General Tadeusz Kościuszko: Polish and American Hero

Polish and American hero Tadeusz Kościuszko was born on February 4, 1746.

Kościuszko was one of the first alumni of the Corps of Cadets (Korpus Kadetów) in Warsaw, graduating in December 1766 with a military rank equivalent to lieutenant. He stayed on as an instructor, and by 1768 had reached the rank of captain. Kościuszko left Poland that year when civil war broke out. He continued his studies of warfare in France until 1776, when he heard about the outbreak of the American Revolution.

During the American Revolutionary War, Kościuszko was commissioned as a colonel in the Continental Army. He gained the reputation as a sharp officer with a genius mind for fortifications and terrain.

One of his best-known military-engineering projects was designing the fortifications at West Point, which occupies a strategic high point on the west bank of the Hudson River. Under his supervision, American soldiers constructed forts, gun batteries, redoubts and installed a 65-ton iron chain across the Hudson to block British invasions along the river. Fortress West Point was never captured by the British, despite Major General Benedict Arnold’s treasonous attempt to turn over the garrison to the British in 1780. 

When the war ended, Kościuszko was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. Congress offered him 500 acres of land for his service during the war if he stayed, but he decided to return to his native Poland.

Kościuszko fought against the partitioning of Poland in both the Polish-Russian War of 1792, and the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794 that he himself led. However, the combined forces of Prussia and Russia meant that these wars ended in defeat for the Poles, and Kościuszko was imprisoned by Russian authorities.

In 1796, Kościuszko was pardoned by Tsar Paul I. Since the nation of Poland ceased to exist after the Third Partition in 1795, Kościuszko immigrated to America. He became good friends with Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, but returned to Europe in 1798.

Kościuszko passed away on October 19, 1817, in Solothurn, Switzerland. He is still remembered today as a Pole who fought for freedom all across the world.