October 19, 1781

Siege of Yorktown

British army capitulates at Yorktown

Cornwallis signed away his army but did not appear when it marched out — and Washington chose to receive the surrender through the general the British had forced to capitulate at Charleston a year earlier.

19 October 1781: the Articles of Capitulation

On 19 October 1781, Washington, Rochambeau, Cornwallis, and British naval commander Thomas Symonds completed and signed the Articles of Capitulation governing the surrender of York and Gloucester. The articles required two British redoubts handed over at noon, and artillery, arms, the military chest, and public stores delivered intact.

Article I split the prisoners between the allies: British land troops became prisoners of the United States, while British naval personnel and mariners became prisoners of the French.

The march to Surrender Field

That afternoon most of the British army marched between lines of American and French troops — facing ranks stretching more than a mile — to Surrender Field and laid down its arms.

Cornwallis, reportedly ill, did not lead the ceremony; Brigadier General Charles O'Hara represented him, and Washington designated Major General Benjamin Lincoln to receive the formal surrender. The tradition that the British band played 'The World Turned Upside Down' is not a securely documented fact of the day.

Trapped, then too late to save

French control of the Chesapeake had blocked reinforcement or evacuation, allied siege works and bombardment had reduced the defenses, and a storm had wrecked Cornwallis's attempted escape across the York River. He requested a ceasefire on 17 October; negotiations followed on the 18th.

About 8,000 men surrendered; approximately 17,000 American and French troops had surrounded Yorktown in early October. A British relief expedition of 5,000 troops sailed from New York that same day — and the definitive Treaty of Paris was not signed until 1783.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 3 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

Cornwallis's illness is reported in the historical record, but claims about whether illness or humiliation chiefly motivated his absence are interpretive.
The claim that the British band played 'The World Turned Upside Down' is a tradition, not a securely documented event-day fact.