How a Heroic Polish Engineer’s Designs Aided America’s Victory in the Revolutionary War

“Surrender of General Burgoyne” by John Trumbull, 1821. Oil on canvas. United States Capitol, Washington, D.C. Public Domain

The Continental Congress enthusiastically welcomed Thaddeus Kosciuszko to Philadelphia in 1776. Kosciuszko’s engineering skills were urgently needed to build forts, plan defenses, and design fortifications for a young nation at war with the world’s greatest empire.

The Journal of the Continental Congress for October 18, 1776, read: “RESOLVED, that Thaddeus Kosciuszko be appointed an engineer in the service of the United States, with the pay of sixty dollars a month, and the rank of colonel.”

Kosciuszko, a native of Poland, was well qualified, having recently completed studies in military engineering in Paris. Equally as important, he was ready for action. Russia and Prussia had defeated and partitioned Poland, leaving him without a country. The Declaration of Independence precisely expressed his feelings.

A lithograph of military leader Thaddeus Kosciuszko dressed with fur-trimmed coat, plumed cap, and sword, by Victor Adam, 1885. British Museum, London. Public Domain

On the Job

Congress asked him to immediately design forts along the Delaware River to deny the British warships access to Philadelphia. He began with Fort Billingsport, followed by Fort Mercer, then Fort Mifflin.

An even greater threat sent him to upper New York to help Gen. Horatio Gates disrupt the advance of British Gen. John Burgoyne. “Gentleman Johnny” planned to sweep down the Hudson River and join with the British forces in New York and Pennsylvania to end the American rebellion once and for all.

In a flurry of activity, the Polish engineer ordered his men to dam streams, destroy bridges, and block roads with fallen trees. Burgoyne, traveling with a huge supply train and his “petticoat battalion” of women, who traveled with soldiers to do their laundry and other domestic chores, soon learned more about American ingenuity than he cared to know. It took him 22 days to travel 20 miles because of Kosciuszko’s diversionary tactics. This delay gave the Americans time to cross the Hudson River and regroup.

Aiding Generals

Farther down the Hudson in Stillwater, New York, Gen. Gates’s men were setting up camp along the riverbank, but Kosciuszko took one look and warned them of their mistake. A better place was Bemis Heights, which would force the British to march uphill, protecting the Americans on the east with the Hudson River and on the west with a dense forest.

A portrait of Kosciusko by printmakers P. Canot, H.B. Hall, S.V. Hunt, J.B. Longacre, J.M. Probst, and Paul Sandby, circa 1750–1890. Emmet Collection of Manuscripts Etc. Relating to American History. The New York Public Library

During the battles of Saratoga which followed, Kosciuszko’s attention to detail frustrated the British time and time again. End result: Burgoyne surrendered his entire army on October 16, 1777.

When praised for the victory, Gen. Gates said: “Let us be honest, … in the present case, the great tacticians of the campaign were hills and forests, which a young Polish engineer was skilled enough to select for my encampment.”

Next came his assignment to rebuild West Point in March 1778. Washington called it the most important post in America, because of its location on the S-curve of the Hudson River. Cannon from West Point could easily destroy enemy ships carrying troops and supplies from Canada to New York City. But the fortification had to be large and strong.

Kosciuszko began with the original structure, which was two stories high and not much bigger than a schoolhouse. He spent two years planning and building. When he finished, West Point was a strong fortress with many redoubts, all connected to form one line of defense. It was believed to be impregnable.

Anxious for combat, Kosciuszko was next assigned as chief engineer to the Southern Army, commanded by Gen. Nathanael Greene. The British were well equipped with horses and wagons, but Greene had neither. He planned to use the rivers instead, and it became Kosciuszko’s job to scout river crossings and build a small fleet of flat-bottomed boats that could be carried overland from one river to another.

Front and back view of “Medal of Thaddeus Kosciuszko” by François Augustin Caunois, 1818. Bronze; diameter 1 5/8 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain

Public Domain

In the famous race to the Dan River in 1781, it was Kosciuszko’s boats and scouting of the rivers that allowed the Americans to cross the swollen river an hour before Cornwallis arrived. The portly English general had no boats to cross the Dan. His only choice was to withdraw into North Carolina.

Kosciuszko also helped select the site of Guilford Courthouse for one of the decisive battles in which Greene, although tactically defeated, all but destroyed Cornwallis’s army. By September, Cornwallis was trapped in Yorktown, Virginia, by French and American forces, and forced to surrender.

Taking Command

In the final stages of the war in South Carolina and Georgia, Kosciuszko took over a field command and ambushed patrols, interrupted supply lines, and once captured 60 horses from the British cavalry. When it was all over in April 1783, Kosciusko used his knowledge of pyrotechnics for a fireworks display to celebrate the signing of preliminary articles of peace with Great Britain.

Thomas Jefferson said that Kosciuszko “was as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known.” Washington was equally full of praise. Streets, schools, counties, cities, bridges, parks, and even ships bear his name. Yet it is not the great battles for which we remember him, but the countless engineering feats that made those victories possible.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.