KOSCIUSZKO.
Born in Poland A.D. 1756. Died the 15th. October 1817 nearSolothurn in Switzerland. He and Gal. Lafayette were the only twoEuropeans who wore the Cross of the Order of Cincinnatus.
Dedicated to the American people.
Entered according to Act Congress by Paulin Miedzielsky, N.-York,1833.
HISTORY
OF THE
LATE POLISH REVOLUTION,
AND THE
EVENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN.
BY JOSEPH HORDYNSKI,
MAJOR OF THE LATE TENTH REGIMENT OF LITHUANIAN LANCERS.
Fourth Edition.
BOSTON:
PRINTED FOR SUBSCRIBERS.
1833.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833,
By Joseph Hordynski,
In the Clerk's Office of the District of Massachusetts.
TO
THE GREAT AND FREE NATION
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Liberated from prison, and from the prospect of a more gloomy future,by some of your fellow citizens, I have been so fortunate as to reachthese happy shores. Providence has granted me to behold that faircountry, and that nation, which every lover of freedom desires to seewith his own eyes, and every freeman of Poland is wont to think of withlove and esteem. Your land, long since the asylum of the persecuted,has welcomed me with hearty benevolence. From the first moment of myarrival to the present time, I have received daily proofs of yoursympathy. Full of gratitude, and in the hope of doing you an acceptableservice, I cannot better employ the moments allowed me during my stayamong you, than by giving you a faithful account of our revolution, andof its true causes and motives, as well as of the events of the war bywhich it was followed. By a brief statement of the circumstances whichbrought about that revolution, I wish to inform you of the injusticeand outrages, which my nation was compelled to endure, during fourteenyears, in which both its natural rights, and the constitution solemnlyguarantied to it, were trampled under foot. By a true account of theevents of the ensuing war, you will be enabled to convince yourselvesof the means by which small forces became victorious over a colossalpower, as well as of the causes of the final catastrophe to whichPoland has been doomed.
I am convinced that in many respects my narrative will be entirelyopposed to the representations given in the public papers; for ourland, like most countries struggling for liberty, was surrounded byenemies rather than friends. The sources from which these accounts havebeen drawn, are, first, my own recollections of events of which I wasan eye-witness; secondly, the reports of my friends and comrades whowere present; and lastly, (particularly as to the operations of thedetached corps) the official reports of the army, which have not yetescaped my memory. The same course I have followed in the design ofthe plans, which have been traced partly from my own recollections ofpositions and scenes at which I was present, partly from the accuratereports of friends, and partly from public reports, assisted by mypersonal knowledge of localities.
Americans! I am neither an author nor a scholar by profession, but asimple republican and soldier. In such a one you will forgive faults inthe form and style o