In late August, 1781, George Washington realized that the army of General Charles Cornwallis was located near Yorktown. The Battle of Yorktown was the last great battle of the American Revolutionary War. American soldiers sketched by a French officer at the Battle of Yorktown 28th September to 19th October 1781 in the American Revolutionary War The battle of Yorktown was the final major battle of the American Revolutionary War. Size of the armies at the Battle of Yorktown: 8,800 American troops, 7,800 French troops and 6,000 British and German troops. Following a three-week siege and a failed attempt to flee across the York River to Gloucester, Cornwallis was forced to surrender on October 19, 1781. Build up to the Battle General Nathanael Greene had taken over command of the American Continental Army in the South. It is where the British Army surrendered and the British government began to consider a peace treaty. The Battle of Yorktown was the last significant battle of the Revolutionary War, and Cornwallis became known as the general who lost the American colonies. It took place in Yorktown, Virginia, from September 28th, 1781 to October 19th, 1781. The Battle of Yorktown or Siege of Yorktown was fought from April 5 to May 4, 1862, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War.Marching from Fort Monroe, Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac encountered Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder's small Confederate force at Yorktown behind the Warwick Line.McClellan suspended his march up the Peninsula toward Richmond … The Turmoil Begins In the summer of 1781, after being unable to hold onto the Carolinas due to patriot resistance, British General and Earl Charles Cornwallis was sent to Yorktown to take hold of a fort near the river. The Battle of Yorktown was a memorable one: a remarkable victory for the patriots and an emfooassing loss for the British. The Siege of Yorktown: The Siege of Yorktown was conducted in September and October of 1781 as a combined force of France and the United States attacked a British army in Yorktown, Virginia.