Kościuszko is commissioned as colonel of engineers, October 18, 1776
To an army lacking just about every form of military expertise, the arrival of the Polish military engineer Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko proved incredibly fortuitous. Among his other accomplishments, he designed an almost impregnable array of battlements at Bemis Heights, overlooking the Hudson River, that allowed the Continental Army to repulse several British attacks and led directly to the surrender of British General John Burgoyne. He also designed the fortification at West Point that Benedict Arnold sold to the British. At the end of the war Congress promoted him to brigadier general.