Kosciusko, Thaddeus
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
kos-si-us'ko, Thaddeus (1746-1817), a Polish patriot. He was a native of Lithuania. He was well born and was educated in the military school at Warsaw. A disappointment in love affairs caused him to leave his native country. In 1777 he came to America and offered Washington his sword in defense of liberty. The latter was delighted to have the help of an officer educated thoroughly in military science. Kosciusko was made a colonel and later a brigadier-general. By virtue of his skill, bravery, and knowledge of fortifications, he rendered the American cause signal service. At the close of the war Congress gave him a vote of thanks and conferred on him the rank of major-general. Kosciusko then returned to Poland and served in the army of his native country with a rank of lieutenant-general. At the second partition of Poland he withdrew to Leipsic, yet returned in 1794 to take part in the final war with Russia. He was at first victorious, but was later defeated and taken prisoner. He was held by the Russians two years, then set at liberty. He visited England, the United States , and France, being received everywhere with the highest honor. In 1814 he endeavored, without success, to bring about a semi-independence of his native land, desiring the czar to be content with the title, King of Poland. He emancipated the serfs on his paternal estates. While residing in Switzerland he was killed by a fall from his horse. In the following year Alexander, czar of Russia, sought to win the affection of his Polish subjects by a gracious act. The body of their great leader was brought home at imperial expense and buried in the cathedral of Cracow, where a monument has been erected in his memory.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The life Aiton's set down in 1910 is still the life historians tell, though the spelling has settled as Kościuszko and the manner of his death is now told differently: he was thrown from his horse in Switzerland but died at Solothurn on 15 October 1817 of a fever that followed, rather than being "killed by a fall." The great political change came eight years after this account was printed, when Poland — partitioned out of existence in the wars Kościuszko fought — was restored as an independent state in 1918; his tomb in the cathedral at Kraków is now in a national capital's old royal church rather than an Austrian provincial city. Modern American accounts also dwell on something Aiton's leaves out: his will asked Thomas Jefferson, his executor, to spend his American back pay on buying and educating enslaved people, a bequest Jefferson never carried out and which was litigated for decades. His fortifications at West Point and Saratoga remain the standard reason he is remembered in the United States, where schools, a bridge and a Mississippi county carry his name.
Written for this edition, 2026.