January 1, 2000TADEUSZ KOSCIUSZKO
1746 - 1817
The house at 3rd and Pine Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has a marker which reads, "Tadeusz Kosciuszko - after serving as a military engineer during the American Revolution, later leading an uprising in his native Poland, resided in this house."
A monument in Washington, D.C. is inscribed with these words, "Freedom shrieked when Kosciuszko fell."
Only France's Marquis de Lafayette is more prominent in history than the great Polish patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Yet Kosciusko, Mississippi is the only municipality in the United States named for this great warrior and statesman.
His name in Polish is Tadeusz Kosciuszko, pronounced Tad-da'-us Kos-choos'ko. (The slow, Southern Talking Mississippians call the town honoring his name Kosy-es'ko.) He was born of minor nobility February 12, 1746, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and was the son of the sword bearer of the Brzesc. As a youth, Kosciuszko attended the Warsaw Cadet School and rounded out his military education with seven years of study in Germany, Italy and France. He was commissioned captain, in charge of fortifications, in Poland. In 1776 after the first partition of Poland, he was in Paris where he heard the news of the revolt of Britain's North American colonies. Wildly excited, he went to America and volunteered his services. He was the first of a galaxy of foreign officers to receive a commission from the Continental Congress to serve in General Washington's army. Kosciuszko's skill as an engineer in charge of fortifications was instrumental in earning him the rank of brigadier bestowed upon him by congress in 1783.
Kosciuszko served in the South in the latter part of the American Revolution. In this period, he became acquainted with the institution of Negro slavery and acquired a burning hatred for it. In his will, he left money to Thomas Jefferson for "the purchase and liberation of Negro slaves" .. a task Jefferson, to his great regret, was unable to carry out.
Kosciuszko returned to his native Poland after the American Revolution to enter into a combined military and political career of melancholy brilliance. He led his country to an adoption of a new constitution, consequently into an armed uprising against the two big powers Prussia and Russia. Being ignobly wounded and captured, he spent two years in a Russian prison camp and was released on the condition he would never return to Poland. He proceeded forthwith to the United States, recovering his health, and was treated royally wherever he went. Kosciuszko died in 1817 embittered and despairing because of the fate of his native Poland.
He was described by Thomas Jefferson as the "purest son of Liberty": and George Washington commented that "He served America with courage and distinction."
(Information from Kosciusko/Attala Chamber of Commerce)
January 1, 2000
