Free Republic

Two months after Ben Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence, a surprise visitor walked into his Philadelphia shop. The young man’s curly brown hair cascaded down toward his shoulders, and his English was so broken he switched to French. Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a 30-year-old Pole just off the boat from Europe via the Caribbean, introduced himself and offered to enlist as an officer in the new American nation’s army. Franklin, curious, quizzed Kosciuszko about his education: a military academy in Warsaw, studies in Paris in civil engineering, including fort building. Franklin asked him for letters of recommendation. Kosciuszko had none....

Land awarded to a Polish freedom fighter more than 200 years ago by a grateful United States has been turned into a park bearing the name of the man who spent his life championing liberty and equality in America and Poland. The 36-acre Thaddeus Kosciuszko Park in Dublin, which opened this month, was part of a grant of 500 acres awarded by Congress for Kosciuszko’s contributions as a military engineer and Continental Army colonel during the Revolutionary War. Alex Storozynski, president and executive director of the Kosciuszko Foundation based in New York, said Kosciuszko was ahead of his time in...

British General John Burgoyne must have been bitterly disappointed one day in July 1777 in the upper Hudson Valley — the day his army, hot in pursuit of the Americans they had just driven from Fort Ticonderoga, ran into a lake that wasn’t supposed to exist.  This part of upstate New York had already been thoroughly explored and mapped, yet the Redcoats, confident of speedily overtaking and finishing off the American force, suddenly found themselves blocked by a brand-new body of water where dry forest and field was supposed to provide swift passage. The British must have soon ascertained, as...

Polish squadron earned place of honor in world history By CHRIS PATSILELIS A QUESTION OF HONOR: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II. By Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud. THE Kosciuszko Squadron, the first all-Polish fighter squadron in the Royal Air Force during World War II, is the subject of Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud's illuminating A Question of Honor. Authors of the acclaimed Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism, they trace the squadron's history from its inception in 1919 to its unceremonious post-World War II disbandment. The squadron was founded by a 28-year-old...

Of the many distinguished military men who came from abroad to fight for the independence of the American colonies, Kosciuszko was the very first. In August 1776, only a month after the Declaration of Independence had been signed, the 30-year-old military engineer arrived in Philadelphia from Poland. He offered his services to the Continental Congress, and served continuously until the British surrender seven years later. For over 200 years, the memory of his dedication and contribution has forged strong bonds between the peoples of Poland the United States. Kosciuszko was born to an aristocratic family of modest means in Poland...