More of this Feature • 1: Introduction • 3: Road to Saratoga • 4: West Point & Victory • 5: Peace, War & Exile • 6: Rebellion & Raclawice • 7: Warsaw & Defeat • 8: Final Years • 9: Timeline Elsewhere On The Web • A Military Legend

Kosciuszko's family was an impoverished member of the minor nobility, and while they escaped the serfdom that constrained so much of the Commonwealth, Tadeusz needed to find a career. After a classical education at a local, church led, school, Kosciuszko decided on the army, entering the newly established Polish Military Academy in 1765. He soon became a lieutenant and an instructor, before his evident skills won him promotion to Captain of Artillery; a scholarship to study in France from the Polish King, Stanislas Poniatowski, soon followed. In France, Kosciuszko continued to learn engineering, military strategy, architecture and art - a skill which was to endear him to his fellows - as well as the new liberal philosophies and ideas about government. In this period he also visited Italy, Germany and Britain.

Kosciuszko returned to Poland in 1774, but he remained there for less than two years. While many narratives hurry past this homecoming, highlighting Kosciuszko's undoubted desire to fight in the American struggle for independence, it is important to remember that several factors pushed the young captain away from Poland. In 1772 Prussia, Austria and Russia had partitioned Poland, seizing around 30% of its territory and forcing governmental changes through bribes, threats and arrests. There was no place in the Polish Army for Kosciuszko, and he began to tutor Ludwika Sosnowski, the daughter of a General. Some sort of affair followed, possibly involving a failed attempt to elope, and Tadeusz was forced to leave in 1775. He fled to France where, at some point in late 1775 or the first half of 1776, he heard about the American rebellion against the British. Kosciuszko left during the summer of 1776, perhaps in response to the colonists declaration of independence, and by the 18th of October he was a colonel in the Continental Army.

Next page > The Road to Saratoga > Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

For Citation And Footnotes
Title: Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817)
Author: Robert Wilde
Date: 2001