Tadeusz Kościuszko

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish military engineer, statesman, and military leader who rose to national hero status in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, France, and the United States. He lived from 4 or 12 February 1746 to 15 October 1817. He participated in the wars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against Prussia and Russia as well as the American Revolutionary War. He is considered as one of the most important historical figures in Belarus. He oversaw the 1794 Kosciuszko Uprising in his capacity as Polish National Armed Forces' Supreme Commander. For his leadership throughout the American Revolutionary War and the rebellion against Imperial Russia and the Prussian Empire in 1794, Kosciuszko is revered as a national hero in America, Belarus, and Poland.

Kościuszko was appointed a major general in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in 1789 after his return to Poland in 1784. He led a rebellion against the Russian Empire beginning in March 1794 and continuing until he was captured at the Battle of Maciejowice in October 1794, which followed the Second Partition of the Commonwealth as a result of the Polish-Russian War of 1792. After Tsaritsa Catherine II passed away in 1796, her successor, Tsar Paul I, released Kociuszko from his sentence, and he immigrated to America. Kociuszko, a personal friend of Thomas Jefferson and a supporter of human rights, penned a will in 1798 designating his U.S. assets towards the upbringing and emancipation of U.S. slaves. Once in Europe again, Kociuszko spent the remainder of his life in Switzerland before passing away in 1817. Later, the execution of his will proved challenging, and the money was never put to the purposes Kociuszko had in mind.