Immigrant Patriots of the American Revolution

Tadeusz Kościuszko

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we are featuring foreign-born patriots of the American cause.  Today, we honor General Tadeusz Kościuszko.

In February 1746, Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was born as the youngest son to a noble family in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now part of Belarus. As a young man, he attended the Piarist college in Lubieszów and the Court of Cadets military academy in Warsaw. Later, he went on to Paris to study military and civil architecture and painting.

In 1776, Kościuszko moved to North America and joined the Continental Army as it took to arms against the British. Notably, he participated in the fortification of the Continental Congress residence in Philadelphia. Later, he served under General Horatio Gates at Fort Ticonderoga, using his expertise to fortify the roads along the Hudson River and then to fortify West Point.

In 1780, he was promoted to chief of the engineering corps. Later that year, we went on to North Carolina to serve under General Nathanial Greene. He participated in the 28-day siege of the British outpost at Ninety-Six in South Carolina and then the blockade of Charleston.

In 1783, the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general and awarded him citizenship.

After the American Revolution, he moved back to his homeland, where he led the defense of Poland against Russian and Prussian occupation. At the Battle of Maciejowice, a wounded Kościuszko was taken prisoner and shipped off to prison in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

He was released in 1796 and returned to Philadelphia the next year while recuperating from illness. In 1798, he returned to France to try to rally Napoleon’s government to free Poland from Russia’s grip.

He never made it back to Poland while he lived. After his death on October 15, 1817, Kościuszko’s remains were brought to Kraków and ultimately reinterred in the Wawel Cathedral, which was reserved for Polish royalty and national heroes.

Here are other immigrant patriots:

• Pierre L’Enfant, a military engineer & architect, was largely responsible for the design of Washington, D.C., and was originally from France