[215] The siege ended with a British surrender on October 19, 1781; over 7,000 British soldiers were made prisoners of war, in the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War.[216] Washington negotiated the terms of surrender for two days, and the official signing ceremony took place on October 19; Cornwallis claimed illness and was absent, sending General Charles O'Hara as his proxy.[217] As a gesture of goodwill, Washington held a dinner for the American, French, and British generals, all of whom fraternized on friendly terms and identified with one another as members of the same professional military caste.[218]

Asgill Affair
Main article: Asgill Affair
After the surrender at Yorktown, a situation developed that threatened relations between the newly independent America and Britain.[219] Following a series of retributive executions between Patriots and Loyalists, Washington, in May 1782, wrote in a letter to General Moses Hazen that a British captain should be executed in retaliation for the execution of Joshua Huddy, a Patriot captain, who was hanged at the direction of the Loyalist Richard Lippincott.[220][221] Washington initially had wanted Lippincott himself to be executed but was rebuffed.