Brigadier General Kosciuszko

The story

Brigadier General Thaddeus Kościuszko is a bronze statue honoring Polish military figure and engineer Tadeusz Kościuszko. The sculpture was dedicated in 1910, the third of four statues in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., to honor foreign-born heroes of the American Revolutionary War. Born in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1746, Kościuszko later received education at a Jesuit school before attending the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw. He later traveled to France where he studied in military academy libraries and adopted views of human liberty during the Age of Enlightenment. He moved to the Thirteen Colonies in 1776, where the war with the Kingdom of Great Britain had already begun. Kościuszko served as an engineer in the Continental Army, earning the praise of his superiors, including General George Washington. After his important assistance during the war, Kościuszko traveled back to his homeland, where he led the Kościuszko Uprising against Prussia and the Russian Empire. He was unsuccessful and spent time in prison for two years. He was freed on the condition he return to the United States, which he did in 1797. He returned to Europe the following year using an alias, and died in Switzerland in 1817. In the early 1900s, the Polish National Alliance asked the U.S. Congress if a memorial to Casimir Pulaski could be erected in Lafayette Square. President Theodore Roosevelt preferred a statue of Kościuszko, and the Pulaski statue was installed nearby. After a competition amongst sculptors, Roosevelt's favorite pick, Antoni Popiel, was chosen to design the statue. It was completed in 1908 and the base statues, which are on all sides of the memorial, completed by 1909. It was dedicated on the same day the equestrian statue of Casimir Pulaski was unveiled. Approximately 15,000 Polish Americans attended the ceremonies, where President William Howard Taft spoke. Kościuszko's statue is one of 14 American Revolution Statuary in Washington, D.C., that were collectively listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites the following year. In addition, the statue is a contributing property to the L'Enfant Plan and the Lafayette Square Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. There are many other statue and memorials to Kościuszko located throughout the country, and a replica of the statue in Washington, D.C., stands in Warsaw.

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Dates from 1910.

Wikidata Q4967190, referenced by the OpenStreetMap record.

What the record says

Built

1910

Height

7 m

Elevation

18 m

How to reach it

Named places within 25 miles

Summits around it

The highest named summits within 25 miles of Brigadier General Kosciuszko. Elevation from each summit’s own record; bearing measured between the two coordinates.

When to go

Light through the year

Local time (America/New_York).

Climate normals

Months averaging 50–80 °F: Apr–Jun, Aug–Oct.

1991–2020 U.S. Climate Normals, NOAA NCEI — Natl Arboretum DC, 4 mi away.

Where this comes from

OpenStreetMap element way/257934461