Kazimierz Michal Wladyslaw Wiktor Pulaski 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. George wanted things paid for. 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 the “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.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/casimir-pulaski
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_Pulaski
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