Tadeusz Kościuszko Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ( " Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kościuszko " ; ; 1746 – 1817 ) is a national hero in Poland , Lithuania , Belarus , and the United States , who fought in the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth ' s struggles against Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War . He was a close friend and admirer of Thomas Jefferson , with whom he shared Enlightenment ideals of human rights . As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces , he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising . Kościuszko was born in February 1746 in the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth , in a village that is now in Belarus ; his exact birthdate is unknown . He graduated from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw , Poland . After the outbreak of a civil war involving the Bar Confederation in 1768 , Kościuszko moved to France to pursue further studies ( 1769 ) . He returned to Poland in 1774 , two years after the First Partition of Poland , and took a position as tutor in the household of Józef Sylwester Sosnowski . After Kościuszko attempted to elope with his employer ' s daughter and was severely beaten by the father ' s retainers , he returned to France . On learning in France about the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War , in 1776 Kościuszko moved to North America , where he took part in the fighting as a colonel in the Continental Army . An accomplished military architect , he also built state - of - the - art fortifications , perhaps most notably at West Point , New York . In 1783 , in recognition of his services , the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general . After returning to Poland in 1784 , Kościuszko became a major general in the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth Army . In 1794 , two years after the Polish – Russian War of 1792 had resulted in the Second Partition of Poland ( 1793 ) , Kościuszko organized an uprising against Russia ( March 1794 ) , serving as its " Naczelnik " ( Chief ) . Russian forces captured him at the Battle of Maciejowice ( October 1794 ) . The defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising ( November 1794 ) led to the Third Partition of Poland ( 1795 ) , which ended the country ' s independent existence for 123 years until the Second Polish Republic was founded in the wake of World War I , in 1918 . In 1796 , following the death of Russia ' s Tsaritsa Catherine the Great , Kościuszko was pardoned by Tsar Paul I and emigrated to the United States . In 1798 he wrote a will dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of slaves in the US . Its execution proved difficult and the funds were never used for that purpose . Kościuszko eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817 . Early life . Kościuszko was born in February 1746 in the village of Mereczowszczyzna ( now Merechevschina [ Мерачоўшчына ] , Belarus ) , a " folwark " near the town of Kosów Poleski ( now Kosava , Belarus ) . His exact birthdate is unknown ; commonly cited are February 4 and February 12 . The area lay within the Polesie region , then in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , a part of the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth . Kościuszko was the youngest son of a " szlachcic " ( Polish nobleman ) , Ludwik Tadeusz Kościuszko , an officer in the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth Army , and his wife Tekla , " née " Ratomska The Kościuszkos held the Polish " Roch III " coat - of - arms . Tadeusz was baptized by the Roman Catholic church , thereby receiving the names " Andrzej " , " Tadeusz " and " Bonawentura " . His paternal family were ethnically Lithuanian - Ruthenian and traced their ancestry to Konstanty Fiodorowicz Kostiuszko , a courtier of Polish King Sigismund I the Old . Kościuszko ' s maternal family , the Ratomskis , were also Ruthenian . Modern Belarusian writers interpret his Ruthenian or Lithuanian heritage as Belarusian . He once described himself as a " Litvin " , a term that denoted inhabitants , of whatever ethnicity , of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , within the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth . Modern Belarusian writers interpret the word " Litvin " as designating a Belarusian , before the word " Belarusian " had come into use . Kościuszko , however , did not speak the Belarusian language ; his family had become Polonized as early as the 16th century . Like most Polish - Lithuanian nobility of the time , the Kościuszkos spoke Polish and identified with Polish culture . At the time of Tadeusz Kościuszko ' s birth , the family possessed modest landholdings in the Grand Duchy , which were worked by 31 peasant families . In 1755 Kościuszko began attending school in Lubieszów , but never finished due to his family ' s financial straits after his father ' s death in 1758 . In 1765 Poland ' s King Stanisław August Poniatowski established a Corps of Cadets ( " Korpus Kadetów " ) , at what is now Warsaw University , to educate military officers and government officials . Kościuszko enrolled in the Corps on December 18 , 1765 , likely thanks to the backing of the Czartoryskis . The school emphasized military subjects and the liberal arts . Graduating on December 20 , 1766 , Kościuszko was promoted " chorąży " ( lieutenant ) ; he stayed on , as student and instructor , and by 1768 attained the rank of captain . European travels . In 1768 , civil war broke out in the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth , when the Bar Confederation sought to depose King Stanisław August Poniatowski . One of Kościuszko ' s brothers , Józef , fought on the side of the insurgents . Faced with a difficult choice between the rebels and his sponsors — the King and the Czartoryskis , who favored a gradualist approach to shedding Russian domination — Kościuszko chose to leave Poland . In late 1769 he and a colleague , the noted artist Aleksander Orłowski , were granted royal scholarships , and on October 5 they set off for Paris . They wanted to further their military education , but as foreigners they were barred from enrolling in a French military academy , and so they enrolled instead in the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture . There he pursued his desire for drawing and painting and took private lessons in architecture from the noted French architect Perronet . For five years , however , Kościuszko audited lectures at , and frequented the libraries of , the Paris military academies . His exposure to the French Enlightenment , along with the religious tolerance practiced in the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth , strongly influenced his later career . The French economic theory of physiocracy made a particularly strong impression on his thinking . He also developed his artistic skills ; and while his career would take him in a different direction , all his life he continued drawing and painting . In the First Partition of the Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth ( 1772 ) , Russia , Prussia and Austria annexed large swaths of Polish - Lithuanian territory and gained influence over the internal politics of the reduced Poland and Lithuania . When Kościuszko finally returned home in 1774 , he found that his brother Józef had squandered most of the family fortune , and there was no place for him in the Army , as he could not afford to buy an officer ' s commission . He took a position as tutor to the family of the magnate , province governor ( voivode ) and hetman Józef Sylwester Sosnowski and fell in love with the governor ' s daughter Ludwika . Their elopement was thwarted by her father ' s retainers . Kościuszko received a thrashing at their hands — an event that may have led to his later antipathy to class distinctions . In autumn 1775 , to avoid Sosnowski and his retainers , he decided to emigrate . In late 1775 he attempted to join the Saxon army but was turned down and decided to return to Paris . There he learned of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War , in which the British colonies in North America had revolted against the crown and begun their struggle for independence . The first American successes were well - publicized in France , and the French people and government openly supported the revolutionaries ' cause . American Revolutionary War . On learning of the American Revolution , Kościuszko , himself a man of revolutionary aspirations , sympathetic to the American cause and an advocate of human rights , sailed for America in June 1776 along with other foreign officers , likely with the help of a French supporter of the American revolutionaries , Pierre Beaumarchais . On August 30 , 1776 , Kościuszko submitted an application to the United States Congress , and the next day he was assigned to the United States War Department . The north . Kościuszko ' s first task was building fortifications at Fort Billingsport in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , to protect the banks of the Delaware River against a possible British crossing . He initially served as a volunteer in the employ of Benjamin Franklin , but on October 18 , 1776 , Congress commissioned him a colonel of engineers in the Continental Army . In spring 1777 , Kościuszko was attached to the Northern Army under Major General Horatio Gates , arriving at the Canadian border in May 1777 . Subsequently posted to Fort Ticonderoga , he reviewed the defenses of what had been one of the most formidable fortresses in North America . His surveys prompted him to strongly recommend the construction of a battery on Sugar Loaf , overlooking the fort . His prudent recommendation , in which his fellow engineers concurred , was turned down by the garrison commander , Brigadier General Arthur St . Clair . This proved a tactical blunder : when a British army under General John Burgoyne arrived in July 1777 , Burgoyne did exactly what Kościuszko had warned of and had his engineers place artillery on the hill . With the British in complete control of the high ground , the Americans realized their situation was hopeless and abandoned the fortress with hardly a shot fired in the Siege of Ticonderoga . The British advance force nipped hard on the heels of the outnumbered and exhausted Continentals as they fled south . Major General Philip Schuyler , desperate to put distance between his men and their pursuers , ordered Kościuszko to delay the enemy . Kościuszko designed an engineer ' s solution : his men felled trees , dammed streams , and destroyed bridges and causeways . Encumbered by their huge supply train , the British began to bog down , giving the Americans the time needed to safely withdraw across the Hudson River . Gates tapped Kościuszko to survey the country between the opposing armies , choose the most defensible position , and fortify it . Finding just such a position near Saratoga , overlooking the Hudson at Bemis Heights , Kościuszko laid out a superb array of defenses , nearly impregnable from any direction . His judgment and meticulous attention to detail frustrated the British attacks during the Battle of Saratoga , and Gates accepted the surrender of Burgoyne ' s force there on October 16 , 1777 . The dwindling British army had been dealt a sound defeat , turning the tide to an American advantage . Kościuszko ' s work at Saratoga received great praise from Gates , who later told his friend Dr . Benjamin Rush : " [ T ] he great tacticians of the campaign were hills and forests , which a young Polish engineer was skillful enough to select for my encampment . " At some point in 1777 , Kościuszko composed a polonaise and scored it for the harpsichord . Named for him , and with lyrics by Rajnold Suchodolski , it later became popular with Polish patriots during the November 1830 Uprising . Around that time , Kościuszko was assigned a black orderly , Agrippa Hull , whom he would treat as an equal and a friend . In March 1778 Kościuszko arrived at West Point , New York and spent more than two years strengthening the fortifications and improving the stronghold ' s defenses . It was these that the American General Benedict Arnold subsequently attempted to surrender to the British when he turned traitor . Soon after Kościuszko had finished fortifying West Point , in August 1780 , General Washington granted his request to transfer to battle duty with the Southern Army . Kościuszko ' s West Point fortifications would be widely praised as innovative for the time . The south . Traveling south through rural Virginia in October 1780 , Kościuszko reported in North Carolina to his former commander , General Gates . However , following Gates ' disastrous defeat at Camden on August 16 , Congress had selected Washington ' s choice , Major General Nathanael Greene , to replace the disgraced Gates as commander of the Southern Department . When Greene formally assumed command on December 3 , 1780 , he retained Kościuszko as his chief engineer . By then , he had been praised by both Gates and Greene . Over the course of this campaign , Kościuszko was placed in command of building bateaux , siting camps , scouting river crossings , fortifying positions , and developing intelligence contacts . Many of his contributions were instrumental in preventing the destruction of the Southern Army . This was especially so during the famous " Race to the Dan " , when British General Charles Cornwallis chased Greene across of rough back country in January and February 1781 . Thanks largely to a combination of Greene ' s tactics , and Kościuszko ' s bateaux , and accurate scouting of the rivers ahead of the main body , the Continentals safely crossed each river , including the Yadkin and the Dan . Cornwallis , having no boats , and finding no way to cross the swollen Dan , finally gave up the chase and withdrew back into North Carolina . The Continentals regrouped south of Halifax , Virginia , where Kościuszko had earlier , at Greene ' s request , established a fortified depot . During the Race to the Dan , Kościuszko had helped select the site where Greene eventually returned to fight Cornwallis at Guilford Courthouse . Though tactically defeated , the Americans all but destroyed Cornwallis ' army as an effective fighting force and gained a permanent strategic advantage in the South . Thus , when Greene began his reconquest of South Carolina in the spring of 1781 , he summoned Kościuszko to rejoin the main body of the Southern Army . The combined forces of the Continentals and Southern militia gradually forced the British from the back country into the coastal ports during the latter half of 1781 and , on August 16 , Kościuszko participated in the Second Battle of Camden . At Ninety Six , Kościuszko besieged the Star Fort from May 22 to June 18 . During the unsuccessful siege , he suffered his only wound in seven years of service , bayonet ted in the buttocks during an assault by the fort ' s defenders on the approach trench that he was constructing . Kościuszko subsequently helped fortify the American bases in North Carolina . However , throughout the final year of hostilities he was most active in much smaller operations , harassing British foraging parties near Charleston . He had become engaged in these operations after the death of his friend Colonel Laurence , taking over Laurence ' s intelligence network in the area . He commanded two cavalry squadrons and an infantry unit , and his last known battlefield command of the war occurred at James Island , South Carolina , on November 14 , 1782 . In what has been described as the Continental Army ' s final armed action of the war , he was very nearly killed as his small force was routed . A month later , he was among the Continental troops that reoccupied Charleston following the British evacuation of the city . Kościuszko spent the rest of the war there , conducting a fireworks display on April 23 , 1783 , to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Paris earlier that month . Mustering - out . Having not been paid in his seven years of service , in late May 1783 , Kościuszko decided to collect the salary owed to him . That year he was asked by Congress to supervise the fireworks during the July 4 celebrations at Princeton , New Jersey . On October 13 , 1783 , Congress promoted him to brigadier general , but he still had not received his back pay ; many other officers and soldiers were in the same situation . While waiting for his pay , unable even to finance a voyage back to Europe , Kościuszko , like a number of others , lived on money borrowed from the Polish - Jewish banker Haym Solomon . Eventually he would receive a certificate for 12 , 280 dollars , at 6 % , to be paid on January 1 , 1784 , and the right to of land , but only if he chose to settle in the United States . For the winter of 1783 – 84 , his former commanding officer , General Greene , invited Kościuszko to stay at his mansion . He was also inducted into the Society of the Cincinnati . Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth . On July 15 , 1784 , Kościuszko set off , via Paris , for Poland , where he arrived on August 26 . Due to a conflict between his patrons , the Czartoryskis , and King Stanisław August Poniatowski , Kościuszko once again failed to get a commission in the Commonwealth Army . He settled in Siechnowicze ( , now Sehnovichi , Belarus ) . His brother Józef had lost most of the family ' s lands through bad investments , but with the help of his sister Anna , Kościuszko secured part of the lands for himself . He decided to limit his male peasants ' " corvée " ( obligatory service to the lord of the manor ) to two days a week , and completely exempted the female peasants . His estate soon stopped being profitable , and he began going into debt . The situation was not helped by failure of the money promised by the American government — interest on late payment for his seven years ' military service — to materialize . Kościuszko struck up friendships with liberal activists ; Hugo Kołłątaj offered him a position as lecturer at Krakow ' s Jagiellonian University , which Kościuszko declined . Finally the Great Sejm of 1788 – 92 introduced some reforms , including a planned build - up of the army to defend the Commonwealth ' s borders . Kościuszko saw a chance to return to military service and spent some time in Warsaw , among those who engaged in the political debates outside the Great Sejm . He wrote a proposal to create a militia force , on the American model . As political pressure grew to build up the army , and Kościuszko ' s political allies gained influence with the King , Kościuszko again applied for a commission , and on October 12 , 1789 , received a royal commission as a general . He began receiving the high salary of 12 , 000 " złoty ch " a year , ending his financial difficulties . He asked for a transfer to the Lithuanian army but was instead assigned to a unit in the west , in Greater Poland . On February 1 , 1790 , he reported for duty in Włocławek , and in mid - March he was given a command . Around summer , he commanded some infantry and cavalry units in the region between the Bug and Vistula Rivers . In August 1790 he was posted to Volhynia , stationed near Starokostiantyniv and Międzyborze . Prince Józef Poniatowski , who happened to be the King ' s nephew , recognized Kościuszko ' s superior experience and made him his second - in - command . Meanwhile Kościuszko became more closely involved with the political reformers , befriending Hugo Kołłątaj , Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and others . Kościuszko argued that the peasants and Jews should receive full citizenship status , as this would motivate them to help defend Poland in the event of war . The political reformers centered in the Patriotic Party scored a major victory with the adoption of the Constitution of May 3 , 1791 . Kościuszko saw the Constitution as a step in the right direction , but was disappointed that it retained monarchy and did little to improve the situation of the most underprivileged , the peasants and the Jews . The Commonwealth ' s neighbors saw the Constitution ' s reforms as a threat to their influence over Polish internal affairs . A year after the Constitution ' s adoption , on May 14 , 1792 , reactionary magnates formed the Targowica Confederation , which asked Russia ' s Tsaritsa Catherine II for help in overthrowing the Constitution . Four days later , on May 18 , 1792 , a 100 , 000 - man Russian army crossed the Polish border , headed for Warsaw , beginning the Polish – Russian War of 1792 . Defense of the Constitution . The Russians had a 3 : 1 advantage in strength , with some 98 , 000 men against 37 , 000 Poles ; they also had an advantage in combat experience . Before the Russians invaded , Kościuszko had been appointed deputy commander of Prince Józef Poniatowski ' s infantry division , stationed in Polish West Ukraine . When the Prince had become Commander - in - Chief of the entire Polish ( Crown ) Army on May 3 , 1792 , Kościuszko had been given command of a division near Kiev . The Russians attacked on a wide front with three armies . Kościuszko proposed that the entire Polish army be concentrated and engage one of the Russian armies , in order to assure numerical parity and boost the morale of the mostly inexperienced Polish forces with a quick victory ; but Poniatowski rejected this plan . On May 22 , 1792 , the Russian forces crossed the border in Ukraine , where Kościuszko and Poniatowski were stationed . The Crown Army was judged too weak to oppose the four enemy columns advancing into West Ukraine , and began a fighting withdrawal to the western side of the Southern Bug River , with Kościuszko commanding the rear guard . On June 18 , Poniatowski won the Battle of Zieleńce ; Kościuszko ' s division , on detached rear - guard duty , did not take part in the battle and rejoined the main army only at nightfall ; nonetheless , his diligent protection of the main army ' s rear and flanks won him the newly created " Virtuti Militari " , to this day Poland ' s highest military decoration . ( Storożyński , however , states that Kościuszko received the Virtuti Militari for his later , July 18 victory at Dubienka . ) The Polish withdrawal continued , and on July 7 Kościuszko ' s forces fought a delaying battle against the Russians at Volodymyr - Volynskyi ( the Battle of Włodzimierz ) . On reaching the northern Bug River , the Polish Army was split into three divisions to hold the river defensive line — weakening the Poles ' point numerical superiority , against Kościuszko ' s counsel of a single strong , concentrated army group . Kościuszko ' s force was assigned to protect the front ' s southern flank , touching up to the Austrian border . At the Battle of Dubienka ( July 18 , 1792 ) Kościuszko repulsed a numerically superior enemy , skilfully using terrain obstacles and field fortifications , and came to be regarded as one of Poland ' s most brilliant military commanders of the age . With some 5 , 300 men , he defeated 25 , 000 Russians attacking under General Michail Kachovski . Despite the tactical victory , Kościuszko had to retreat from Dubienka , as the Russians crossed the nearby Austrian border and began flanking his positions . After the battle , King Stanisław August Poniatowski promoted Kościuszko to lieutenant - general and awarded him the Order of the White Eagle . News of Kościuszko ' s victory spread over Europe , and on August 26 he received the honorary citizenship of France from the Legislative Assembly of revolutionary France . While Kościuszko considered the war ' s outcome to still be unsettled , the King requested a ceasefire . On July 24 , 1792 , before Kościuszko had received his promotion to lieutenant - general , the King shocked the army by announcing his accession to the Targowica Confederation and ordering the Polish - Lithuanian armies to cease hostilities against the Russians . Kościuszko considered abducting the King ( as the Bar Confederates had done two decades earlier , in 1771 ) but was dissuaded by Prince Józef Poniatowski . On August 30 Kościuszko resigned his army position and briefly returned to Warsaw , where he received his promotion and pay , but refused the King ' s request that he remain in the Army . Around that time , he also fell ill with jaundice . Émigré . The King ' s capitulation was a hard blow for Kościuszko , who had not lost a single battle in the campaign . By mid - September 1792 he was resigned to leaving the country , and in early October he departed Warsaw . First he went east , to the Czartoryski family manor at Sieniawa , which gathered various malcontents . In mid - November he spent two weeks in Lwów ( in Ukrainian , " Lviv " ; in German , " Lemberg " ) , where he was welcomed by the populace ; since the war ' s end , his presence had drawn crowds eager to see the famed commander . Izabela Czartoryska discussed having him marry her daughter Zofia . The Russians planned to arrest him if he returned to territory under their control ; the Austrians , who held Lwów , offered him a commission in the Austrian Army , which he turned down . Subsequently they planned to deport him , but he left Lwów before they could do so . At the turn of the month , he stopped in Zamość at the Zamoyskis ' estate , met Stanisław Staszic , then went on to Puławy . He did not tarry long there either : on December 12 – 13 , he was in Kraków ; on December 17 , in Wrocław ; and shortly after , he left Polish soil and settled in Leipzig , where many notable Polish soldiers and politicians formed an émigré community . Soon he and some others began plotting an uprising against Russian rule in Poland . The politicians , grouped around Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj , sought contacts with similar opposition groups in Poland and by spring 1793 had been joined by other politicians and revolutionaries , including Ignacy Działyński . While Kołłątaj and others had begun planning an uprising before Kościuszko joined them , his support was a major boon to them , as he was among the most popular individuals in Poland . After two weeks in Leipzig , before the second week of January 1793 , Kościuszko set off for Paris , where he tried to gain French support for the planned uprising in Poland . He stayed there until summer , but despite the growing revolutionary influence there , the French paid only lip service to the Polish cause , and refused to commit themselves to anything concrete . Kościuszko concluded that the French authorities were not interested in Poland beyond what use it could have for their own cause , and he was increasingly disappointed in the pettiness of the French Revolution — the infighting among different factions , and the growing reign of terror . On January 23 , 1793 , Prussia and Russia signed the Second Partition of Poland . The Grodno Sejm , convened under duress in June , ratified the partition and was also forced to rescind the Constitution of May 3 , 1791 . With the second partition , Poland became a small country of roughly and a population of some 4 million . This came as a shock to the Targowica Confederates , who had seen themselves as defenders of centuries - old privileges of the magnates , but had hardly expected that their appeal for help to the Tsarina of Russia would further reduce and weaken their country . In August 1793 Kościuszko , though worried that an uprising would have little chance against the three partitioning powers , returned to Leipzig , where he was met with demands to start planning one as soon as possible . In September he clandestinely crossed the Polish border to conduct personal observations and meet with sympathetic high - ranking officers in the residual Polish Army , including General Józef Wodzicki . The preparations went slowly , and he left for Italy , planning to return in February 1794 . However , the situation in Poland was changing rapidly . The Russian and Prussian governments forced Poland to again disband most of her army , and the reduced units were to be incorporated into the Russian Army . In March , Tsarist agents discovered the revolutionaries in Warsaw and began arresting notable Polish politicians and military commanders . Kościuszko was forced to execute his plan earlier than he had intended and , on March 15 , 1794 , set off for Kraków . Kościuszko Uprising . Learning that the Russian garrison had departed Kraków , Kościuszko entered the city on the night of March 23 , 1794 . The next morning , at the Main Square , he announced an uprising . Kościuszko received the title of " Naczelnik " ( Commander - in - Chief ) of Polish - Lithuanian forces fighting against the Russian occupation . He proceeded to mobilize the populace , intending to raise sufficient numbers of volunteers to counteract the larger and more professional Russian Army . He also hoped that neither Austria nor Prussia would intervene , and so discouraged insurgent activity in the Austrian and Prussian Partition s . Kościuszko gathered an army of some 6 , 000 , including 4 , 000 regular soldiers and 2 , 000 recruits , and marched on Warsaw . The Russians succeeded in organizing an army to oppose him more quickly than he had expected , but he scored a victory at Racławice on April 4 , 1793 , where he turned the tide by personally leading an infantry charge of peasant volunteers ( " kosynierzy " , scythemen ) . Nonetheless , this Russian defeat was not strategically significant , and the Russian forces quickly forced Kościuszko to retreat toward Kraków . Near Połaniec he received reinforcements and met with other Uprising leaders ( Kołłątaj , Potocki ) ; at Połaniec he issued a major political declaration of the Uprising , the Proclamation of Połaniec . The declaration stated that serfs were entitled to civil rights and reduced their work obligations ( corvée ) . Meanwhile the Russians set a bounty for Kościuszko ' s capture , " dead or alive " . By June , the Prussians had begun actively aiding the Russians , and on June 6 , 1793 , Kościuszko fought a defensive battle against a Prussian - Russian force at Szczekociny . From late June , for several weeks , he defended Warsaw , controlled by the insurgents . On June 28 , a mob of insurgents in Warsaw captured and hanged Bishop Ignacy Massalski and six others . Kościuszko issued a public reproach , writing " What happened in Warsaw yesterday filled my heart with bitterness and sorrow , " and urging , successfully , that rule of law be followed . By the morning of September 6 , the Prussian forces having been withdrawn to suppress an uprising underway in Greater Poland , the siege of Warsaw was lifted . On October 10 , during a sortie against a new Russian attack , Kościuszko was wounded and captured at Maciejowice . He was imprisoned by the Russians at Saint Petersburg in the Peter and Paul Fortress . Soon afterward , the Uprising ended with the Battle of Praga , where ( according to a contemporary Russian witness ) the Russians troops massacred 20 , 000 Warsaw residents . The subsequent Third Partition of Poland ended the existence of the sovereign Polish state for the next 123 years . Later life . The death of Tsarina Catherine the Great on November 17 , 1796 , led to a change in Russia ' s policies toward Poland . On November 28 Tsar Paul I , who had hated Catherine , pardoned Kościuszko and set him free , after he had tendered an oath of loyalty . Paul promised to free all Polish political prisoners held in Russian prisons and forcibly settled in Siberia . The Tsar gave Kościuszko 12 , 000 rubles , which the Pole later , in 1798 , attempted to return , when also renouncing the oath . Kościuszko left for the United States , via Stockholm , Sweden , and London , departing from Bristol on June 17 , 1797 , and arriving in Philadelphia on August 18 . Though welcomed by the populace , he was viewed with suspicion by the American government , controlled by the Federalists , who disliked Kościuszko for his previous association with the Democratic - Republican Party . In March 1798 Kościuszko received a bundle of letters from Europe . The news in one of them came as a shock to him , causing him , in his crippled condition , to spring from his couch and limp unassisted to the middle of the room and exclaim to General Anthony Walton White , " I must return at once to Europe ! " He immediately consulted Thomas Jefferson , who procured him a passport under a false name and arranged for his secret departure for France . Kościuszko left no word for either his former comrade - in - arms and fellow St . Petersburg prisoner Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz or for his servant , only leaving some money for them . Before departing for France , he wrote a last will leaving his American estate for the manumission and education of American black slaves . Disposition of American estate . In 1798 , before Kościuszko had left the United States for France , he had collected his back pay , written out a will , and entrusted it to Jefferson as executor . Kościuszko and Jefferson had become firm friends in 1797 and corresponded for twenty years in a spirit of mutual admiration . Jefferson wrote that " He is as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known . " In the will , Kościuszko left his American estate to be sold to buy the freedom of black slaves , including Jefferson ' s own , and to educate them for independent life and work . Several years after Kościuszko ' s death , Jefferson , aged 77 , pleaded inability to act as executor due to age and the numerous legal complexities of the bequest . Jefferson recommended his friend John Hartwell Cocke , who also opposed slavery , as executor , but Cocke likewise declined to execute the bequest . The case of Kościuszko ' s American estate went three times to the U . S . Supreme Court . He had made four wills , three of which postdated the American one . None of the money that Kościuszko had earmarked for the manumission and education of African Americans in the United States was ever used for that purpose . Return to Europe . He arrived in Bayonne , France , on June 28 , 1798 . Kościuszko remained politically active in Polish émigré circles in France , on August 7 , 1799 , joining the Society of Polish Republicans ( " Towarzystwo Republikanów Polskich " ) . He refused , however , the offered command of Polish Legions being formed for service with France . On October 17 and November 6 , 1799 , he met with Napoleon Bonaparte ; however , he failed to reach an agreement with the French leader , who regarded Kościuszko a " fool " who " overestimated his influence " in Poland . Kościuszko , for his part , disliked Napoleon for his dictatorial aspirations and called him the " undertaker of the [ French ] Republic " . In 1801 Kościuszko settled in Breville , near Paris , distancing himself from politics . Kościuszko did not believe that Napoleon would restore Poland in any durable form . When Napoleon ' s forces approached the borders of Poland , Kościuszko wrote him a letter , demanding guarantees of parliamentary democracy and substantial national borders , which Napoleon ignored . Kościuszko concluded that Napoleon had created the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 only as an expedient , not because he supported Polish sovereignty . Consequently Kościuszko did not move to the Duchy of Warsaw or join the new Army of the Duchy , allied with Napoleon . Instead , after the fall of Napoleon , he met with Russia ' s Tsar Alexander I , in Paris and then in Braunau , Switzerland . The Tsar hoped that Kościuszko could be convinced to return to Poland , where the Tsar planned to create a new , Russian - allied Polish state ( the Congress Kingdom ) . In return for his prospective services , Kościuszko demanded social reforms and restoration of territory , which he wished to reach the Dvina and Dnieper Rivers in the east . However , soon afterwards , in Vienna , Kościuszko learned that the Kingdom of Poland created by the Tsar would be even smaller than the earlier Duchy of Warsaw . Kościuszko called such an entity " a joke " . When he received no reply to his letters to the Tsar , he left Vienna and moved to Solothurn , Switzerland . On April 2 , 1817 , Kościuszko emancipated the peasants in his remaining lands in Poland , but Tsar Alexander disallowed it . Suffering from poor health and old wounds , on October 15 , 1817 , Kościuszko died there after falling from a horse , getting a fever , and suffering a stroke a few days later , at the age of 71 . Funerals . Kościuszko ' s first funeral was held on October 19 , 1817 , at a formerly Jesuit church in Solothurn . As news of his death spread , masses and memorial services were held in partitioned Poland . His embalmed body was deposited in a crypt of the Solothurn church . The viscera , which had been removed during embalming , were separately interred in a graveyard at Zuchwil , near Solothurn , except for the heart , for which an urn was fashioned . In 1818 , Kościuszko ' s body was transferred to Kraków , arriving at St . Florian ' s Church on April 11 , 1818 . On June 22 , 1818 , or June 23 , 1819 ( accounts vary ) , to the tolling of the Sigismund Bell and the firing of cannon , it was placed in a crypt at Wawel Cathedral , a pantheon of Polish kings and national heroes . Kościuszko ' s heart , which had been kept at the Polish Museum in Rapperswil , Switzerland , was in 1927 , along with the rest of the Museum ' s holdings , repatriated to Warsaw , where the heart now reposes in a chapel at the Royal Castle . Memorials and tributes . The Polish historian states in the 1967 " Polish Biographical Dictionary " that Kościuszko may be Poland ' s and the world ' s most popular Pole ever . There are monuments to him around the world , beginning with the Kościuszko Mound at Kraków , erected in 1820 – 23 by men , women , and children bringing earth from the battlefields where he had fought . The Thaddeus Kosciusko Bridge , a twin bridge structure completed in 1959 which spans the Mohawk River in Albany , New York , and the Kosciuszko Bridge , built in 1939 in New York City , were named in Kosciuszko ' s honor . Kościuszko ' s 1796 Philadelphia residence is now the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial , America ' s smallest national park or unit of the National Park System . There is a Kościuszko Museum at his last residence , in Solothurn , Switzerland . A Polish - American cultural agency , the Kosciuszko Foundation , headquartered in New York City , was created in 1925 . A series of Polish Air Force units have borne the name " Kościuszko Squadron " . During World War II a Polish Navy ship bore his name , as did the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division . One of the first examples of a historical novel , " Thaddeus of Warsaw " was written in his honor by the Scottish author Jane Porter ; it proved very popular , particularly in the United States , and went through over eighty editions in the 19th century . An opera , " Kościuszko nad Sekwaną " ( Kościuszko at the Seine ) , written in the early 1820s , featured music by Franciszek Salezy Dutkiewicz and libretto by Konstanty Majeranowski . Later works have included dramas by Apollo Korzeniowski , Justyn Hoszowski and Władysław Ludwik Anczyc ; three novels by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski , one by Walery Przyborowski , one by Władysław Stanisław Reymont ; and works by Maria Konopnicka . Kościuszko also appears in non - Polish literature , including a sonnet by Samuel Taylor Coleridge , another by James Henry Leigh Hunt , poems by John Keats and Walter Savage Landor , and a work by Karl Eduard von Holtei . In 1933 the U . S . Post office issued a commemorative stamp honoring Kosciuszko that depicts an engraving of his statue that stands in Washington D . C . ' s Lafayette Square , near the White House . The stamp was issued on the 150th anniversary of Kosciusko ' s naturalization as an American citizen . Poland has also issued several stamps in his honor . There are statues of Kosciuszko in Poland at Kraków ( by Leonard Marconi ) and Łódź ( by Mieczysław Lubelski ) ; in the United States at Boston , West Point , Philadelphia ( by Marian Konieczny ) , Detroit ( a copy of Marconi ' s Kraków statue ) , Washington , D . C . , Chicago , Milwaukee and Cleveland ; and in Switzerland at Solothurn . Kościuszko has been the subject of paintings by Richard Cosway , Franciszek Smuglewicz , Michał Stachowicz , Juliusz Kossak and Jan Matejko . A monumental " Racławice Panorama " was painted by Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak for the centenary of the 1794 Battle of Racławice . A commemorative monument was built in Minsk , Belarus in 2005 . Kościuszko has been the subject of many written works . The first biography of him was published in 1820 by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz , who served beside Kosciuszko as his aide - de - camp and was also imprisoned in Russia after the uprising . English - language biographies have included Monica Mary Gardner , " Kościuszko : A Biography " , 1920 , and Alex Storozynski , " The Peasant Prince : Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution " , St . Martin ' s Press , 2009 .