Kosciuszko, Tadeusz

Kosciuszko, Tadeusz

Tadeusz Kosciuszko, detail of a lithograph by C. Motte, 1826.

(credit: Courtesy of the Polish Museum of America, Chicago)

(born Feb. 4, 1746, Mereczowszczyzna, Pol.—died Oct. 15, 1817, Solothurn, Switz.) Polish patriot who fought in the American Revolution. He studied military engineering in Paris and went to America in 1776, where he joined the colonial army. He helped build fortifications in Philadelphia, Pa., and at West Point, N.Y. As chief of engineers, he twice rescued the army of Gen. Nathanael Greene by directing river crossings. He also directed the blockade of Charleston, S.C. At the war's end he was awarded U.S. citizenship and made a brigadier general. He returned to Poland in 1784 and became a major general in the Polish army. In 1794 he led a rebellion against occupying Russian and Prussian forces, during which he defended Warsaw for two months, directing residents to build earthworks. He was jailed in Russia from 1794 to 1796, returned to the U.S. in 1797, and then left for France, where he continued efforts to secure Polish independence.