Video: 'Now Or Never: Yorktown Campaign of 1781 (Full Movie)'

(Friday, October 19, 1781, 2:00 p.m. local time; during the Siege of Yorktown, part of the Yorktown Campaign, part of the Southern Theater of the American Revolutionary War during the American Revolution) — Britain’s Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered today with 8,000 troops to General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the American War of Independence and guaranteeing the colonialists freedom from the crown.

Cornwallis refused to attend the surrender ceremony, citing illness. Instead, Brigadier General Charles O’Hara led the British army onto the field.

O’Hara first attempted to surrender to Rochambeau, who shook his head and pointed to Washington. O’Hara then offered his sword to Washington, who also refused and motioned to Benjamin Lincoln, his second-in-command.

The surrender finally took place when Lincoln accepted the sword of Cornwallis’ deputy.

There would be more fighting ahead – minor skirmishes at best — but Cornwallis’ surrender “took the wind from the sails” of the British force in America.

Two years would elapse before a peace treaty would finally be signed in Paris on Sept. 3, 1783 formally ending the eight year conflict, and nearly three more months before the last British troops boarded ships to leave New York on Nov. 25, 1783.