Kazimierz Michal Wladyslaw Wiktor Pulaski (on the right below) was born to a noble family in Warsaw on March 6, 1745. He loved the military so he became a cavalryman when he grew up. He fought the Russians, but his side lost. A failed attempt to kidnap the pro-Russian king got Pulaski exiled. He bounced through several countries and ended up in France, penniless. He was sent to debtor’s prison. Bailed out by a friend, he was put in contact with Benjamin Franklin, who recruited him for the Continental Army. Pulaski set sail on June 13, 1777 and 40 days later arrived in America. He immediately went to Washington’s camp where he was told he needed a commission from the Continental Congress. He didn’t wait and was with the army for the Battle of Brandywine. In the battle, Washington’s right flank was turned and the army faced disaster. Pulaski offered to lead a counterattack. He was given a small force of cavalry and hit the British hard enough to slow the envelopment and allow Washington’s army to escape with just a royal butt-whipping. Pulaski was credited with possibly saving Washington’s life. He was made a Brigadier General and given command of the nonexistent cavalry. He recruited and trained what became known as the Pulaski Legion. Pulaski was vain and arrogant and hard to work with. He got on Washington’s bad side because he believed in confiscating supplies and horses from Loyalists. Partly because he had worn out his welcome, he was sent to the South to join Gen. Benjamin’s army that was besieging Savannah. Ever the reckless warrior, he attacked a British raiding force and was badly beaten. A few months later, he led a cavalry charge to stem an infantry retreat. He was hit by grapeshot and mortally wounded. His personality flaws (which were typical of most cavalrymen) were overlooked as he was memorialized as one of the great foreign volunteers who helped America to get its independence. He was called “Father of the American Cavalry” (along with his friend and second-in-command Michael Kovats, a Hungarian cavalryman who had fought for Frederick the Great). On Nov. 6, 2009, he was made an honorary citizen of the U.S. He was the seventh foreigner given that honor.* In 2019, the Smithsonian Institute did a scientific examination of his remains and determined that he may have been a female or intersex (person who shares some physical characteristics of the other gender).
* Honorary citizens of the US (in chronological order): Churchill, Raoul Wallenberg, William Penn and his wife Hannah, Mother Teresa, Lafayette, Pulaski, and Bernardo de Galvez.
Thaddeus Kosciuszko was born in Poland to an upper class family. He attended a military academy in Warsaw and later went to France to study civil engineering. He was a disciple of Vauban. When he heard about the American revolt, he sailed to Philadelphia because he believed in freedom and human rights. Plus he wanted a fresh start after a failed elopement. He showed up in Ben Franklin’s shop and offered his services. He had no letters of recommendation, but proved himself to Franklin who brought him to a meeting of the Continental Congress. The delegates made him Chief of Engineers. He designed and built forts on the Delaware River to defend Philadelphia. He was sent to Ft. Ticonderoga and recommended the defense of a nearby hill. The fort’s commander did not think that would be necessary and of course the British put cannons on the hill and the fort had to be abandoned. He was in charge of slowing down Burgoyne’s march south. He supervised the felling of trees to block the road, damming of streams, and destruction of bridges. Thaddeus chose Bemis Heights as the best place for Gen. Gates to place his army. He had trenches dug making the hill impregnable. Burgoyne had to surrender mainly because of Kosciuszko. Gates said, “The great tacticians of the campaign were hills and forests, which a young Polish engineer was skillful enough to select for my encampment.” Next, he worked on the defenses of West Point. It was his plans the Arnold was trying to give to the British. If the British had tried attacking without the plans, they undoubtedly would have been beaten. He was sent to the Carolinas to be supervisor of engineers under Greene. He saved Greene’s army when it was being chased by Cornwallis. In the “Race to the Dan”, his engineers built bateauxes to cross rivers, determined sites for camps, located sites for crossing rivers, fortified positions, and developed a network of spies. He chose Guilford Court House as a good site for a stand. It was not his fault the Americans lost the battle, but he does deserve some credit for making it a bloody battle for the attacking British. After Yorktown, he led a combined cavalry/infantry unit in small actions in the Carolinas. After the war, Washington gifted him two pistols and a sword.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/casimir-pulaski
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_Pulaski
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/polish-patriot-who-helped-americans-beat-british-180962430/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko
https://www.nps.gov/thko/learn/historyculture/kosciuszkobio.htm
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