Tadeusz Kosciuszko

Tadeusz Kościuszko (born February 4, 1746 in the village of Mereszowszczyzna, Lithuania, Poland; died October 15, 1817, Solothurn, Switzerland) was a Polish general and a leader of that nation's uprising against Russia in 1794. He fought in the American Revolution on the side of Washington, for which he was awarded by the United States Congress the rank of Brigadier-General.

Kosciuszko was born into an upper-middle-class aristocratic family. After finishing his military studies in Warsaw, he studied military engineering in France. After earning the rank of general, he took part in the American Revolutionary War. He was in charge of military engineering works at West Point, and also made significant contributions to the American victory at Saratoga in 1777.

In 1793 in Poland he participated in the failed defence of Poland against Russian invasion. With the invasion successful, resulting in the second partition of Poland, he fled to Germany, but returned in 1795 to lead a failed rebellion against Russian rule. He was captured by the Russians, who then pardoned and released him. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Switzerland, refusing to serve as Napoleon's puppet at the head of the government of the Principality of Warsaw.

The Polish explorer Count Paul Strzelecki named Mount Kosciuszko, in Australia, for him. He is also the namesake of Kosciusko, Mississippi, Kosciusko County in Indiana, and the Kosciusko Bridge in New York State (just north of Albany).

External links

• About.com feature on Tadeusz Kosciuszko