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Kosciusko (Kościuszko) Andrzej Thadeus Bonawentura
(1746—1817)

Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish, American, Belarusian and Lithuanian national hero and general. He led the Kościuszko Uprising (1794) against Imperial Russia.

Prior to leading the 1794 Uprising, he had fought in the American Revolutionary War as a Colonel in the Continental Army. In 1783, in recognition of his dedicated service, he had been brevetted by the Continental Congress to the rank of Brigadier General, and that same year he had become a naturalized citizen of the United States.

There are several Anglicized spellings for his name, the most frequently-used being Thaddeus Kosciusko, though the full "Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciusko" also appears in some texts.

Tadeusz Kościuszko was born February 4, 1746, in the village of Mereczowszczyzna (now Kosava, Belarus), in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a federated part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to the noble (szlachta) family of Ludwik Tadeusz Kościuszko and Tekla, née Ratomska. His family's ancestor was a certain Konstanty, a courtier of Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Sigismund I who in 1509 had been granted the village of Sihnievičy (Siechnowicze), was ennobled and received the Roch III Coat of Arms. By the time Tadeusz was born, however, the family had fallen upon hard times and the village with its small manor was their only property.

In 1755 Tadeusz and his elder brother Józef began their educations in a Piarist school in Lubieszów. After five years, in 1760, both were forced to return home due to family problems. Józef was chosen to inherit the family's property and Tadeusz decided to embark upon a military career.

In 1765 King Stanisław II August created the Szkoła Rycerska, a school that was to educate a cadre of well-educated officers and state officials. On December 18, 1765, Tadeusz Kościuszko entered the newly-formed school, becoming a member of the Corps of Cadets. Apart from strictly military-related subjects, he also studied the history of Poland, world history, philosophy, Latin, the Polish, German and French languages, and law, economics, geography, arithmetic, geometry and engineering. Upon graduation he was promoted to captain.

In 1769 Kościuszko and his colleague Orłowski were granted a royal scholarship and on October 5 they set off for Paris. There Kościuszko briefly studied in the Academy of Fine Arts, but soon realized that the career of a painter was not what he dreamed of. As a foreigner he could not apply for any of the French military academies, and he lacked the funds to study engineering. For five years, however, Kościuszko educated himself as an extern, frequenting lectures and the libraries of the Paris military academies. His stay in pre-revolutionary France had a tremendous influence on his later political views.
After the first partition of Poland-Lithuania the neighbouring countries of Russia, Prussia and Austria annexed a large part of the Polish-Lithuanian territory and secured their influence on the internal politics of Poland and Lithuania. The country was forced to reduce the Polish Army to 10,000 soldiers and when Kościuszko finally returned home in 1774, there was no place for him in the armed forces. His difficult economic situation also prevented him from getting married and in the autumn of 1775 Kościuszko decided to emigrate.

In late 1775 Kościuszko arrived in Dresden, where he wanted to join either the Saxon court or the elector's army. However, he was refused and decided to travel back to Paris. There he was informed of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, in which the former British colonies in North America revolted against the crown and started the fight for independence. The first American successes were well publicised in France and the cause of the revolutionaries was openly supported by the French people, whose government also supported the Americans.

Kościuszko was recruited in France by Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin, and in August 1776 he arrived in America. He initially served as a volunteer, but on October 18, 1776, Congress commissioned him a Colonel of Engineers in the Continental Army. At the recommendation of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and General Charles Lee, Kościuszko was named head engineer of the Continental Army.

He was sent to Pennsylvania for his work with the Continental Army. Shortly after arriving, he read the United States Declaration of Independence. Kościuszko was moved by the document because it encompassed everything in which he believed; he was so moved, in fact, that he decided to meet Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration.[citation needed] The two met in Virginia a few months later. After spending the day discussing philosophy, and other things they shared in common, they became very close friends. Kościuszko was a guest at Monticello on many occasions, and spent prolonged visits there.

Kościuszko's first task in America was the fortification of Philadelphia. His first structure was the construction of Fort Billingsport.[1] On September 24, 1776, Kościuszko was ordered to fortify the banks of the Delaware River against a possible British crossing. In the spring of 1777 he was attached to the Northern Army under General Horatio Gates. As the chief engineer of the army he commanded the construction of several forts and fortified military camps along the Canadian border. His work made significant contributions to the American successful retreat from the battle of Ticonderoga and victory at Saratoga in 1777.

After the battle, Kościuszko, then regarded as one of the best engineers in American service, was put in charge by George Washington of military engineering works at the stronghold in West Point on the Hudson River. Then he asked to be transferred to the Southern Army, where he also made significant contributions to the American victories.
After seven years of service, on October 13, 1783, Kościuszko was promoted by Congress to the rank of brigadier general. He was also granted American citizenship, 2.5 square kilometers of land in America, and a large sum of money. He used the money to help some black slaves gain their freedom. He was also admitted to the prestigious Society of the Cincinnati and to the American Philosophical Society.

In July 1784 Kościuszko set off for Poland, where he arrived on August 12. He settled in his home village of Siechnowicze. The property, administered by Tadeusz's brother-in-law, brought small yet stable profits and Kościuszko decided to limit the corvee of his serfs to two days a week, while completely freeing all female serfs. This move was seen by the local szlachta as a sign of dangerous liberalism of Kościuszko.

By that time the internal situation in Poland changed rapidly. A strong yet still informal group of politicians underlined the need of reforms and strengthening of the state. Notable political writers like Stanisław Staszic and Hugo Kołłątaj promoted the ideas of granting the serfs and the burghers more rights and strengthening the central authorities. These ideas were supported by a large part of the szlachta, who also wanted to overthrow the foreign dictate and meddling in Poland's internal affairs.

Finally the Sejm Wielki of 1788–1792 started the necessary reforms. One of the first acts of the new parliament assumed the creation of a 100,000 men strong army to defend the borders of Poland against her aggressive neighbours. Kościuszko saw it as a chance to return to military service and serve his country in the field he had the most experience. He applied for the army and on October 12, 1789, received the royal nomination to Major General. As such he also started receiving a high salary of 12,000 złotys a year, which ended his financial difficulties.

The internal situation in Poland and the reforms of the May Constitution of Poland, the first constitution written in the modern era in Europe and second in the world after the American, were seen by the surrounding powers as a threat to their influence over Polish politics. On May 14, 1792, the conservative magnates created the Confederation of Targowica, which asked the Russian empress Catherine II for help in overthrowing the constitution. On May 18, 1792 a Russian army of 100,000 crossed the Polish border and headed for Warsaw, thus starting the War in Defence of the Constitution.

Although the plan to create a 100,000-man Polish Army was not accomplished due to economic problems, the Polish Army was well-trained and prepared for war.
Before the Russians invaded Poland, Kościuszko was appointed deputy commander of Prince Józef Poniatowski's 3rd Crown Infantry Division. When the Prince became Commander in Chief of the entire Polish Army in May 1792, Kościuszko automatically assumed command of the Division.

After Prussia's betrayal of her Polish ally, the Army of Lithuania did not oppose the advancing Russians. The Polish Army was too weak to oppose the enemy advancing into Ukraine and withdrew to the western side of the Bug River, where it regrouped and counterattacked. Victorious in the Battle of Zieleńce (June 18, 1792), Kościuszko was among the first to receive the newly-created Virtuti Militari medal, Poland's highest military decoration even today.

In the ensuing Battles of Włodzimierz (July 17, 1792) and Dubienka (July 18) Kościuszko repulsed the numerically superior enemy and came to be regarded as one of Poland's most brilliant military commanders of the time. On August 1, 1792, King Stanisław August promoted him to Lieutenant General. But before the nomination arrived at Kościuszko's camp in Sieciechów, the King had joined the ranks of the Targowica Confederation and surrendered to the Russians.

The capitulation of the king was a hard blow for Kościuszko, who had not lost a single battle in the campaign. Together with many other notable Polish commanders and politicians he fled to Dresden and then to Leipzig, where the emigrants started preparing an uprising against Russian rule in Poland. The politicians, grouped around Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, sought contacts with similar groups of opposition formed in Poland and by spring 1793 were joined by other politicians and revolutionaries, among them Ignacy Działyński and Karol Prozor.

On August 26, 1792, the French Legislative Assembly awarded Kościuszko with honorary citizenship of France in honour of his fight for freedom of his fatherland and the ideas of equality and liberty. After two weeks in Leipzig, Kościuszko set off for Paris, where he tried to gain French support of the planned uprising in Poland.

On January 13, 1793, Prussia and Russia signed the Second Partition of Poland, which was ratified by the Sejm of Grodno on June 17. Such an outcome was a giant blow for the members of Targowica Confederation who saw their actions as a defence of centuries-old privileges of the magnates, but now were regarded by the majority of the Polish population as traitors. After the partition Poland became a small country of roughly 200,000 square kilometres and a population of approximately 4 million. The economy was ruined and the support for the cause of an uprising grew significantly, especially since there was no serious opposition to the idea after the Targowica Confederation was discredited.

In June of 1793 Kościuszko prepared a plan of an all-national uprising, mobilisation of all the forces and a war against Russia. The preparations in Poland were slow and he decided to postpone the outbreak. However, the situation in Poland was changing rapidly. The Russian and Prussian governments forced Poland to again disband the majority of her armed forces and the reduced units were to be drafted to the Russian army. Also, in March the tsarist agents discovered the group of the revolutionaries in Warsaw and started arresting notable Polish politicians and military commanders. Kościuszko was forced to execute his plan earlier than planned and on March 15, 1794 he set off for Kraków.

During the Uprising, Kościuszko was made Naczelnik (Commander-in-Chief) of all Polish-Lithuanian forces fighting against Russian occupation, and issued the famous Proclamation of Połaniec. After initial successes following the Battle of Racławice, he was wounded in the Battle of Maciejowice and taken prisoner by the Russians, who imprisoned him in Saint Petersburg - Kościuszko was held at Prince's Orlov Marble Palace. The Uprising ended soon afterwards with the Siege of Warsaw.

In 1796 Paul I of Russia pardoned Kościuszko and set him free. In exchange for his oath of loyalty, Paul I also freed some 20,000 Polish political prisoners still held in Russian prisons and forcibly settled in Siberia. Paul I granted Kościuszko 12000 roubles, which Polish leader later tried to return, but was refused as "money from traitor" in 1798. Kościuszko emigrated to the United States, but the following year he returned to Europe and in 1798 settled in Breville, near Paris. Still devoted to the Polish cause, he took part in creation of the Polish Legions. Also, on October 17 and November 6, 1799, he met with Napoleon Bonaparte. However, he failed to get any credit from French leader, who regarded Kościuszko as "fool", "overestimating his influence" in Poland (letter from Napoleon to Fouche, 1807).

He remained politically active in Polish émigré circles in France and in 1799 was a founding member of the Society of Polish Republicans. However, he did not return to the Duchy of Warsaw and did not join the reborn Polish Army allied with Napoleon. Instead, after the fall of Napoleon's empire in 1815 he met with Russia's Tsar Alexander I in Braunau. In return for his services, Kościuszko demanded for social reforms and territorial gains for Poland - to reach Dvina and Dnieper to the East. Alexander asked him to go to Warsaw; however, soon afterwards, in Vienna, Kościuszko learned that the Kingdom of Poland created by the Tsar would be even smaller than the earlier Duchy of Warsaw. Kościuszko called such an entity "a joke"; and when he received no reply to his letters to the Tsar, he left Vienna and moved to Solothurn, Switzerland, where his friend Franciszek Zeltner was mayor. Suffering from poor health and old wounds, on October 15, 1817, Tadeusz Kościuszko died there of a fall from his horse. Two years before death, Kościuszko freed all his serfs.

In 1818 his ashes were transferred to Kraków and placed in a crypt at Wawel Cathedral, a pantheon of Polish kings and national heroes.

Central Lithuania, 1921, Kosciuszko and Mickiewicz

Guinea Bissau, 1976, Tadeusz Kosciuszko

Lithuania, 2006, Lithuanian history

Poland, 1932, Kosciusko, Washington and Pulusky

Poland, 1938, Kosciuszko, Paine and Washington

Poland, 1938, Kosciuszko, Poniatowski and Dabrovski

Poland, 1944, Tadeusz Kosciuszko

Poland, 1945, Kościuszko Monument in Kraków

Poland, 1945, Kościuszko Monument in Lodz

Poland, 1948, Tadeusz Kosciuszko

Poland, 1954, Tadeusz Kościuszko after the battle of Racławice