PULASKI, KAZIMIERZ

English Casimir Pulaski born March 4, 1747, Winiary, Pol. died Oct. 11?, 1779, at sea, between Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., U.S. Polish patriot and U.S. colonial army officer, hero of the Polish anti-Russian insurrection of 1768 (the Confederation of Bar) and of the American Revolution. The son of Jzef Pulaski (170469), one of the originators of the Confederation of Bar, the young Pulaski distinguished himself in the defense of Berdichev (1768) and Czestochowa (177071) against the Russians. He also unsuccessfully attempted to kidnap King Stanislaw II to the confederates' camp (October 1771) and was falsely accused of trying to murder the king. After the Prussian and Austrian invasion of Poland in the spring of 1772, Pulaski left Czestochowa for Saxony; he later moved to France and lived in financial straits. In December 1776, in Paris, Pulaski met the American statesman Benjamin Franklin, who recommended him to General George Washington. Pulaski landed in America in June 1777. In Washington's army he served at Brandywine, was made general and chief of cavalry by Congress, and fought at Germantown and in the winter campaign of 177778. The Pulaski Legion, a mixed corps he formed in 1778, exploited his experience in guerrilla warfare. In May 1779 he defended Charleston. Wounded at Savannah on Oct. 9, 1779, he died aboard the Wasp en route to Charleston. Additional reading Biographies include Wladyslaw Konopczynski, Casimir Pulaski (1947); and Clarence A. Manning, Soldier of Liberty: Casimir Pulaski (1945).