![]() Kościuszko ordered the troops retreating from Fort Ticonderoga to delay the British by cutting down trees, moving boulders onto the road, and diverting and damming streams to turn the woodland path into a swamp. Kościuszko was then sent to New York to serve under General Horatio Gates, planning his defensive strategy. ![]() Though ultimately unsuccessful in protecting Philadelphia from the British, the combination of the fortresses and river blockades were effective enough to convince British General William Howe to abandon his plans to sail up the Delaware River and instead march the 50 miles north from the Chesapeake Bay to the largest city and capital of the newly independent United States. Several giant, iron-tipped wooden spears would be attached to boxes weighted to sink to the river bottom, where the spears would threaten enemy ships trying to get to Philadelphia’s harbor. He also designed a series of underwater obstructions known as cheveaux de frise to sit in the Delaware River. It was this philosophy and its ideals that would influence him for the rest of his life. While there, Kościuszko was immersed in the ideas and philosophies of the Enlightenment, which advocated for rationality, individual liberty, and freedom of expression. King Stanislaw arranged for a scholarship to send Kościuszko to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the age of 23 to study architecture, art, and engineering for several years. When he was 19, he began attending the Royal Military Academy in Warsaw, where he excelled in his studies and caught the attention of the Polish monarch. Thaddeus Kościuszko was born in 1746 near present-day Belarus, Poland, to a modest family of noble origins. ![]() You can even find his influence and presence right here in the Philadelphia area today! Who Was Thaddeus Kościuszko? Though his contributions to the American Revolution are not as well known, his skills as an engineer and passion for liberty and equality led many of his fellow revolutionaries to consider him, along with the Marquis de Lafayette, one of America’s founding cousins. Thaddeus Kościuszko is one of Poland’s most famous national heroes. ![]()
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