e industry and intelligence with
which he discharged that service."[1] Kosciuszko possessed all the
Polish daring and love of adventure. He would sally forth to carry off
the English horses and cattle that were sent to pasture under guard,
protected by English guns from the fort. He succeeded in capturing
horses, but the cattle were too closely protected. Or, accompanied by an
American officer named Wilmot, he would cross the river to watch or
harry the English on James' Island. One of these expeditions, when
Kosciuszko and his companion attacked a party of English woodcutters,
has the distinction of being the last occasion on which blood was shed
in the American War. They were surprised by an ambuscade, and Wilmot was
killed. At length Charleston fell. On December 14, 1782, the American
army entered the town in a triumphal procession, in which Kosciuszko
rode with his fellow-officers, greeted by the populace with flowers and
fluttering kerchiefs and cries of "Welcome!" and "God bless you!"
Greene's wife, a sprightly lady who kept the camp alive, had joined him
outside Charleston. Her heart was set on celebrating the evacuation of
Charleston by a ball, and, although her Quaker husband playfully
complained that such things were not in his line, she had her way. The
ball-room was decorated by Kosciuszko, who adorned it with festoons of
magnolia leaves and with flowers cunningly fashioned of paper.

[Footnote 1: George Washington Greene, _Life of Nathaniel Greene_. New
York, 1871.]

Peace with England was now attained. Kosciuszko had fought for six years
in the American army. The testimony of the eminent soldier in whose
close companionship he had served, whose hardships he had shared, whose
warmest friendship he had won, that of Nathaniel Greene, best sums up
what the Pole had done for America and what he had been to his
brother-soldiers. "Colonel Kosciuszko belonged"--thus Greene--"to the
number of my most useful and dearest comrades in arms. I can liken to
nothing his zeal in the public service, and in the solution of important
problems nothing could have been more helpful than his judgment,
vigilance and diligence. In the execution of my recommendations in every
department of the service he was always eager, capable, in one word
impervious against every temptation to ease, unwearied by any labour,
fearless of every danger. He was greatly distinguished for his
unexampled modesty and entire unconsciousness that he had d