Trapped by the French fleet of Comte de Grasse following the Battle of the Chesapeake and hemmed in by the Franco-American Army under Rochambeau and George Washington he was forced on 19 October 1781 to surrender during the Siege of Yorktown .

While the surrender has not marked the end of the war, it let directly to the downfall of the government of Lord North.

He is depicted the same year that the Peace of Paris was ratified, ending the war.

Cornwallis career was revived by the government of William Pitt and he served for a further two decades, notably in India and Ireland.

At the same time another veteran of the American War, the Irish general Lord Rawdon, was also being painted by Gainsborough.