Hero of Two Nations · 1746–1817

Tadeusz Kościuszko

Architect of liberty. First engineer of West Point, last Naczelnik of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1798 he entrusted Jefferson with the execution of his will, in which he dedicated his American estate to freeing enslaved people. Kościuszko's wish was never fulfilled. This is his story.

Begin Chapter I

Bolesław Jan Czedekowski (1885–1969)

Digital reproduction of the oil portrait from the collection of The Kosciuszko Foundation in New York.

Foundation FWNDK extends its thanks to The Kosciuszko Foundation for kindly granting the use of this reproduction for digital publication on the kosciuszko.world portal.

Pavilion I · Repository

Artifact of the week · from the FWNDK Repository

The engineering of memory

Each week, one artifact from Mission Kościuszko 2026 — a gigapixel image, a 3D model, a 360° panorama, a VR walkthrough, or a historical photograph. Each in full research-grade resolution, presented for study under the closest scrutiny.

Gigapixel HDR · 1+ Gpx

Oil portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko in a general's uniform, anonymous painter, 19th century, private collection.

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Pavilion II · Story

Three of nine chapters

The geography of a single life

Born in Mereczowszczyzna, he died in Solothurn — a veteran of four continental wars, honoured for his service to three states: the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the United States, and Switzerland. Each chapter is one station on that road.

III1776–1778 · Saratoga

Saratoga

Philadelphia, Bemis Heights, the capitulation of Burgoyne. The turning point.

Read the chapter V1784–1794 · Poland

The Uprising

Four-Year Sejm, the Krakow oath, Racławice, Maciejowice.

Read the chapter IX1818–2026 · Three continents

Legacy

Wawel, Kopiec (Mound), Lafayette Square, Squadron 303, Mission Kościuszko 2026.

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Chronology 1746–1817

Thirty dates that comprised the life of the Naczelnik. From Polesia, through Saratoga, Racławice and the Peter and Paul Fortress — to Solothurn.

4 February 1746
Birth in Polesia

Born into an impoverished noble family in Mereczowszczyzna (in present-day Belarus).
1755–1760
Piarist College

He attends the Piarist school in Lubieszów, where he encounters Enlightenment ideas, ancient models of civic virtue, and the works of antiquity's great commanders.
1765
Knights' School

He enters the newly founded royal Cadet Corps in Warsaw. He distinguishes himself by ambition — asking superiors to wake him at 3 a.m. so he can study more.
1768
Promotion and instructor's work

Outstanding results bring him the rank of captain and a position at the Knights' School as instructor, thereby sparing him participation in the fratricidal Bar Confederation.
1769–1774
Parisian studies, with a workaround

He travels to Paris on a royal stipend. As a foreigner he cannot officially enroll at military academies, so he registers at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and, in private tutorials, secretly absorbs engineering knowledge.
1774–1775
Unhappy love and flight

He returns to Poland but, lacking the funds to purchase a commission, fails to enter the army. He takes employment as a tutor with Hetman Sosnowski. He falls in love with the hetman's daughter, Ludwika. Their attempted elopement ends in failure, with Kościuszko beaten by the hetman's retinue. He has to flee the country.
August 1776
American beginnings in Philadelphia

After a brief stay in France, he arrives in America and presents himself to Congress. His first task is the fortification of the Delaware River and of Philadelphia itself against the British fleet.
Spring 1777
Disregarded warnings at Ticonderoga

Sent north, he advises the fortification of the strategic Sugar Loaf hill above Fort Ticonderoga. The command ignores his counsel. The British take the hill, and the Americans must surrender the fortress in haste.
October 1777
Triumph at Saratoga

He selects and fortifies Bemis Heights. His brilliant system of earthworks blocks the British army's advance, leading to its capitulation. This is the turning point of the American War of Independence.
1778–1780
Building West Point

He oversees the construction of the modern and impregnable fortress of West Point on the Hudson River, which effectively bars all British attempts to split the colonies in two.
1780–1782
Southern campaign

At Gen. Nathanael Greene's request he is dispatched to the American South. He conducts engineering operations in the partisan war, organizes river crossings in flood and commands the siege of Fort Ninety-Six.
1783
Brigadier general and US citizen

Congress promotes him to brigadier general. He receives American citizenship, a grant of land, and membership in the elite Society of the Cincinnati (as one of only three foreigners).
1784–1789
A quiet life at Siechnowicze

He returns to Poland. With no prospects, he settles on the family's debt-ridden estate. Ahead of his time, he voluntarily and drastically reduces the corvée owed by his peasants, to the indignation of the neighboring gentry.
October 1789
A return to the uniform

The Great Sejm legislates an army of 100,000. Kościuszko at last receives the long-desired posting and the rank of major general of the Crown Army.
18 July 1792
The Battle of Dubienka

In the war in defense of the Constitution of May 3, commanding five thousand soldiers and brilliantly anchoring his line on the river and marshes, he repels the attacks of a 25,000-strong Russian corps. He earns European fame.
August 1792
Resignation and honorary French citizenship

When the king joins the Targowica Confederation, Kościuszko resigns in protest. Revolutionary France confers upon him the title of French Citizen for his services to liberty. He departs for Leipzig.
Early 1793
A secret mission in Paris

As an envoy of the Polish émigré community he travels to Paris to ask the Girondins for support for the planned uprising in Poland. The mission ends in failure.
24 March 1794
The Oath on Cracow Main Market Square

He swears the oath to the nation. The Kościuszko Uprising formally begins.
4 April 1794
The Racławice Victory

A brilliant victory in which the decisive moment is the audacious assault of scythe-armed peasants on Russian artillery. The myth of the scytheman becomes the symbol of the uprising.
7 May 1794
The Połaniec Manifesto

A legal act abolishing personal serfdom and guaranteeing peasants security of tenure on the land. As Naczelnik, Kościuszko seeks to join the war of independence with social revolution.
6 June 1794
Defeat at Szczekociny

The Polish army is defeated by the combined and superior Russian and Prussian forces. Among those killed in the battle are the hero of Racławice, Bartosz Głowacki, and Kościuszko's close friend, Józef Wodzicki.
July–September 1794
The defense of Warsaw

Kościuszko's engineering masterwork. Brilliantly designed fortifications and an active defense compel King Frederick William II of Prussia to abandon his weeks-long siege of the capital.
10 October 1794
The tragedy of Maciejowice

The Polish corps is shattered by Gen. Fersen's army. Kościuszko, attempting to organize a counter-attack, is gravely wounded (a saber cut to the head, a pike-thrust through the thigh) and taken prisoner.
November 1794
Prisoner in St. Petersburg

He is brought to Russia's harshest prison — the Peter and Paul Fortress. His physical and mental state deteriorates drastically. In 1795 the Polish state collapses.
November 1796
An oath to save others

Catherine II dies. Her son, Tsar Paul I, agrees to free Kościuszko and 20,000 Polish exiles on one dramatic condition: the Naczelnik must take a humiliating oath of allegiance to Russia. He consents, paying with his own honor for the lives of his fellow countrymen.
1797
Return to the US and an anti-slavery testament

He visits Philadelphia, where he is greeted as a national hero. He befriends Thomas Jefferson. Before secretly returning to Europe he leaves with him a testament: his American estate (land and back pay) is to be used to purchase the freedom and provide for the education of enslaved Black people.
1799–1801
A role in founding the Legions

In Paris he is a patron of the formation of the Polish Legions in Italy, but he publicly criticizes their dependence on France. He distrusts Napoleon and calls him "the gravedigger of the Republic."
Autumn 1806
Rejecting Napoleon's offer

Napoleon asks Kościuszko to come to Poland and summon the nation to arms. Kościuszko sets hard conditions: he demands the pre-partition borders and a constitutional system. When Napoleon refuses guarantees, Kościuszko remains in France.
1815
Disappointment with Tsar Alexander

At the Congress of Vienna he meets Tsar Alexander I. When he learns that the so-called Kingdom of Poland is to encompass only a sliver of the former Commonwealth, he refuses to return to the country and to cooperate in any way with the partitioning power.
15 October 1817
Death in Switzerland

After moving to Solothurn, he lives out his days as a moral authority universally respected throughout Europe. He dies at the age of 71 from complications after a fall from his horse.