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."--Amazon.com.