User:Sjones23/Tadeusz Kościuszko

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (Belarusian: Тадэвуш Касцюшка, Lithuanian: Tadas Kosciuška) ([taˈdɛuʂ kɔɕˈt͡ɕuʂkɔ] ^ⓘ; February 4 or 12,^[a] 1746 – October 15, 1817) was a Polish (sometimes described as Polish-Lithuanian) and American general. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States. He also the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia as Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Force (Najwyższy Naczelnik Siły Zbrojnej Narodowej).

The youngest son of a Polish military officer, Kościuszko was born in the village of Mereczowszczyzna in what was then part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He graduated from the Corps of Cadets, a military school located in Warsaw. Kościuszko moved to France on the outbreak of a civil war, educating himself as an extern. He returned to Poland in 1774, two years after the First Partition of Poland resulted in the country being annexed by Prussia and Russia, and took a position as a tutor of a provincial governor. Upon learning of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War while in France, Kościuszko moved to the United States in 1776 and participated as a colonel in the Continental Army. While there, he oversaw the construction of the garrisons in West Point, New York. In 1783, in recognition of his dedicated service, he was brevetted by the Continental Congress to the rank of brigadier general, made a naturalized citizen of the United States, and given a land grant.

Kościuszko returned to Poland in 1784 and became a major general of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Army in 1789. He served as one of the Army's commanders on the outbreak of the Polish–Russian War of 1792. However, the war resulted in the Second Partition of Poland. In 1794, Kościuszko announced an uprising and served as Naczelnik of the Polish-Lithuanian forces fighting against the Russians. However, Kościuszko was captured by Russian forces and the Third Partition of Poland resulted in the country being annexed by Russia. In 1796, Kościuszko was pardoned by Tsar Paul I of Russia and emigrated to the United States. In 1798, Kościuszko collected his back pay and entrusted it to his friend Thomas Jefferson in his will, directing him to spend the American money on freeing and educating black slaves, including Jefferson's. Kościuszko eventually returned to Europe, remaining there until his death in 1817. Meanwhile, Jefferson never carried out the terms of Kościuszko's will, nor did a friend to whom he transferred the executorship. In 1852 Chief Justice Roger Taney of the U.S. Supreme Court transferred the money, by then worth more than $50,000, to Kościuszko's heirs in Poland, ruling that his American will had been invalid.

Several Anglicized spellings of Kościuszko's name appear in records. Perhaps the most frequently occurring is Thaddeus Kosciusko, though the full "Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciusko" is also seen. In Lithuanian, Kościuszko's name is rendered as Tadas Kosciuška or Tadeušas Kosciuška. In Belarusian it is Tadevuš Kaściuška (Тадэвуш Касцюшка).