The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution

by Alex Storozynski

When word spread that Poland had opened a new military academy, another colorful character to show up in Warsaw was British colonel Charles Lee. Lee was a restless British officer who lived in the American colonies where he fought in the French and Indian War, the American theater of the Seven Years’ War. He was adopted by the Mohawk tribe and married the daughter of a Seneca chief and was dubbed Ounewaterika, meaning “boiling water,” or “the spirit that never sleeps.”35 Upon returning to London, Lee was denied his petition to become a general in the British army, so he sought greater experience by obtaining a post in the Polish army. The Poles were in no position to expand their military, so Lee agreed to serve as Stanislaw’s aide-de-camp. Starting in 1764, he served for several years in the royal court in Warsaw. Lee was given a seat at the king’s table and an apartment in Prince Czartoryski’s palace. The English officer was so taken by Stanislaw that he wrote home asking that his prized possession, a sword once owned by Oliver Cromwell, be delivered to Warsaw so he could present it to the king as a gift.36 When Lee returned to London, King George III still deemed his foreign experience and social status insufficient to merit promotion in the British army. So before the outbreak of the American Revolution, the disappointed Lee again sailed for the colonies, where he enlisted in the Continental Army and was finally commissioned as a general.

Charles Lee, a British officer, trained at the Polish war college. When George III denied him promotion due to his low caste, Lee sailed to America and enlisted in the Continetal Army.