| A Kosciuszko Bicentennial Competition will be announced on February 4th, 2017. If you intend to take part in it, it is time to start doing your own research. But we can help you there. Are you seeking an inspiration to present Kosciuszko in his final years? Why not dig into an episode which took place in a village of Cugny (France) in 1814, just 3 years before his death? What a heroic story! A Polish regiment, forming part of the advanced guard of the Russian army, after expelling the French from Troyes, marched upon Fontainbleau. The troops were foraging in a neighbouring village, and were about to commit disorders, which would have caused considerable loss to the proprietors, without benefit to themselves; such as piercing the banks, or forcing the sluices of some fish-ponds.
While they were thus employed, and their officers looking on, they were astonished to hear the word of command, bidding them to cease, pronounced in their own language, by a person in the dress of the upper class of peasants; they ceased their attempt at further spoliation, and drew near the stranger. He represented to the troops the useless mischief they were about to commit, and ordered them to withdraw. The officers coming up were lectured in their turn; and heard with the same astonishment the laws of predatory warfare explained to them.
“When I had a command in the army, of which your regiment is a part, I punished very severely such acts as you seem to authorise by your presence; and it is not on those soldiers, but on you that punishment would have fallen."
The Cugny story in Polish - here
To be thus tutored by a French farmer, in their own language, in such circumstances, and in such terms was almost past endurance. They beheld the peasants at the same time taking off their hats and surrounding the speaker, as if to protect him in case of violence; while the oldest among their own soldiers, anxiously gazing on the features of the stranger, were seized with a kind of involuntary trembling. Conjured more peremptorily though respectfully, to disclose his quality and his name, the peasant, drawing his hand across his eyes to wipe off a starting tear, exclaimed, with an half, stifled voice, “I am Kosciusko!"
The movement was electric. The soldiers threw down their aims, and falling prostrate on the ground, according to the custom of their country, covered their heads with sand. It was the prostration of the heart. On Kosciusko’s return to the house in the neighbourhood of this scene, he found a Russian military post established to protect it.
The Emperor Alexander having learnt from M de la Harpe, that Kosciusko resided in the country, ordered for him a guard of honour, and the country around his dwelling escaped all plunder and contribution.
Anecdote of Kosciusko, published in the "Leicester Chronicle" on November 8th, 1815.
YET ANOTHER VERSION OF THE STORY. From the period of this refusal to obey Napoleon, Kosciuszko lived undisturbed in the retirement already described, in a coutry house called Berville until the eventful sprong of the year 1814. Then, if he did not resume his sword in defence of the country that sheltered him, he, without so doing, effectually protected his French neighbours against the hostile troops that were desolating the district. The aged hero could not endure the sight of such horrors. He mounted his horse, and rode off alone towards the village of Cugny, where the thickest smoke proclaimed the greatest danger. There he found Russians, Cossacks, and Poles, firing the miserable cottages of the peasantry, thinking amidst the confusion to plunder the more undisturbedly.
He galloped into the midst of them, and, turning to the Polish battalion, known by their uniforms, shouted:[] "Hold, soldiers! When I led brave Polish troops, no one thought of plundering; and severely should I have punished any inferior officer, who, regardless of my commands, had dared to suffer such disorder. But the leaders are yet more blameable"- he added, addressing the officers "who by their example of their neglect tempt the privates into such conduct".
-And who are you, to talk to us? - resounded on all sides.
- I am Kosciuszko!
At this name officers and men flung away their arms, and, according to the custom of their country, fell down before their Naczelnik. Those nearest to him touched his knee with their right hands, whilst with the left they uncovered their heads, which they strew with dust in token of repentance. The kindled fires were promptly extinguished; what could be saved, was saved. He assisted actively in the operation, and remained till all the stolen property that could be collected was replaced.
This power of a name is so fine, that it has been made the subject of a drama by a Prussian poet, [born in Wrocław] Karl von Holtei. This piece, Del Alte Feldherr (The Old General) was very successful. The occurence was much talked of at the time, and attracted the attention of the Emperor Alexander, who invited Kosciuszko to visit him in Paris.
The frank republican, who was no longer to be blinded by words, lured by promises, or deluded by hopes, hesitated to accept the invitation, when an imperial carriage and aide-de-camp, sent to fetch him, appeared....The Czar received him, not as a mere general officer, still less as a former enemy and prisoner. He welcomed him as a friend, with an embrace upon the palace steps...
Source: Franklin Bi-Centennial Celebration, Philadelphia 1906
Michał Stachowicz, Castrum Doloris, Kosciuszko amongst Polish soldiers in Cugny |
Tadeusz Kościuszko is one of the most honored persons in Polish history, in terms of places and events named in his honor. As a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States, Kościuszko has given his name to many places and monuments around the world(...) In France: Polish political refugees in Montigny-sur-Loing settled in La Genevraye at Castle Berville and participated actively in the life of the commune and that of La Genevraye, including establishing a brickworks.
In 1814 Kościuszko intervened to stop the Cossacks after the Russians had penetrated into Champagne-sur-Seine. Subsequently a monument was built, Ancienne chapelle de Kosciusko. This symbolic tomb still stands at the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where it receives an annual tribute of flowers.
Source: Wikimedia; Ancienne chapelle de Kosciusko
Edyta Połczyńska, Karl von Holtei Kosciuszko-Verehrung [Karl von Holteis - Praise of Kościuszko] - this article describes the origin of the drama about Tadeusz Kościuszko Der alte Feldherr [The Old Leader] by the German playwright and novelist Karl vón
Holtei. At the same time it reflects repercussions which were caused by the staging of the "Old Leader" in 1825 in Kinigstidter Theater in Berlin. Karl von Holtei who was himself an actor, practised mostly a rare profession of a declaimer, played many times
the role of Tadeusz Kościuszko, contributing for its popularity. In his autobiography Vierzig Jahre [Forty Years] Holtei says, when describing his life full of travels, that it was the spirit of Kościuszko which made him a constant wonderer.
Source: Studia Germanica Posnaniensia, Adam Mickiewicz University Press, Poznań, vol. XIV: 1990, pp. 3-20.
Karl von Holtei, born in Wrocław, author of "Der alte Feldherr" |
The monument "Ancienne chapelle". Photo F.Molski |
Anecdote of Kosciusko, press cutting from Geneva Courier, June 18th, 1839
Inscription on the plaque in the Ancienne chapelle: "To General Kosciuszko, a hero of Poland and America, benefactor of the region". 1836-1997 |
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