of the United States. Yorktown stands as the decisive victory of the Revolution, won by an alliance of American grit and French power. Trace the war from its earlier turning point at Saratoga, place it among the greatest battles in American history, or check the terms in our military history glossary.11
Test yourself on Yorktown, Saratoga and the rest in the American battles quiz, or play today's Battle of the Day.
