True to a single object, the freedom and happiness of man …
—Thomas Jefferson, on Tadeusz Kosciuszko
A national hero on two continents, Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746–1817) served as an officer in the American Revolution and later directed an uprising against Russian rule in his native Poland. Deeply idealistic, Kosciuszko came to epitomize the Enlightenment-era values of democracy and independence that animated the revolutionary movements in both countries.
Kosciuszko was born in a small village in what is now Belarus. He attended a military academy, excelled in his studies, and won a scholarship to Paris, where he studied painting and attended lectures on military tactics. When the American Revolution broke out, the American ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), recruited Kosciuszko to join the Continental Army in 1776.
Kosciuszko’s training in tactics and military engineering made him an invaluable asset to George Washington (1732–1799), who was charged with assembling a modern army out of untrained colonial militias. Kosciuszko helped design and build forts in Pennsylvania and New York and led the defense of West Point. Congress promoted him to the rank of brigadier general in 1783.
He returned to Poland the next year and lived in poverty for five years before he was allowed to join the Polish army in 1789. Militarily weak, Poland was in a precarious position, wedged between two strong powers. In 1792, Russia invaded and divided up the country with Prussia, leaving only a small area free from foreign rule. Two years later, hoping to recover Poland’s independence, Kosciuszko launched a revolt against the Russians.
The Kosciuszko Rebellion, however, was short-lived: Its leader was captured in 1794 and imprisoned for two years before he was pardoned by the czar in 1796. Kosciuszko went into exile in the United States and France, working without success to organize a new revolt against the Russians. He died in Switzerland at age seventy-one.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Many streets in the United States and Poland are named after Kosciuszko. He is also the namesake of Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia, which was discovered by a Polish explorer.
- The house Kosciuszko lived in in Philadelphia was made a National Memorial.
- In his will, Kosciuszko directed that his estate be used to buy freedom for as many slaves in the United States as possible. However, the will was held up by legal wrangling until 1852, when the Supreme Court ruled that the money should go to the general’s European relatives instead.
