(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] Cornwallis seeks honorable terms, which

Washington rejects.

He will give the British the same treatments they gave

the Americans a year earlier at Charleston.

Colors surrendered, and Cornwallis's men prisoners.

The British commander has no choice but to accept

or face further bloodshed.

At 2:00 PM on October 19th, 1781, the British march

from the ruined remains of Yorktown.

They stack their weapons and surrender their flag.

Lord Cornwallis claims illness, leaving the formal

surrender to Brigadier General Charles O'Hara.

O'Hara attempts to surrender to Rochambeau, who

directs him to General Washington.

Washington in turn has O'Hara surrender to his

second in command, General Benjamin Lincoln,

who had been forced to nobly surrender a year before

at Charleston.

With Cornwallis' sick agreement, more than 8000

prisoners are counted at Yorktown along with

over 200 cannons, 8000 muskets, and 2000 swords.

The British suffer 556 killed, wounded or missing.

The allies, 389.

Nearly two thirds of which were French.

That evening, Washington notifies Congress, writing

simply that a reduction of the British army under the

command of Lord Cornwallis is most happily effected.

The evening of October 22nd, they issue a decree

for a day and a night of celebration.

(heroic music)

When Lord North, the British Prime Minister, learns of

the defeat a month later, he blurts,

"Oh God, it is all over."

And while King George III continues to ask for further

military actions, the war is essentially over.

The defeat at Yorktown and the mounting costs of the war

saps British public support for continued action.

In April 1782, the British Parliament seeks out the

American ministry in France to begin negotiations.

18 months later, the treaty of Paris is ratified

by Congress, bringing about the end of America's

war for independence and the beginning of a new nation.

With the war over, General Washington shocked the world

in December 1783 by resigning his commission as

commander in chief.

Walking away from such a powerful position prompted

King George III to call him the greatest character

of his age.

But his retirement from public service would be short lived.

By 1787, he was elected President of the Constitutional

Convention in Philadelphia.

Two years later he would become the first President

of the United States.

(heroic music)