By 1781, General George Washington understood that a major military victory for the colonists was critical to success or the tide of public opinion might turn. Imagine a war in your front yard, along your rivers and in your cities and towns; after five years of armed conflict, the patriots were committed to victory but many citizens were simply weary. Washington, in a letter to his friend John Laurens, commented, “The people are discontented, but it is with the feeble and oppressive mode of conducting the war, not with the war itself.” Even the commander understood that the war needed steady engagement and a decisive, offensive strategy to earn victory and maintain the support of the citizens whose lives were disrupted.

But Washington had no idea that the events of 1781 would change the course of history. As he pondered the military’s next moves, he analyzed his options. Only Nathanael Greene seemed inspired by Washington’s vision of the path to victory. His strategy in the Carolinas had forced British General Cornwallis to move northward to Virginia, setting the stage for the final major encounter of the war. Perhaps the answer lay in the South…

By early fall of 1781, Washington, having left a small force of about 6,500 colonial and French troops in New York to deal with British forces, joined with the French Rochambeau to spring a trap in the South. Hoping that the British would expect a major attack in New York and move their forces accordingly, Washington, Rochambeau, and forces arrived in Williamsburg, tactically near Cornwallis’s troops encamped around the port at Yorktown. Cornwallis, realizing his precarious situation, asked British General Clinton for aid and was promised that 5,000 soldiers would be deployed from New York immediately.

Clinton’s plan was thwarted when his own forces in New York found themselves relentlessly pounded by the Continental Army’s artillery. Troop deployment was delayed as the British struggled to survive under the colonial barrage.

In Virginia, the colonial forces dug trenches some 800 yards from the Brits at Yorktown and, on October 9, began a multi-day artillery assault. Cornwallis’s troops were stunned by the attack and faltered. Washington ordered his troops to move forward and dig a new parallel trench just 400 yards from the British. After destroying British redoubts #9 and #10, the second trench was completed and the British forces could no longer repel the attackers. Cornwallis attempted a sea evacuation, only to be stopped by a violent storm and the French fleet that controlled the waters around Yorktown.

Negotiations for surrender terms began. The final document, known as the Articles of Capitulation, focused on the surrender of the troops and a concern for the colonial loyalists who might face persecution. According to Article 3: “The garrison of York will march out to a place to be appointed in front of the posts, at two o'clock precisely, with shouldered arms, colors cased, and drums beating a British or German march. They are then to ground their arms, and return to their encampments, where they will remain until they are dispatched to the places of their destination.” Article 8 gave Cornwallis the right to send the sloop Bonetta with dispatches to the British headquarters in New York City to make provisions for the transport of loyalists and American deserters. Two copies of the completed document were signed by Cornwallis on the morning of October 19 and returned to Washington’s headquarters. Washington, in a sign of his understanding of the significance of the day, added his postscript, “Done in the trenches before York, October 19th, 1781.”

At two o'clock that afternoon, the surrender officially occurred. Lord Cornwallis, feigning illness but quietly seething at the British defeat by a “backwoods army,” refused to attend the ceremony. Instead, Cornwallis sent General Charles O'Hara to lead the British troops and surrender his sword to General Washington. Washington, understanding the snub to the American Continental Line and militia forces, instead asked General Benjamin Lincoln to accept O'Hara’s sword. Interestingly, it was customary for the surrendering army to play a tune in tribute to the victors, but Washington had insisted that they play “a British or German march,” signaling an acceptance of their defeat. According to the military notes, the British army band played “The World Turned Upside Down” as their forces were surrendered.

Instead, it appeared that the world had been turned upside down.

In England, the British Parliament passed a resolution in March 1782 calling for an end to the war. Prime Minister Frederick North was reported to have exclaimed, “Oh God, it is all over.” Whether he was referring to the end of the war with the rebellious colonists or foreshadowing the eventual spread of colonial revolts over the next 150 years, his remarks were met with solemn acceptance.

Peace negotiations would begin in 1782 and a final agreement, the Treaty of Paris, would be signed on September 3, 1783. While scattered fighting would continue, the victory at Yorktown effectively signed the end of the American Revolution.

As Washington’s beloved “son,” the Marquis de Lafayette, observed: “Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.”