KOSCIUSZKO, kos-clOUsh'ke). TADEUSZ ( 1746 1817 ). A Polish patriot. He was born February 12. 1746• at Mereezowszczyzna, near Novogrudek, in Lithuania. being descended from an ancient but impoverished Lithuanian family. He received his military education at Warsaw and at the mili tary academy of Versailles, and became a captain in the Polish Army. His love for the daughter of Sosnowski, Marshal of Lithuania, an affection which was subjected him to public humiliation, and in 1776 he left his native country and embarked for America. Letters of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin ob tained for him a colonel's commission, October 18, 1776. and he was attached to General Gates's army operating in northern New York. The ex cellent strategic position taken by the American army at Bemis Heights, near Saratoga, was large ly planned by Kosciuszko. He was engaged as chief engineer in constructing the fortifications at West Point, and became adjutant to General Washington. In 1780-81 he served under General Greene in the South, and after the conclusion of peace received the thanks of Congress with the brevet of brigadier-general, and became a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He returned to Poland in 17S6, and three years later was made major-general in the Polish Army. In the cam paign of 1792, following on the repudiation by Russia of the Constitution of May 3, 1791. and the invasion of Poland, Koseiuszko, as Houten ant-general under Prince Joseph Poniatowski, with 4000 Polish troops, held at bay a Russian army of 18,000 men at Dubienka (July 17), in flicted a loss of 4000 men on the enemy, and ef fected his retreat with a total loss of ninety. Af ter the submission of King Stanislas, which was followed by the second partition of Poland. Koseiuszko took up his residence in Leipzig. When the Poles rose in arms against their foreign oppressors in 1794, he was made Dictator, and on April 4th, with a force of 4000 peasants, mostly armed with scythes, lie defeated au of 6000 Russians, who were marching on Cracow, at ltaclawice. On April 17th the inhabitants of Warsaw rose and expelled the Russian troops. Kos•inszko instituted a provisional government ; but, discouraged by the prevailing anarchy, he soon laid down the dictatorship. marched against the Russians, hut had to encounter a powerful enemy in the Prussians, who advanced to the aid of the Russians. He was defeated at Szczekoczyn, June 6• 1794, and retreated to Warsaw, which he defended successfully against the besieging forces of the enemy. In this hour
of trial Kosciuszko was proof against the most tempting proposals on the part of the Prussian King. In the fall he took the field more with an army of 20,000 regular troops and some 40.000 ill-armed peasants. On October 10th the l'oles were decisively defeated at Maciejowice by an allied army of thrice their strength, and Kos ciuszko, covered with wounds, fell into the hands of the enemy. The words 'Finis Poloubc,' attrib uted to Koseiuszko at this crisis, he himself de nied. Ile was kept a prisoner till after the acces sion of the Emperor Paul, who restored him to liberty in 1796, gave him an estate with 1500 peasants, and handed to him his sword, which Koseiuszko declined to receive, saying, "I have no more need of a sword, as 1 have no longer a country." He afterwards gave up the estate, end sent back from London the money which he had received from the Emperor. Upon the occa sion of a visit to the United States in 1797 he received a pension and a grant of land, but re turned to Europe after the passage of the Alien Act by Congress. He spent the remainder of Lis life chiefly in France. When Napoleon, in 1806, formed a plan for the restoration of Po land, Kosciuszko felt himself restrained from taking an active part in it by his promise to the Emperor Paul. The address to the Poles pub lished in his name in the .1tonitcur was a fabri cation. In 1814 he wrote to the Emperor Alex ander entreating him to grant an amnesty to the Poles in foreign countries, and to make himself constitutional King of Poland. He released from servitude, in 1S17, the peasa on his own estate in Poland. His death took place October 15. 1517, at Solothurn, Switzerland, as a result of a fall from his horse. His remains were removed to Cracow by the Emperor Alexander, and were laid by the side of those of John Sobieski. A cairn built lip of small stones brought together by his admirers stands upon a hill in the suburbs of Cracow. which commands a wide view of the city. the Vistula, and the distant mountains A biography, with collection of doeuments relating to Koseiuszko's career, was published by Kornon at Cracow in 1S94; another Polish publication is that of Ilychlieki, Koseins,:ko and the Partition of Poland (Cracow. 1872). There are biographies in German by Falkenstein (Leipzig, 1831) ; in French by Chodzko (Paris, 1837) ; in Polish by Paszkovski (Cracow, 1872) ; consult also a brief monograph by Arnold, Tadeusz Kosciuszko in der deutsche?' Litteratur (Berlin, 1S98).