10/19/2026
🇺🇸 Road to Revolution: The Victory at Yorktown
245 years ago today (Oct. 19, 1781), more than 7,000 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, following a three-week siege by American and French forces.
After six years of war, Britain had suffered a devastating defeat that would ultimately bring the struggle for American independence to a close.
At the surrender ceremony, Cornwallis was absent, having claimed illness. His second-in-command, Brigadier General Charles O’Hara, led the defeated British army between two long lines of victorious American and French soldiers. ��
When O’Hara approached George Washington to formally surrender, Washington directed him instead to his own second-in-command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln. The British then laid down their weapons, bringing one of the most consequential military campaigns in American history to a close.
When the news reached London weeks later, the political consequences were profound. Within five months, Parliament had voted against continuing offensive warfare in America, and the prime minister who had led the war, Lord North, was forced to resign.��
The war would not officially end until 1783, but the victory at Yorktown had changed the course of history.
Meanwhile, Southampton's Stephen Sayre may have been in France, when British forces surrendered at Yorktown.
In January 1781, Sayre wrote to John Adams from St. Petersburg, Russia, outlining his efforts to establish commercial arrangements that could provide urgently needed naval materials for the American war effort, as well as his intention to spend time in Bordeaux. By December 10, 1782, Sayre was writing to John Jay from the French port, reporting that he was preparing to sail for Philadelphia.
Discover the remarkable life of Stephen Sayre and his role in the American Revolution in Stephen Sayre's American Revolution, currently on view. For more info visit our website: click the link in our bio. ��
Image: The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis (1820), by John Trumbull. United States Capitol Rotunda. Courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol.
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