Siege of Yorktown
September 28 – October 19, 1781 · Yorktown
Result Franco-American victory
September to October 1781: the final major land engagement of the American Revolutionary War. Washington's Continental Army, with French troops under Rochambeau and a navy under de Grasse, besieged Cornwallis's British army at Yorktown; Cornwallis surrendered 19 October with 7,000 soldiers captured. The victory led to the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
American
British
French
Other
United States
Continental Army
Great Britain
Cornwallis's army
France
Rochambeau's army and de Grasse's fleet
George Washington
military commander
Alexander Hamilton
Marquis de Lafayette
major general, French officer in American service; trapped Cornwallis
Henry Knox
Brigadier General, chief of artillery of the allied siege
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
military commander
Henry Dearborn
military commander
Benjamin Lincoln
military commander
Thomas Nelson Jr.
military commander
Strength and losses
- Strength
- 8,000–9,000c. 6,000
- Casualties
- 7,884–8,589
- Killed
- 142–309
- Captured
- 7,416–7,685
