Tadeusz Kościuszko

Polish, Lithuanian and American military leader (1746–1817)

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Lived 1746–1817, aged 71

Wikipedia
61 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1746–1817
Aged 71
Awards
6
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

A Polish engineer who built the fortifications at West Point, led a doomed uprising to save his country from partition, and left his American estate to free enslaved people — a will that was never honored.

Biography

About

Born in February 1746 in what is now Belarus, Kościuszko graduated from the Warsaw military academy at twenty and moved to France in 1769 to study after war broke out in the Commonwealth. He sailed to America in 1776 and spent the Revolutionary War as a Continental Army colonel designing fortifications, earning a brigadier general's star in 1783. Back in Poland by 1784, he became a major general in 1789, but the Commonwealth was crumbling: after defeat in the 1792 war with Russia triggered the Second Partition, he commanded the March 1794 uprising as Supreme Commander until his capture at Maci…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Tadeusz Kościuszko

Tadeusz Kościuszko

saidundated

Feeling deeply that servitude is contrary to natural law and prosperity of nations I hereby declare that I abolish it entirely and forever in my estate of Siechnowicze.

Tadeusz Kościuszko

saidundated