Kościuszko: A BiographyGardner, Monica M. (Monica Mary)
History
Kościuszko: A Biography
Gardner, Monica M. (Monica Mary)
Kościuszko, Tadeusz, 1746-1817
[Footnote 1: William Johnson, _Sketches of the Life and Correspondence
of Nathaniel Greene_. Charleston, 1822.]
When the campaign changed to guerilla warfare Kościuszko fought as a
soldier, not as an engineer. At the battle of Eutaw Springs, where the
licence of the American soldiers pillaging the British camp and
murdering the prisoners lost Greene a decisive victory, we hear of
Kościuszko as making desperate attempts to restrain a carnage which
horrified his humane feelings, and personally saving the lives of fifty
Englishmen. Peace and the defeat of Great Britain were in the air, but
hostilities still dragged on, and Kościuszko fought through 1782 near
Charleston with distinction. After the gallant Laurens had fallen, his
post of managing the secret intelligence from Charleston passed to
Kościuszko. "Kosciuszko's innumerable communications," says the grandson
and biographer of Greene, "exhibit the industry and intelligence with
which he discharged that service."[1] Kościuszko possessed all the
Polish daring and love of adventure. He would sally forth to carry off
the English horses and cattle that were sent to pasture under guard,
protected by English guns from the fort. He succeeded in capturing
horses, but the cattle were too closely protected. Or, accompanied by an
American officer named Wilmot, he would cross the river to watch or
harry the English on James' Island. One of these expeditions, when
Kościuszko and his companion attacked a party of English woodcutters,
has the distinction of being the last occasion on which blood was shed
in the American War. They were surprised by an ambuscade, and Wilmot was
killed. At length Charleston fell. On December 14, 1782, the American
army entered the town in a triumphal procession, in which Kościuszko
rode with his fellow-officers, greeted by the populace with flowers and
fluttering kerchiefs and cries of "Welcome!" and "God bless you!"
Greene's wife, a sprightly lady who kept the camp alive, had joined him
outside Charleston. Her heart was set on celebrating the evacuation of
Charleston by a ball, and, although her Quaker husband playfully
complained that such things were not in his line, she had her way. The
ball-room was decorated by Kościuszko, who adorned it with festoons of
magnolia leaves and with flowers cunningly fashioned of paper.
[Footnote 1: George Washington Greene, _Life of Nathaniel Greene_. New
York, 1871.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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