While Congress considered his request for a place in the army, Kosciuszko was pressed into service by the worried Council of Safety in Philadelphia. New York had fallen to the British; General Washington was retreating across New Jersey; and an assault upon Philadelphia was expected both by land and by British gunboats in the Delaware River. The Polish engineer helped block the river, first by building fortifications on Billingsport Island just below the city, later by strengthening defences on the New Jersey shore at Red Bank (Fort Mercer).
On October 18, 1776, Congress voted Kosciuszko's commission as Colonel of engineers in the continental army.
By his dramatic crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776, and
his victories at Trenton and Princeton, George Washington threw back the
British. The immediate danger to Philadelphia was averted (although the
city was to be occupied by the enemy in 1777-78) and the army commandant
in Philadelphia, General Horatio Gates, could then be transferred to the
Northern Army with headquarters at Albany, N.Y. Gates obtained permission
to take along his favorite staff officers, including Kosciuszko, who was
already a friend of the entire Gates family. The General was eighteen
years older than Kosciuszko and in many ways served as his American father.
From Albany, Kosciuszko was promptly despatched further north to Fort
Ticonderoga, the strategic post which Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain
Boys had captured so sensationally from the British in 1775.
Introducing Kosciuszko to the commanding officer at Ticonderoga, Gates
wrote:
" He is an able Engineer, and one of the best and neatest draughtsman I ever saw. I desire he may have a quarter assigned him, and when he has thoroughly made himself acquainted with the works, have ordered him to point out to you, where and in what manner the best improvements and additions can be made thereto...
British strategy was to send General John Burgoyne south from Montreal by way of Lake Champlain and the Hudson to capture Albany and link up with other British forces from the west and from New York City. George Washington regarded the Hudson pathway as the most important line of defense in America. Ticonderoga was a key spot. Kosciuszko reported, however, that it was vulnerable. The fortress was overlooked by a steep and rocky hill (now called Mount Defiance) which was unprotected. The Polish engineer wanted a battery of guns mounted at the top.
General Gates agreed, but at that juncture had to return temporarily
to duty in Philadelphia. Other senior officers decided against Kosciuszko's
recommendation. To haul heavy guns to the top would be a long and difficult
task. In the time remaining before expected attack, they concluded, neither
sufficient manpower nor equipment was on hand.
When Burgoyne's army abruptly appeared before Ticonderoga late in June,
Kosciuszko's point was proved. Within five days, British guns were in
place on the Mount, aimed down at the interior of the fort. An American
council of war decided unanimously that Ticonderoga could not be held
under the circumstances, and during the night of July 5 the entire garrison
abandoned Fort Ticonderoga, leaving it open to the British.
The blow was a devastating one to the cause of the Revolution. Loss of
the Fort without a fight brought a storm of abuse in Congress and a court
martial of General Arthur St. Clair, who had been temporarily in command
of the Fort at the time. Kosciuszko was one of the witnesses at the trial.
His testimony was without bitterness. He understood St. Clair's position,
even if he did not agree with it. St. Clair was exonerated.
Throughout July, 1777, the northern army retreated steadily, sometimes
in disorder, harassed by Burgoyne's troops and by his Indian allies. Kosciuszko
prepared a series of new campsites, each further south, until in August
the American army had withdrawn to within nine miles of Albany. It became
essential that a new and strong defensive position be established on the
Hudson, and General Gates was ordered back to Albany to take charge.
Gates promptly ordered the demoralized troops to move northward again.
He sent Kosciuszko and Colonel Hay on ahead "to select a position
on the western bank of the Hudson, which from its hilly and covered surface,
would be best suited for defense." Gates's Quartermaster, General
Morgan Lewis years later related:
"They rode up the hill and examined the grounds on Bemis Heights, and Kosciuszko decided immediately that that was the proper position for a fortified camp. He inquired the number of divisions and regiments in the Army and their names, took a piece of paper from his portfolio, and drew in pencil the plan of the camp, and assigned the location of several regiments and in conformity with that plan they were speedily marched to the ground and they proceeded to erect breastworks and fortifications..."
When General Burgoyne's redcoats approached from the north, Kosciuszko's defenses were ready. The Americans were positioned on Bemis Heights at a narrow place in the river about seven miles below the village of Saratoga (now called Schuylerville}. The only north-south road was squeezed tight against the river at that point and exposed to gunfire from the hills. Burgoyne was unable to make his way around the Americans and was forced to attack the strongly defended position.
The first day's bloody fighting occurred on September 19, 1777. British
soldiers with fixed bayonets made charge after charge, but were repulsed.
At night they were still some two miles north of the American lines on
Bemis Heights. Burgoyne delayed nearly three weeks, hoping that the other
British forces in New York would bring him relief, but it never came.
With his base far behind in Canada and his supplies running low, Burgoyne
made a final, desperate attempt to outflank the American position and
to force his way to Albany, but Kosciuszko's defenses held. The British
retreated and were surrounded in camp near Saratoga. There, on October
17, 1777, Burgoyne surrendered the entire British force of 6000 troops.
Historians have called Saratoga one of the world's most decisive battles.
It changed the course of the American Revolution, persuaded France and
Spain to come to the aid of the Americans, and made Independence a reality.
General Gates was everywhere celebrated for the triumph; some began to
think that he, rather than Washington, should be commander-in-chief; but
Gates understood the situation. While being praised extravagantly by a
Philadelphia doctor, he cut off the compliments by saying:
"Stop. Stop. Let us be honest. In war, as in medicine, natural causes not under our control do much. In the present case, the great tacticians of the campaign, were hills and forests, which a young Polish Engineer was skillful enough to select for my encampment."
A celebrated painting of Burgoyne's surrender hangs in the national capital in Washington. The artist: John Trumbull, one of Kosciuszko's fellow officers in the northern campaign.
Soon after the victory at Saratoga, it was decided that the new, permanent
fortification on the Hudson would be built further south at West Point.
Kosciuszko was sent there as chief engineer in March, 1778 and remained
for 28 months. He was charged with planning and building hilltop forts,
redoubts, gun emplacements, breastworks and troop barracks so strong as
to eliminate any further danger of invasion from Canada. West Point became
"The Gibraltar of America," and the British never undertook
to capture it. Some have said West Point was Kosciuszko's greatest achievement
because by preventing a battle he saved lives on both sides.
During the early part of his assignment at West Point, Kosciuszko's work
was pushed with emergency speed lest there be a British assault. Later,
Washington established his headquarters nearby and the work proceeded
in relative security at a more orderly pace. Washington himself was greatly
interested in it. Kosciuszko escorted him on trips of inspection. After
one of them in June, 1779, the following notice was posted:
"Lost yesterday, reconnoitering with his Excellency, General Washington, a spur, with treble chains on the side, and a single one underfoot, all silver, except the tongue of the buckle and the rowel. Whoever has found, or shall find it, and will bring it to Colonel Kosciuszko or at headquarters, shall have ten dollars reward".
(At first, West Point was a fortress only. The Military Academy was not
established there until 1802. When it was, the first cadets were all engineers.
A treatise by Kosciuszko on employment of artillery was used as a text.
The first monument erected at the Academy was a tribute to Thaddeus Kosciuszko
commissioned and paid for by the cadets themselves. Cadet Robert E. Lee
was one of those responsible. The monument still stands near a corner
of the parade ground on the site of one of the forts Kosciuszko built.)
In the summer of 1780, with his major work at West Point coming to an
end, Kosciuszko wrote General Washington: "I beg your Excellency
to give me permission to leave the Engineer Department and direct me a
command in the light infantry..."
Washington replied on August 3:
...as there is a necessity for a Gentleman in the Engineering Department to remain constantly at that post, and as you from your long residence there are particularly well acquainted with the works and the plans for their completion, it was my intent that you should continue. The Infantry Corps was arranged before the receipt of your letter. The southern Army, by the captivity of Genl. du portail and the other Gentlemen in that branch, is without an Engineer, and as you seem to express a wish of going there rather than remaining at West Point, I shall, if you prefer it to your present appointment, have no objection to your going.
Just about the time Kosciuszko left West Point, Benedict Arnold took over
command there. The Polish engineer was on his way south when Arnold's
treacherous plot to betray West Point to the British was discovered.
During his long service at West Point, Kosciuszko found recreation in
building a small flower garden in the steep cliff overlooking the Hudson.
The army doctor at West Point wrote of it "abounding more in rocks
than in soil" and he told how Kosciuszko had turned a little spring
into a "curious water fountain with spouting jets and cascades."
Kosciuszko's garden and its tiny fountain are still perched on the side
of the cliff, seldom seen by modern visitors. The location is just south
of another Academy landmark much better known: Flirtation Walk.
During the final three years of the war, Kosciuszko served in the south
as chief engineer to Nathaniel Greene, a General who moved troops swiftly
and often, preferring water transportation when possible. The engineer
was kept busy exploring rivers in the wilderness of the western Carolinas,
finding new campsites, superintending construction of fleets of small
boats. During Greene's month-long seige of a small garrison named Ninety-six
in North Carolina, Kosciuszko directed the day-by-day construction of
a geometric pattern of trenches which enabled the attackers slowly to
approach the fortress without exposure to gunfire. The siege was not successful,
however, and had to be abandoned when British reinforcements arrived.
Still to be seen are the remains of a tunnel or "mine" with
which Kosciuszko hoped to blow up the main redoubt.
After Lord Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown in October, 1781, Charleston,
Savannah and other places remained in enemy hands and sporadic action
continued for two more years. General Greene put Kosciuszko in command
of a small detachment of infantry which figured in the raid on James Island
which has been called the last gunfight of the war. When the British finally
evacuated Charleston in December, 1782. Kosciuszko led a parade of his
men into the city.
Released from Army service in June, 1783, Kosciuszko came to Philadelphia
to wind up his affairs in America. He was promoted to Brigadier General
and voted a special resolution of thanks by Congress. He was in New York
when Washington made a triumphal entry into the city toward the end of
1783 and was at Faunces' Tavern there for the farewell of the Commander-in-chief.
Along with other officers of Washington's army, Kosciuszko became an original
member of the Society of Cincinnati. He received two gifts from Washington:
an engraved ceremonial sword and a handsome pair of pistols inscribed
"G. Washington- Th. Kosciuszko-
17 E Pluribus Unum 83".
These are still exhibited in Polish museums.
When Kosciuszko sailed for home from New York on July 15, 1784, a fellow passenger wrote a letter with a rhymed report of the journey, including identification of all on shipboard, beginning with Kosciuszko:
"Him first, known in war full well,
Our Polish friend whose name still sounds so hard
To make it rhyme would puzzle any bard;
That youth, whose bays and laurels early crown'd
For virtue, science, arts and arms renown'd."
Kosciuszko's service in the American Revolution has been honored in postage stamps or both the United States and Poland.
