 From Wilmington , Cornwallis , in a move that became a subject of contemporary and historical debate , led his army into Virginia , where he joined with other British troops that had been raiding economic and military targets in that colony . Ineffectually opposed by a smaller Continental Army under the Marquis de Lafayette , he was eventually ordered to establish a well @-@ defended port by General Henry Clinton . Poor communications in the British establishment and French naval superiority over the Chesapeake Bay caused him to become entrapped at Yorktown without the possibility of reinforcement ; he surrendered after three weeks of siege , on October 17 , 1781 . He was released on parole , and returned to England in December of that year . He and General Clinton engaged in a highly public exchange after the 1781 campaign in which each sought to deflect blame for its failure . 
