Tadeusz Kościuszko

Kościuszko was born to a family of minor Polish-Lithuanian nobility in the village of Mereczowszczyzna, in present-day Belarus.

Kościuszko enrolled in the newly founded Corps of Cadets, where he excelled in military engineering and was retained as an instructor.

On a royal scholarship Kościuszko studied in Paris, absorbing engineering, artillery theory and Enlightenment ideas.

After sailing to America to join the Revolution, Kościuszko was appointed colonel of engineers by the Continental Congress.

Kościuszko's choice and fortification of the ground at Bemis Heights was credited as a major factor in the decisive American victory at Saratoga.

For over two years Kościuszko served as chief engineer of the fortress at West Point on the Hudson River.

Back in the Commonwealth, Kościuszko was commissioned a major general in the Polish army in 1789 and distinguished himself in the 1792 war against Russia, notably at Dubienka.

In Kraków's market square Kościuszko announced a national insurrection against Russia and Prussia, winning an early victory at Racławice with an army that included peasant volunteers.

Kościuszko was severely wounded and taken prisoner by Russian forces at Maciejowice; he was held in Saint Petersburg until pardoned by Tsar Paul I in 1796.

Kościuszko spent his final years in exile and died in Solothurn; his remains were later interred in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.