Tadeusz Kościuszko (born
February 4,
1746 in the village
Mereszowszczyzna, Lithuania, Poland; died
October 15,
1817,
Solothurn,
Switzerland) was a Polish soldier. He fought in the
American Revolution on the side of
Washington, for which he was awarded by the
United States Congress the rank of Brigadier-General.
In 1793 in Poland he participated in the failed defence of Poland against Russian invasion. With the invasion sucessful, resulting in second partition, he fled to Germany; but returned in 1795 to lead a failed rebellion against Russian rule. He was captured by the Russians, however they then pardoned and released him. He spend the rest of his life in exile in Switzerland, refusing to serve as Napoleon's puppet at the head of the government of the Principality of Warsaw.
The Polish explorer Count Paul Strzelecki[?] named Mount Kosciuszko, in Australia, for him.
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