Extract, Charles De F. Burns, Catalog, May 1884, item 257.

Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746–1817) served as a colonel of engineers in the Continental army from 1776 to 1783, when he was promoted to brigadier general. He distinguished himself at Saratoga, in the construction of the fortifications at West Point, and in the campaigns in the southern states. After the war he helped found the Society of the Cincinnati before returning to Poland, where he was made a major general in the Polish army in 1789. In the spring of 1792 Kościuszko led a small army against the Russians. Following his defeat he fled to Paris; in 1794 Kościuszko returned to Poland to lead a revolt that resulted in his brief dictatorship.