Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Tadeusz Kościuszko fought for American independence and then led a rising to save Poland. Born in 1746 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to minor gentry, he trained at the Warsaw cadet school and studied military engineering in Paris, and left the country after an unhappy attachment to a magnate's daughter. He reached America in 1776 and offered his services to Congress. His engineering decided two campaigns. He fortified the Delaware, and then chose and built the positions at Saratoga in 1777 that forced Burgoyne's surrender — Gates said afterwards that the hills and woods, chosen by a young Polish engineer, had won it. He spent two years fortifying West Point, later the site of the military academy. He was made a brigadier general and given citizenship. He returned to Poland in 1784 as its territory was being partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria. He fought in the war of 1792 in defence of the reforming constitution of 3 May, and resigned when the king capitulated. He proclaimed the insurrection at Kraków in March 1794, took command as dictator, and won at Racławice with a force including peasants armed with scythes. He issued the Połaniec Manifesto granting personal freedom and reduced obligations to serfs, which was radical and which the nobility obstructed. He was wounded and captured at Maciejowice in October 1794. Poland disappeared from the map the following year. His will left his American assets to buy the freedom and education of enslaved people. He died in 1817. He is a national hero in Poland, the United States and Belarus alike.
- Lived: 1746 CE – 1817 CE
- Nationality: Polish
- Roles: general, engineer, revolutionary
