Born in Poland, February 12, 1746; died in Switzerland, in 1817.
A member of an ancient and noble family belonging to Lithuanian Poland.
Being disappointed in love, he left his native country in 1775, for
America, offering his services to Washington as a volunteer. During
the War of Independence he became the intimate friend of Lafayette.
He served with great distinction throughout the long campaign, and,
on the conclusion of peace in 1783, was awarded a considerable share
in those pecuniary gifts decreed by Congress for those who aided the
cause of Freedom; he received the rank of Brigadier-General, and the
order of Cincinnatus. He returned to Poland, and proceeded to take a
considerable and active part in the politics of his native country.
When, after the first treaty of partition, the Russians occupied
Poland under various pretexts, Kosciuzko acted successfully as
General-in-Chief of the Polish Army and repulsed the enemy; but the
pusillanimous King Stanislaus commanded his troops to lay down their
arms. The Russians entered Warsaw in 1792, and from that moment the
independence of Poland virtually terminated.
Kosciuzko headed an insurrection against the Russians in 1794, and
after many successes was defeated, seriously wounded and taken prisoner
at the battle of Maciejovice, while Warsaw and Praga were brutally
sacked by Suwaroff. The patriot Pole was thrown into a dungeon, where
he remained until the death of Catherine II. in 1796.
Paul I. reversed his mother’s policy and released Kosciuzko, who
proceeded first to France and then to England. In both countries he
was received with the greatest honour and respect; the former granted
him the title of CITOYEN FRANÇAIS. Napoleon, as First Consul,
favoured the Polish general, and employed him in hopes of obtaining
redress for his country’s wrong; the latter was ready to serve and
did serve either Napoleon or Alexander I., but his hopes were always
frustrated, and after the peace of 1815, when the Duchy of Warsaw was
finally united to the Russian Empire, he retired into voluntary exile
and died at Solenme in Switzerland in 1817. His body was eventually
removed to Cracow in Austrian Poland, and his coffin placed in the
cathedral of that city between those of John Sobieski and Joseph
Poniotowski.