Casimir Pulaski
[October 11]
(March 4, 1745 – c. October 11, 1779)
(Note: On November 6, 2009, President Barack Obama signed a joint resolution of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives making Pulaski an American citizen, 230 years after his death)
Casimir Pulaski was baptized into the
Roman Catholic Church in Poland shortly
after his birth to a noble family on 4
March 1745. When a young man, the
Empress of Russia installed her former
lover as the regent of Poland. Pulaski's
father, with his sons, began a revolt
against this interloper and his Russian
troops.
Casimir raised a small force, but one
that would prove to be effective against
the Russians. He named this force,
"Knights of the Holy Cross" and each man
bore the red crimson cross on his left
side and his tartar cap." The knights in
several actions between 1768 and 1761
were able to defeat the Russians, and
gave Poland its greatest victory at the
Monastery at Czestochowa since 1683 when
Polish forces defeated the Turks at
Vienna.
The Government implicated him in a
plot to kidnap the monarch and declared
him a traitor. Pulaski fled Poland to
seek allies, but he was never to return
and his property was eventually taken. He
fell into dispair and debt in France, but
was eventually referred to General
Washington with letters introductory from
Benjamin Franklin.
Pulaski served on Washington's staff
and led a charge with a small cavalry
force at the Battle of Brandywine that
was decisive. Congress gave him a
commission as a Brigadier. He led the
first American dragoon brigade, but
resigned due to conflicts with other
officers. Congress gave him authority to
raise and independent Legion of dragoons
in Baltimore, and he brought the force
into action in several locations. When
the fighting became focused in the south,
he took his forces to Charleston, and his
aggressive cavalry attacks delayed the
British while reinforcements secured the
city. He next turned to Savannah for a
similar type of defense, but during that
battle he was wounded and subsequently
died on the USS Wasp. His remains are
reportedly interned in Savannah under a monument to him.
In 1929 Congress set aside October 11th as General Pulaski Memorial Day
" Standard of Pulaski's Legion - This banner was made by Moravian [Single Sisters] nuns of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and presented to Colonel Casimir Pulaski [by the patriotic women of Baltimore] in 1778 when he organized an independent corps of 68 horse and 200 foot soldiers at Baltimore. Pulaski bore this banner gallantly through many a campaigns until he was mortally wounded at Savannah, on October 9, 1779. His adjutant, though wounded himself, returned the banner to Baltimore where it is preserved at the museum of the Maryland Historical Society. ..."[source unknown]
The banner "is of yellow silk with the letters 'U.S.' in the center and in a circle around them in Latin, 'Union makes valor.' On the reverse side, [with 13 stars surronding a six pointed star-seeing eye set with a triangle, base at the top, with four bombs in the courners of a square border, all in gold in a scarlet field] ... is the motto, also in Latin, "non alius regis" "No other governs."
[The Flag of the US by Fredrick Cock Hicks]
Thanks to Centurion Richard of Kansas for this suggested centurion commemoration.