Pulaski Day

I knew there was a reason we are supremely unmotivated today - it is a holiday! In Illinois at least.

Pulaski Day
Sometimes called the “Father of American Cavalry,” Casimir Pulaski was born March 4th, 1747, in Warka, Poland. (It may have been 1746 or 1748.) He became a national Polish hero in 1771, when he and his army overwhelmingly defeated Russian forces in Czestochwa, Poland. Pulaski was wrongly accused in a plot to capture and kill the King of Poland and was banished from Poland.
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The first Monday in March has been designated Pulaski Day in Illinois.

More infohere

From 1777 to 1779, he fought for independence of the United States in the American Revolution under the command of George Washington. Pulaski was a noted cavalryman and played a large role in training Revolutionary troops, creating Pulaski's Legion, one of the few cavalry regiments in the contemporary US army. He took part in the Siege of Charleston (Charleston, South Carolina) and siege of Savannah (Savannah, Georgia).

During a cavalry charge, on October 9, 1779, while probing for a weak point in the British lines at the battle of Savannah, Pulaski was mortally wounded by a grapeshot. He was carried from the field of battle by several comrades, including Colonel John C. Cooper. He was wounded in the groin and was taken aboard the privateer merchant brigantine Wasp. Two days later, on October 11, 1779, he died of wounds without regaining consciousness.

According to several contemporary witnesses, including his aide-de-camp, he was buried at sea, however a long standing rumor persists that the wounded Pulaski was actually taken to Greenwich plantation near Savannah where he later died and was buried. An eight year long examination of the remains buried at the plantation ended in 2004 having failed to reach a definitive conclusion.


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This page contains a single entry by Seth A. published on March 6, 2006 3:47 PM.

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