Tadeusz Kościuszko: Fortifier of the Revolution

 

Without the help of immigrants, America would not have won the Revolution. Marquis de Lafayette, Baron von Steuben, and Casimir Pulaski made significant contributions that transformed how the Continental Army performed and functioned.  But wars are not just won on the battlefield. Planning, engineering, and strategy are instrumental to military success.  And during the revolution there was no greater military engineer and strategist then Tadeusz Kościuszko. A defender of the people and a true believer in liberty, Kościuszko used his skills, position, and means to encourage revolution wherever he saw injustice.

Kościuszko was born in 1746 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, part of modern day Belarus.  A member of Polish nobility, he decided on a military career, and at the age of twenty entered the new Corp. of Cadets established by King Stanisław August Poniatowski. In 1768, civil war broke out in Poland.  This would be the first of many military conflicts that Kościuszko would encounter throughout his life. However, before having to take up arms against his fellow countrymen, he was awarded a royal scholarship and headed to Paris to further his education.

France had a long history of training successful military officers and Kościuszko hoped to expand his military knowledge while in Paris.  However, because he was a foreigner he was banned from enrolling in any of the French military academies.  This did not dissuade him. He enrolled in the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. While there he honed his drawing and design skills and took private classes in architecture. He also continued his military education. He audited military lectures for five years and spent countless hours in the libraries of France’s finest military academies.  It was there that he became a revolutionary thinker.  He developed a deep understanding of human rights and the relationships that governments should have with their citizens.  After returning home in 1774 and seeing what war had done to his country and his people, Kościuszko was hungry for a revolution. And there just happened to be one happening on the other side of the Atlantic.

Late in August 1776, Kościuszko stepped off a ship and onto the docks in Philadelphia. Having no letters of introduction, he sought out the most famous of Philadelphians, Benjamin Franklin. After offering to enlist in the army, a curious Franklin questioned Kościuszko on his education and knowledge.  To prove himself, Kościuszko offered to take a placement exam in engineering and military architecture. Franklin’s answer revealed the inexperience of the Continental Army. He is reported as saying, “Who would proctor such an exam, when there is no one here who is even familiar with those subjects?” A few days later, with Franklin’s recommendation, Kościuszko was in front of the Continental Congress.  He was assigned to the Army the next day.

Once he was “officially” recognized, Kościuszko got to work.  Recruited by Franklin, his first job was building fortifications along the Delaware River.  This was to protect Philadelphia, and to keep the British from using the river to advance their troops. In October, Congress commissioned him a Colonel of Engineers in the Continental Army. By the fall of 1777, he was attached to the Northern Army under the command of Gen. Horatio Gates, and was tasked with surveying the countryside between the two armies, finding the most defensible position, and fortifying it. Kościuszko found just the spot above the hills of Saratoga, New York overlooking the Hudson River. He then created a series of fortification and blockades that were virtually impregnable.

When British General Burgoyne’s troops arrived in September, they couldn’t penetrate Kosciuszko’s defenses. So, they tried to go through the woods.  This move was anticipated by the Continental Army.  Virginia riflemen fired upon them, and soldiers commanded by Benedict Arnold aggressively charged, killing and wounding 600 redcoats. Two weeks later, Burgoyne tried to attack even farther west, but they were beaten again.

Burgoyne’s surrender at the Battle of Saratoga is often referred to as the turning point of the war, since it convinced France’s King Louis XVI to enter the war on the American side. Gates wrote of the victory, “The great tacticians of the campaign were hills and forests, which a young Polish Engineer was skilful [sic] enough to select for my encampment.”

In March of 1778 Kościuszko arrived at West Point, New York, and spent more than two years strengthening the fortifications and improving the site’s defenses both on land and from the water. It was during this time that he was appointed chief of the Continental Army engineering corp. His designs and plans for West Point are still considered innovative for the time.

 In the summer of 1780, George Washington allowed him to transfer to combat duty in the south. Kościuszko first reported to his old friend General Gates, however Gates was soon replaced by Major General Nathanael Greene.  Both Gates and Greene recognized his brilliance and Greene put him right to work. During the southern campaign, Kościuszko was placed in command of building batteaus (shallow-draft, flat bottom boats), siting the location for camps, scouting river crossings, fortifying positions, and developing intelligence contacts. He subsequently helped fortify the American bases in North Carolina and took part in several smaller operations before the war was over. He commanded two cavalry squadrons and an infantry unit. His last known battlefield command of the war occurred at James Island, South Carolina.

In 1784, Kościuszko returned to Poland.  But his work as a revolutionary was just beginning. The Polish government was attempting to rebuild after constant domination and interference from Russia.  Since he was on the side of the reformers who wanted independence, Kościuszko was unable to gain a military commission from the monarchy. He spent the next five years living in poverty.

However, Poland began to strengthen its army, and on May 3,1791, partially inspired by the American Revolution, it passed a new constitution. Russia saw this as a direct threat, and on May 18, 1792, a Russian army consisting of 100,000 soldiers invaded Poland.

Kościuszko was called to arms. He used many of the tactics he learned during his service in America to fight off a military force that greatly outnumbered his own. He fought valiantly and retired at the end of the war.  His goal for a free and independent Poland never wavered.

On March 23, 1794, Kościuszko led a revolution to liberate Poland from the Russian and Prussian empires. Aptly named The Kościuszko Uprising, he organized an army of 6,000 Poles and marched on Warsaw to demand action. After defending the city for several months, he was captured and imprisoned by the Russian government. Unfortunately, the uprising ended when Russian soldiers opened fire on 20,000 Polish civilians and insurgents in early November.

After being imprisoned in Russia for two years, Kościuszko returned to America in late 1796. It distressed him to see the country divided by partisan politics. On one side were the Federalists who supported a strong central government and believed that the United States should not get involved in the French Revolution.  On the other side were the Democratic-Republicans, who believed that the states should retain a larger amount of power, supported the revolution in France and thought America should be involved.  Kościuszko sided with the Democratic-Republicans.  He was concerned that a Federalist government resembled the British monarchy and that the citizens of France deserved support in their fight against tyranny. 

During this time Kościuszko formed a close, personal relationship with Thomas Jefferson.  While they were aligned on many ideals, it distressed Kościuszko greatly that his dear friend was an enslaver.  Before returning to Europe in 1798, Kościuszko drafted his will, making Thomas Jefferson the executor. In it he specified that his American assets- $18,912 in back pay and 500 acres of land in Ohio, his reward for his war service, be used by Jefferson to purchase the freedom and provide education for enslaved Africans. He instructed, “my friend Thomas Jefferson” to use assets “in purchasing negroes from among his own as [well as] any others,” “giving them liberty in my name,” and “giving them an education in trades and otherwise.” Unfortunately, Kościuszko’s wishes were never fulfilled.

In late June 1798, Kościuszko returned to Europe one last time.  News of Polish soldiers fighting alongside Napoleon’s army had reached him in America.  He believed that if anyone could help the Poles beat Russia and Prussia, it was France.  However, after meeting Napoleon in the fall of 1799, he knew he was not the right man or leader for the job.  He referred to Napoleon as “the undertaker of the [French] Republic.” During the years in which Napoleon conquered much of Europe, Kościuszko became increasingly removed from politics and moved to the countryside.

When Napoleon’s enemies finally joined forces and brought his conquests to an end in April 1814, European powers decided to rework the tangled borders of the continent at the Congress of Vienna. Russian Czar Alexander desired Kościuszko’s support and invited him to Vienna. Hesitant and cautious, Kościuszko went. Alexander had offered vague promises that he would restore Poland—ultimately, however, Poland was once again torn up into several pieces that were handed out to Russia, Prussia, and Austria. At this point Kościuszko’s realized he would not witness Polish liberty in his lifetime.

In his final years, Kościuszko settled in the Swiss countryside and spent his days in quiet tranquility.  On April 2, 1817, he returned to his family’s old land in Poland and emancipated the remaining serfs on the land. He died later that year.

A man of revolution, Tadeusz Kościuszko was a soldier of the people.  While he was a designer of
military protections and fortifications, he was steadfastly fortified in his commitment to human rights.  Numerous monuments have been erected in his honor, and he is claimed as a National Hero by Poland, the United States, Belarus, and Lithuania. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “He is as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known and of that liberty which is to go to all and not to the few or rich alone.”