The U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., has just been ranked the top university in Forbes magazine's newest list of America's best Universities. Thaddeus Kosciuszko - who persuaded Thomas Jefferson to establish the school - would be proud.
Today, a towering statue of Kosciuszko overlooks the campus at the United States Military Academy. Kosciuszko was the Polish engineer whose plans for West Point were nearly sold to the British by the traitor Benedict Arnold. After attending military academies in Warsaw, Poland and Paris, France, Kosciuszko was put in charge of building forts for the Continental Army by Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock.
George Washington put Kosciuszko in charge of designing Fortress West Point after the Pole's strategy to use the high ground at Bemis Heights became the deciding factor in the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point in the American Revolution.
Kosciuszko also gave Jefferson $17,000 and instructed him to use the money to buy slaves and free them. The Polish rebel also stood up for the rights of serfs, Jews, Native Americans and disenfranchised people.
All of this is laid out in: The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution, by Alex Storozynski.
Contact: alex@peasantprince.com
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