Portage Sentinel

Do we love to acknowledge the services rendered America by her foreign friends? [Do we] forget that American liberty was gained with the aid of Lafayette, Montgomery, Reubens, DeKalb, Pulaski, Kosciusko, Rochambeau, and many others?

Kosciusko was among the most famous of these "great men" but his history is [brief]. He was born in Poland, in 1756, and received his military education at Warsaw. Dr. Franklin made his acquaintance in Paris, from which city, when American Ambassador, he commended him for military rank, to Congress. Washington made him an aid. He soon became one of our highest engineers, with the grade of colonel. He fortified Gate's camp against Burgoyne, and afterwards commenced the fortifications at West Point. At the close of the revolution he was a General, beloved by all the people of all the States.

He returned to his own country, was made a major General under Poniatowski, the Polish Bayard, and served as such during the fruitless Polish struggle of 1792, '93 and 94. In 1794 he was generalissimo of the Polish armies. On the 10th of October he was taken prisoner by the Russians. He was confined for years at St. Petersburgh, by the empress Catharine, then liberated by Paul, loaded with honors, and offered employment in the Russian service. He refused it, willing to serve only in the cause of freedom. Paul offered to him his own sword. Kosciusko replied: "I no longer need a sword, since I no longer have a country."

In 1798 he again visited America. Congress made him a grant for his services. It must have been small, as the attorney general, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, in the article we extract to-day from the Union, says "he received no rewards from us." After visiting General Washington and Mr. Jefferson, and remaining a short time in America, he returned to Europe. He lived many years, we understand, near Paris, where he was when the allied armies entered France. He then went to Vienna, and afterwards died in Switzerland, in October, 1817. Thence his remains were taken to Poland, where almost divine honors were paid them. The cadets at West Point raised a monument to his memory - Savannah paper.