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Kosciuszko – The Tallest Mountain in Australia
By Artur Wielgus (USA)
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Kosciuszko – The Tallest Mountain in Australia
By Artur Wielgus (USA) - arturwielgus@hotmail.com
Tad never was in Australia; however, the tallest mountain honors his name.
Mount Townsend was renamed to Kosciuszko after various measurements of the peak—
originally called Kosciuszko—showed it to be slightly lower than mount Townsend.
The names of the mountains were changed by the New South Wales Lands Department
so that Mount Kosciuszko could remain the highest peak of Australia.
The mix-up concerning Kosciuszko does not pertain to mountains only. It depends how
we measure this General. In America he was considered lucky. In his native country he was not, but
remains there even more famous than anywhere else. As with those mountains, folks
mostly talk about his achievements; that is why he was as tall there as the mountain with his name.
Kosciuszko lost his entire uprising in a military campaign against Russia at the battle
of Maciejowice on October 10, 1794. His commander of the cavalry unit, Adam Poninski,
turned out to be a traitor who was working for Russians. Poninski did not show up on time at the battlefield with
four thousand cavalry soldiers under his command even though they were stationed only three miles away from
Maciejowice Battlefield. Kosciuszko later publicly accused Adam Poninski Junior of treason.
Kosciuszko ought to have known better, for Adam Poninski’s father was also a traitor working for Russians
and was publicly condemned by Great Sejm in 1790, four years before that tragic battle of Maciejowice.
Kosciuszko had been wounded and taken prisoner by Russians after the battle, he was later released due toPresident of the United States George Washington, who diplomatically helped him regain freedom because they were friends.Afterward, Kosciuszko withdrew from political life and was grief-stricken. He partly felt guilty for the carnageof twenty thousand residents of Warsaw, who were slaughtered on November 4, 1794 and were mostly women and children.
This event was executed by Russian soldiers under the command of A. Suvorov after that tragic battle of Maciejowice.
Kosciuszko thought about returning to America, but because he had given away all of his possessions in America
to aid in the liberation of slaves, he was not that popular there. He was also poor.
Tad Kosciuszko is a hero on three continents: Europe, America and Australia, but his largest shadow falls from
the tallest mountain in Australia. Hopefully it is the lucky shadow of the Prince of Peasants, who wanted to liberate the people but couldn’t.
© A.R. Wielgus 2013
