The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution

by Alex Storozynski

The Scottish born Jones had earned world renown for turning the tide in a 1779 naval battle against British captain Richard Pearson of the HMS Serapis. With the battle-scarred American ship, the Bonhomme Richard, on fire and taking on water, Captain Pearson asked Jones to surrender. In his Scottish brogue Jones was famously quoted as saying, “I have not yet begun to fight.”37 After a daylong battle in which Jones captured the enemy’s ship, the Bonhomme Richard sank off the coast of England, and Jones and his crew sailed away on the Serapis. After the Revolution, Jones was out of work and went to France in search of a commission. When war broke out with the Turks, Russia’s minister in Paris asked Jefferson about securing the services of the legendary naval officer. Jones accepted the czarina’s offer and left for Russia.38 Despite being given a fleet of clunky and leaky Russian ships, over a three-week campaign in the Black Sea, Jones fought four naval battles, destroying or capturing thirteen Turkish ships and helping to capture the Ottoman fortress of Otchakoff. He served brilliantly and was awarded the Medal of Saint Anne.39