The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution

by Alex Storozynski

On December 2, 1777, he wrote to Gen. Israel Putnam: “The importance of the North River in the present contest and the necessity of defending it, are subjects which have been so frequently and so fully discussed and are so well understood, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them.” Washington wrote that if the Continental Army was “to preserve the communication between the Eastern, Middle and Southern States” and keep the “chief supplies of flour” flowing to feed the troops, Putnam had to use all his forces to erect “works and obstructions as may be necessary to defend and secure the River against any future attempts of the Enemy.” Since autumn 1777 the British had burned Kingston, New York, and its wheat fields to the ground, Washington worried that the Redcoats would try to destroy all the houses, mills, and towns in the Hudson Valley. “Unless proper measures are taken to prevent them,” he wrote Putnam, “they will renew their Ravages in the Spring, or as soon as the season will admit, and perhaps Albany the only Town in the State of any importance remaining in our hands, may undergo a like fate and a general havoc and devastation take place.”30 The French engineer Colonel Radiere was ordered to report to General Putnam in the Hudson Highlands and design the defenses for West Point as the Americans saw fit. But as soon as he arrived, the Frenchman clashed with Putnam and the other officers. Kosciuszko, who worked with Putnam on the defenses for Philadelphia, would soon...

How Kosciuszko came under Putnam's command and would gain the more direct attention of Washington.