Thaddeus Kosciusko National Memorial

The National Park Service runs 392 parks, battlefields, monuments and memorials, scattered throughout the 50 states (minus Delaware, in which none of these are located). Some are huge, such as Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite. Others can be conveniently seen in a day, such as Valley Forge and Antietam. And some contain just enough information to occupy a traveler for an hour or two (a lot of these are forts).



The pygmy of the National Park Service, the smallest of the small, can be found in Philadelphia. At the corner of 3rd and Pine Streets is Thaddeus Kosciusko National Memorial, a shrine to one of America’s greatest Revolutionary War heroes.

Thaddeus Kosciusko – Hero to Four Nations

Kosciusko is actually a hero to four nations, The US, Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He was born in 1746 in Mereczowszczyzna, then Poland-now Belarus. He was educated at The School Of Knights in Warsaw, Poland’s military acadamy. He furthered his education in Paris, at the Royal Acadamy of Fine Arts and Scuplture.



While he was in Paris, he learned of the American Revolution and immediately traveled to America. He started as a mere volunteer (self-serving arrogance and pride were never among his vices), but was soon made a Colonel of Engineers in the Continental Army. Engineers are special, very well educated soldiers who specialize in building things for armies to use, such as forts, entrenchments, bridges and the sort.



The Continental Army was badly in need of his services. George Washington’s army had precious few men who were familier with the sciences of war. None of the men in Washington’s ranks were as trained in engineering as Kosciusko was. His expertise was put to work right away, and it was soon discovered that generals that did not follow his advice ignored him at great risk.

Kosciusko’s first assignment was at Ft. Ticonderoga, New York a fort that was dominated by nearby Sugar Loaf Mountain. Kosciusko suggested to Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the fort’s commander that the mountain be fortified. St. Clair ignored him, and the British captured the fort by siezing the mountian.

Shortly afterwards, Kosciusko aided the retreating Americans by informing them how to fell trees in the path of the persuing British. A new American General, Horatio Gates put Kosciusko directly to work on planning US fortifications on Bemis Hights , a key location for the upcoming Battle of Saratoga. The strength of these positions was a key factor in the decisive American victory at that battle. Kosciusko was now known as the premier engineer in the American Army.

His talents were then sent to West Point, New York- where he designed a network of fortresses so strong that the British never dared to attack it directly. It was Kosciusko’s magnificent work that the traitor Benedict Arnold tried to hand over to the British when he comitted is infamous treason in 1780.

Kosciusko was then sent south, becoming the chief engineer of Gates’ and later Nathaniel Greene’s Army. With his eye for topography, he was instrumental in helping the American Army in the south stave off defeat during the “Race for the Dan”. He also provided service to Greene during the Siege of Ninety-Six, and the battles of Hobkirk’s Hill and Etaw Springs.

Following the Revolutionary War, Kosciusko returned to his native Poland. There, in 1794 he led Polish and Lithuanian forces in an armed uprising against the occupying Czarist Russia. Kosciusko was badly wounded and captured at the Battle of Maciejowice. The uprising was crushed, and Poland disappeared from the map of Europe, devoured by neighbors Prussa and Russia.




Without a country to defend, broke, and crippled by his injuries,Kosciusko visited his second country, The United States to petition Congress for his back pay during his Revolutionary services. He stayed in the US for less then a year before returning back to Europe. It was always his dream to liberate Poland, and he toured Paris, Russia, Austria and Switzerland hoping to create a free society of Poles. Nothing close to another uprising materialized and Thaddeus Kosciusko, hero to so many nations died in Switzerland in 1817.


Thaddeus Kosciusko National Memorial

When Kosciusko visited American in 1797, he wanted to find a place that was small, cheap, and out of the way. Founding father –now full time physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush, who taught Medical Theory at the University of Pennsylvania, knew just the place – Mrs. Anne Relf’s boarding house at 3rd and Pine. Several of Rush’s students had taken up lodgings there.

Kosciusko, wounded in battle in Poland, rarely left his bedroom. The modest Kosciusko found himself a celebrity and was visited often. In the tiny room he would entertain his guests including Thomas Jefferson and, Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Nation. When in Kosciusko’s room, the Miami Chief examined the engineer’s spectacles. The generous Kosciusko gave him a pair to which the delighted chief exclaimed, “You have given me new eyes!”

Visitors to the Memorial are treated to one of the newest exhibitions in the National Park service. The first floor houses a very small bookstore, plus two rooms of exhibits on the life and career of the patriot.

The second floor has a small auditorium for viewing a short (less then 20 minute) video on Thaddeus Kosciusko. The auditorium is decorated with several large portraits of the soldier.



The crown jewel of the site is Kosciusko’s old bedroom. Many of the items behind the glass are authentic to the General’s stay in Philadelphia. An interactive spotlight system explains what many of the artifacts are such as his dining kit, abolitionist papers, and tomahawk/ peace pipe from Chief Little Turtle.

The National Memorial in Philadelphia is just one of many sites, streets, ships, counties, towns and momuments to bear the name of this American-Polish freedom fighter.