Which description accurately characterizes the Battle of Yorktown?

• A. A minor skirmish in the western frontier.
• B. An early engagement in the southern colonies.
• C. The first major battle of the war.
• D. The last major battle of the Revolutionary War; Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington.

Answer: (D)

Yorktown shows the end of the war because American forces, aided by the French, trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown in Virginia and forced his surrender to General Washington, effectively ending major fighting in the colonies. The surrender, by a decisive siege, led to peace negotiations that produced the Treaty of Paris, making Yorktown the turning point that sealed American independence. It isn’t a minor frontier skirmish, nor an early southern engagement, nor the war’s first major battle; it is the last major action that concluded the Revolutionary War.