“There is a time when you have to sacrifice everything to have everything saved.”

General Tadeusz Kosciuszko is a hero of two nations. Born in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, studied in Paris during the 1768 Civil War rather than choose sides. He went to America to aid the rebellion against the British Crown, becoming a Colonel of Engineers and involved in building West Point. After the American War of Independence, he joined the Polish Army as a Major General, serving with distinction during the Polish-Russian War of 1792. The King’s surrender forced him into exile. He raised a revolutionary army in 1794, but a greater uprising did not happen and the Poles lost. Kościuszko left but remained active in Polish independence politics until his death.