biography
| name: |
Kościuszko or Kościusko, Thaddeusz (Andrzej) Bonawentura
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pronunciation:
[koshchooshkoh]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1746–1817)
|
| biography:
| Polish general and patriot, born near Slonim, SW Belarus (formerly Lithuania). Although a captain in the Polish army, he volunteered his services to Benjamin Franklin during the American Revolution, arrived in Philadelphia in 1776, and was commissioned a colonel in the engineers. He made major contributions at Saratoga, Hudson River, and in the Carolinas campaign, and was promoted brigadier-general in 1783. He then returned to Poland (1784), and achieved fame for his defence of Dubienka against a superior force of Russians (1792), and in 1794 became head of the national movement. His defeat of the Russians at Raclawice was followed by a rising in Warsaw. He established a provisional government, but was defeated at Maciejowice (1794) and taken prisoner until 1796. In 1816 he settled in Soleure, Switzerland. His will directed that the 500 acres in Ohio granted him by the US Congress (1797) be sold and the money used to free slaves; instead it was used to found the Colored School of Newark, NJ, one of the earliest schools for African-Americans in the USA. |
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