The Life and Afterlife of Casimir Pulaski

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. Today's episode is on Khmers Pulaski,
who English language sources pretty much overwhelmingly referred to by

(00:25):
the Anglicized name Casimir. His last name's also pronounced slightly
differently in his native language of Polish, and I would
say probably people who actually speak Polish do a better
job on his first name than I just did. His
name came up in our recent episode on Villa Roseboro,
who was born in a town named after him, but

(00:46):
he has been on my short list all the way
since twenty nineteen, when he made an appearance on an
installment of Unearthed. Aside from that recent name drop, this
also seemed like a pretty good time to talk about him,
since this year is being observed as the two hundred
and fiftieth birthday of the United States and Pulaski was
killed in action during the Revolutionary War. There's also another

(01:11):
layer that I think makes him a good topic to
talk about in the midst of all these two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary commemorations, and that is how his story
has been told, because he has often been built up
into an almost mythic figure and a representation of ideals
like patriotism and bravery and freedom and independence, and with

(01:34):
all that interconnected with the story that the United States
sort of tells itself about being a melting pot or
a nation of immigrants. There's also writing about him, though
that is not through those lenses and tells a very
different story from that one. Kasimir Pulaski was born on
March sixth, seventeen forty five, in Poland, which at the

(01:58):
time was united with Lithuanian as the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.
That same day, he was baptized at home without a
liturgical ceremony. His baptismal records, which are written in Latin,
describe him with words meaning debility or weakness. It's possible
that because of whatever this was, his parents feared for

(02:19):
his life and didn't want to risk him dying unbaptized.
A baptism with a liturgical ceremony was held for both
Kashmir and his older brother Franchisek on March fourteenth at
the Holy Cross Church in Vorta. Kasimir's parents were Josef
and Marianna Pulaski. Joseph was a lawyer and an arbiter

(02:41):
and the district governor of Varka. The Pulaskis were from
a very old and prominent family. They were part of
the lasha, or the gentry, and they also had a
long history of military service, including men serving as knights
before European fighting forces started transitioning away from noights and
toward standing professional armies. We don't know a whole lot

(03:05):
about Kasimir's early life. He was the middle of three sons,
and there were also several daughters in the family. Kasimir
probably got a basic elementary education before becoming a page
in the court of Charles, Prince of Courtland and Semegalia,
son of King Augustus the third of Poland and Elector
of Saxony. Kasimir became a page in seventeen sixty two,

(03:28):
so he would have been about seventeen, and he got
his first military experience while in service to the Prince.
In the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, kings were elected, and in
seventeen sixty four Stanislaus the second Augustus Poniatowski was elected
King he had become one of the lovers of Russian

(03:49):
Empress Catherine the Second, also known as Catherine the Great,
and he was elected king with Russia's backing. This should
not be viewed as an equal partnership between Catherine and
the king, though Catherine saw Stanislaus as a pawn, and
both she and King Frederick the Second of Prussia wanted

(04:09):
to use him to pursue their own interests. That is
obviously a massive and complicated chunk of history that would
be at least a whole other episode to get into thoroughly.
So the very basic version is that the Commonwealth had
been in decline for a while and Russia had been
taking advantage of that to exert more and more influence

(04:30):
in Poland. That included Catherine pressuring Statislaus to give full
political equality to the Commonwealth's non Catholics. They made up
about ten percent of the Commonwealth's population. Non Catholics were
framed as dissidents, and they had effectively no political rights
and few religious freedoms. In the face of both political

(04:53):
pressure from Russia and outbreaks of violence, the Commonwealth's legislature
called the Same repealed the the restrictions the same also
abandoned reform projects that Stanislaus proposed and Russia objected to.
In February of seventeen sixty eight, a Catholic Confederation was
established in Bar Ukraine to fight back against these religious

(05:16):
reforms and the ongoing escalation of Russian influence in Poland
and King Stanislaus. One of the confederation's founders was Kasimir
Pulaski's father. Kasimir was twenty three, and some accounts characterize
him and his brothers as being conscripted to fight for
the Confederation of Bar. Others characterize him as an eager participant,

(05:42):
just determined to fight for a free Poland. Really, none
of the sources that I used for this episode really
spent much time on the fact that this idea of
freedom was also connected to trying to keep non Catholics
from having political and religeous rights. Whatever the exact circumstances

(06:03):
behind Casimir Pulaski's involvement in this uprising, within a couple
months he was leading skirmishes against the King's forces and
Russian troops. He became a colonel and developed a reputation
for being a skilled horseman and good with a sword.
He also earned particular praise for defending a monastery while
outnumbered and besieged. The Confederation of Bar initially had some

(06:28):
support from France in terms of both money and volunteer fighters.
They also sought the support of the Ottoman Empire, which
declared war on Russia in October of seventeen sixty eight
after Russian troops pursued a Polish force across the Ottoman border.
In seventeen seventy, the Council of the Bar Confederation proclaimed

(06:48):
that the king had been dethroned, which he really hadn't been,
and then the following year they managed to kidnap the
king and hold him prisoner outside of foresaw. Either the
king managed to escape or his abductors started to kind
of second guess what they had done and they let
him go. Either way, he got away. Kasimir Pulaski was

(07:10):
implicated in the kidnapping and he was also charged with
attempted regicide. The kidnapping was real, but the purported assassination
plot doesn't seem to have been. The Confederation of Bar's
international support was already pretty weak, and it really fell
apart as other nations didn't want to back an uprising
that had allegedly tried to kill the king. Pulaski had

(07:34):
to flee first to Prussia, then to the Ottoman Empire,
and then to France. He got further and further in
debt as he tried and failed to raise money and
rally support for Poland. The bar uprising was finally suppressed
in seventeen seventy two. By then, Pulaski had become known
for his ability to recruit and organize troops and for

(07:56):
his bravery, but he was also described asists and insubordinate,
and that put him at odds with a lot of
the Confederation's other leaders. The uprising also came at a
great cost for the Pulaski family. Pulaski's father was dead
by the end of this He was either killed in
action or after being captured. In seventeen sixty nine, one

(08:19):
of Kasimir's brothers had also been killed, and the other
brother had been captured and transported to the Russian interior.
In the summer of seventeen seventy three, Pulaski was tried
for attempted regicide in absentia. He was convicted and sentenced
to beheading. When he tried to join the French Army,

(08:39):
he was turned away. Apparently because of this conviction. He
wound up in Debtor's prison until some friends were able
to free him. The Confederation of bar had a huge
and devastating impact on the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. Neighboring nations
were concerned about both the uprising and Russia's growing in

(09:00):
the region, not just in Poland, but also because of
its military successes in its war with the Ottoman Empire.
In seventeen seventy two, in part to try to preserve
the balance of power in Eastern Europe, Russia, Prussia, and
Austria signed a treaty that divided about a third of
Poland and most of Lithuania among them. More partitions followed

(09:24):
in seventeen ninety three and seventeen ninety five. Poland and
Lithuania both ceased to exist as independent nations until after
World War One. We will get back to Kasimir Pulaski
after we paused for a sponsor break. While Kasimir Pulaski

(09:50):
was in France, he met Benjamin Franklin and Silas Dean,
who were both trying to get French support for the
American Revolution. Those two men were all so meeting with
European generals and other military men who wanted to join
the revolution or to act as advisors to General George
Washington and the Continental Army. People had a range of

(10:12):
reasons for wanting to join the American side, including a
thirst for fame and glory, the chance to attain a
higher military rank than they could in their nation of origin,
loyalty to their nation of origin which was either an
enemy of Britain or would just be happy to see
Britain lose its colonies, or an admiration for the ideals

(10:34):
of the revolutionaries like freedom and independence. Pulaski is usually
characterized as falling into that last group, and that's how
he described himself in letters to George Washington and to
the Continental Congress. But he also had some practical concerns
at work. His only real experience was as a soldier

(10:54):
and a military leader. He was out of money, and
European militaries didn't trust him because he had abducted a
king and had been convicted of regicide. He also faced
some obstacles when it came to joining the Continental Army.
He would need the approval of the Continental Congress, which
had become kind of wary of this influx of European

(11:16):
military men who were all trying to join up. Some
of them who had already gone to North America had
developed a reputation for being arrogant and hard to work with.
A lot of them spoke multiple languages, but they did
not speak English, and English was what most of the
soldiers spoke. That was true of Pulaski as well, and

(11:36):
at first he was mostly communicating with American leaders in French.
The Continental Congress was particularly suspicious of foreign Papists or Catholics,
and that was Pulaski. But Franklin had apparently already heard
about Pulaski's valor in Poland before meeting him. It also

(11:57):
seems like the French officials that Franklin was negotiating with
we're backing Pulaski's efforts to join the Continental Army. They
probably really liked the idea of Pulaski being somewhere else,
and he ultimately made his way to North America with
French financial support. There's also some speculation that Pulaski had
become a Freemason, and that would have opened some doors

(12:20):
with the Freemasons among the revolution's leaders. Including Benjamin Franklin
and George Washington. That's a little unclear though, As we said,
Pulaski was Catholic, and the Catholic Church had started prohibiting
Catholics from joining Freemasons under Pope Clement the twelfth and
seventeen thirty eight. Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter of introduction

(12:41):
for Pulaski on May twenty ninth, seventeen seventy seven, describing
him as quote an officer famous throughout all of Europe
for his bravery and conduct in defense of the liberties
of his country. Pulaski also carried a letter to Gilbert
de Mortier Marquis Lafayette from his wife, Adrienne. This letter

(13:03):
both served as another letter of introduction and at won
Lafayette's gratitude. I think that might have been the first
letter he had received from his wife since going to
North America. And then that's at the stage for the
two men to become friends. Pulaski also wrote letters of
his own. He wrote one in French to George Washington
in August of seventeen seventy seven, while on his way

(13:25):
to North America. It translated in part as quote, I
have the honor to enclose to your excellency the letters
which show the hardships that I have undergone on account
of having taken up arms in defense of my country.
That country no longer exists for me, and here by
fighting for freedom, I wish to deserve it. Life or

(13:47):
death for the welfare of the state is my motto,
and thereby I hope to earn the esteem of the
citizens of this country. Pulaski departed from France on June thirteenth,
seventeen seventy seven, and he arrived in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on
July twenty third. After arriving in Massachusetts, he went to Boston,
where he met with Major General William Heath. He also

(14:10):
obtained a letter of introduction from Lafayette to James Lovell,
Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress. Lafayette's letter said that
he did not know Pulaski, but quote, I received a
particular account about him, I think proper to acquaint you
with it. He was one of the first members of
the Confederation of Poland, the most distinguished officer and the

(14:31):
most dangerous enemy of the tyrants of his country. He
derived a great reputation by his bravery and intelligence in
the war, and his noble and fiery conduct after the
destruction of the unhappy Poland. At first, the Continental Congress
did not approve Pulaski to become an officer, so he

(14:52):
went to find George Washington anyway, arriving at his encampment
north of Philadelphia and volunteering to be his aide. He
was still acting in this volunteer role at the Battle
of Brandywine on September eleventh, seventeen seventy seven. Washington's force
thought it had blocked all of the crossings of the
Brandywine River. It turned out they were wrong, and a

(15:14):
British force under the command of Sir William Howe was
able to cross the river while hidden by fog and
approached Washington's flank. Washington's line collapsed after this unexpected attack,
and Washington realized he had to retreat. General Nathaniel Greene
commanded a reserve force that acted as a rear guard,

(15:35):
and Pulaski volunteered to lead Washington's mounted guard in a
cavalry charge against the British infantry. This charge is often
credited with saving Washington's life and keeping the Continental Army's
defeat at Brandywine from turning into a route. Pulaski's actions
and their outcome made an impression on the Continental Congress,

(15:56):
and four days later, on September fifteenth, they named Pulaski
Brigadier General and Commander of Horse. But the Continental Army
didn't really have a cavalry for Pulaski to command as
Commander of Horse. Horses were mainly being used for reconnaissance
and to carry messages or as ceremonial guards for high

(16:18):
ranking officers, like Washington's guard that Pulaski had led at Brandywine.
So in addition to recruiting and training soldiers, Pulaski also
needed to purchase horses and all of their necessary food
supplies and equipment. In addition to managing all of this,
Pulaski wrote a series of letters to Washington and letters

(16:38):
to other officers about how he thought an army should
use and structure a cavalry that, of course was based
on all of his experience in training in Europe, and
sometimes these letters really made it sound like he thought
people were stupid for having not already realized this. Pulaski's
time as Commander of horse did not go so smoothly.

(17:01):
Since he didn't speak English well, he had to work
through translators, and he butted heads with people over just
fundamentally different ideas of what horses should be used for
in war. Pulaski was so deeply annoyed that the Continental
Army decided to remain quartered over the winter rather than
embarking on a wintertime campaign against the British. In early

(17:23):
seventeen seventy eight, he resigned from that post. He was like,
I don't know what's wrong with you. While we fight
in the winter all the time in Europe, just go
lie around for a few lazy weightouting. Yeah. On March
twenty eighth of that same year, though, the Continental Congress
resolved that Pulaski could retain his rank of brigadier general,

(17:45):
and they tasked him with raising and commanding quote, an
independent corps to consist of sixty eight horse and two
hundred foot, the horse to be armed with lances, and
the foot equipped in the manner of light infantry. The
corps to be raised in such a way and composed
of such men as General Washington shall think expedient and proper,

(18:06):
and if it shall be thought by General Washington that
it will not be injurious to the service that he
have liberty to dispense in this particular instance, with the
resolve of Congress against enlisting deserters. Some sources characterize this
as the Continental Congress's recognition of Pulaski's dedication, bravery, knowledge

(18:28):
and skill, but others suggest that putting Pulaski in charge
of an independent corps was more about just getting him
out of the way and stopping all of the disputes
he kept having about what a cavalry was for this corps,
which became known as the Pulaski Legion, was largely made
up of men from Poland, France, Germany, and Ireland, as

(18:49):
well as some who had been born in North America.
It was probably the most internationally diverse unit connected to
the Continental Army, and it had a lot fewer be
unication issues than when Pulaski was commanding mostly English speakers.
In April of that year, he was issued ten thousand
dollars for the purpose of buying horses and recruiting troops,

(19:12):
and other funding followed, although there were a lot of
disputes about money and accusations that he was mismanaging that money.
Kulaski also claimed that he was not getting the funding
he needed and that he was having to put in
a lot of money from his family to make up
for that. The Pulaski legion had a small flag or standard, which,

(19:33):
according to the Low was made by the Moravian Single
Sisters of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This was commemorated in a poem
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow titled him of the Moravian Nuns
of Bethlehem. This standard is in the collection of the
Maryland Center for History and Culture, and it's currently on
loan to the Museum of the American Revolution. But the

(19:57):
connection to the Moravian Single Sisters is a little bit fuzzier.
Pulaski is known to have visited them once, but there
is no documentation of their having made that banner. Yeah,
this is as I understand it. It's something that probably
would have been mentioned in their records and diaries and
it just wasn't, although the visit was. Pulaski trained his

(20:19):
legion as lancers and dragoons in the style of the
Polish military that started in May of seventeen seventy eight,
but as a fighting unit, they had mixed success. In
August of seventeen seventy eight, they were sent to defend
a privateering base at Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. They
faced heavy losses. There After, a Hessian who had defected

(20:41):
from the British Army and come to join their ranks.
He deserted and then led about two hundred and fifty
British soldiers back to Pulaski's unit in a surprise attack.
At least fifty of Pulaski's men were bayoneted as they slept.
In the spring of seventeen seventy Nineasky's legion was sent
south to help defend the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

(21:05):
On May eleventh, Pulaski made one of the decisions that
earned him a reputation for recklessness. He apparently planned to
charge a British reading party and then fall back to
lure them into an ambush, but he did so before
that ambush was actually in place, which of course again
led to heavy losses, giving Pulaski his own independent Corps

(21:28):
also had not resolved all of the conflicts. On August nineteenth,
seventeen seventy nine, while in Charleston Pulaski sent a lengthy
letter to the Continental Congress that began, quote, Gentlemen, every
information from the northward that has reached me since my
departure from thence strengthens my opinion, indeed convinces me that

(21:51):
there is some malignant spirit constantly casting such an impenetrable
mist before your eyes as to render it impossible for
you to see and judge of my conduct with propriety,
and as becomes the character of gentlemen in your exalted stations.
He described himself as continually ill treated. Quote since the

(22:15):
fatal instant that I undertook to raise my core, which
I closed, recruited, and exercised in the space of three
months time, I have been and still am persecuted. I
cannot express my indignation when I recollect the infamous chicane
by which I was compelled to appear before a court
like a criminal. That little last line was related to

(22:38):
accusations about misuse of funds and possibly also his requisitioning
supplies from local loyalists. Okay, that was another thing here
where he was like, we do this in Europe. I
don't know why you all can't get your acts together,
it's fine. Uh. One passage from this letter gets quoted

(22:58):
a lot in depictions of Pulaski as a passionate defender
of liberty and sort of a personification of the ideals
of the American revolution. Quote I could not submit to
stoop before the sovereigns of Europe. So I came to
hazard all for the freedom of America and desirous of

(23:19):
passing the rest of my life in a country truly free,
and before settling as a citizen to fight for liberty.
So those depictions of him that are sort of the
exemplar of revolutionary ideals don't usually include the rest of
this sentence, which is quote, but perceiving that endeavors are

(23:40):
used to disgust me against such a motive and regard
it was phantom. I am inclined to believe that enthusiasm
for liberty is not the predominant virtue in America at
this time. We will talk about the end of Pulaski's
life after we pause for a sponsor break. In the

(24:09):
fall of seventeen seventy nine, the Pulaski Legion was sent
to Georgia to try to break the siege of Savannah,
a French fleet was already there, ready under the command
of Charles henri ekdor Count Destang, while American troops were
under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln. Those two forces
needed to work together to break that siege, and Pulaski

(24:32):
was going to coordinate between them. Some sources portray Casimir
Pulaski as being shot while leading a dramatic cavalry charge
against a British line at Savannah on October ninth, seventeen
seventy nine. There are also several artistic depictions of this
moment in which Pulaski is leading a charge, but other

(24:53):
accounts say he wasn't charging anyone. He was scouting ahead
with his aide de camp, Colonel Paul Badlou. While they
were scouting, Pulaski heard that Count de Stung had been
wounded and rushed to help, which is when he was shot.
People also point out that, in spite of the fact
that it looks really good in the movies, a trained

(25:16):
cavalry unit would probably not be charging against armed infantry
who could just stab them in their horses. That it's
just not a realistic way of how cavalry was being
used at that time. Well, not if you're not Kasim,
your Pulaski, you ding Dogstan do it my way. So
written accounts of what happened are more in line with

(25:37):
this second version that he was scouting ahead. One of
those was from Captain John Freeman, who wrote that they
were near a poplar tree when Pulaski quote stood up
in the saddle, grasped the pommel with both hands, and
with a momentary expression of disbelief, slid into the arms
of Ambrose and the staff officers, who gently laid the

(25:59):
unconscious form on the ground. So Ambrose in this passage
was Freeman's enslaved servant. Surgeon James Lenna of Ireland removed
Pulaski from the battlefield with the help of his son
Edward and his enslaved servant Ghee. Some of them were
Lionizing accounts of Pulaski's life make it sound like the
British knew who he was and held him in such

(26:22):
high esteem that they allowed him to be removed rather
than bayoneting him immediately. Lena extracted the ball it is
described as being in Pulaski's hip, groin or thigh, and
he dressed the wound. There is a ball mounted on
a silver candlestick that was passed down through the Lena
family in the collection of the Georgia Historical Society purportedly

(26:46):
the grape shot that struck Kasimir Pulaski. According to accounts
from just after this happened, as well as at least
one news report, Benelou had also been wounded, and he
and Pulaski were taken aboard a brig called the Wasp,
where Pulaski continued to be treated by Lena and by
a French doctor from Dustang's fleet, but on board the

(27:09):
ship on October eleventh, seventeen seventy nine, Pulaski died at
the age of thirty four. He had developed gangren and
because of the very foul smell. In Benelou's words, they
were quote compelled, though reluctantly, to consign to a watery grave,
all that was now left upon earth of his beloved
and honored commander. A week later, Lincoln and Dustang were

(27:33):
forced to retreat, and the Siege of Savannah ended with
a British victory. Benelou wrote to the Continental Congress to
inform them of Pulaski's death. On October twenty fifth. A
month after that, the Congress resolved to erect a monument
in Pulaski's memory. On February twenty third, seventeen eighty, what
remained of Pulaski's Legion was incorporated with the core of

(27:56):
Colonel armand Marquis de la Ruerrie, and, of course, three
years later, the Revolutionary War formally ended with the Treaty
of Paris, under which King George the Third recognized the
United States as an independent nation. Although Pulaski had been
regarded as arrogant and reckless and had an obviously fraught

(28:17):
relationship with his superiors and his subordinates, it did not
take long for him to be regarded as an absolute hero,
and that regard, to be clear, that grew from things
he had actually really done. Pulaski's work with the Pulaski
Legion and his advocacy for the creation of an actual
cavalry within the Continental Army, and then the regulations that

(28:39):
he created for that cavalry, are why he is sometimes
called the father of the American Cavalry. He also willingly
fought and died for the freedom of a nation that
he had literally no connections to. In the words of
Clarence A. Manning, a professor of Slavic languages and literature
who died in nineteen seventy two, quote, all those men

(29:01):
who had grumbled at his cavalier methods of handling accounts,
or had been annoyed by his vehement outbursts as to
the needs of his troops now realized that he had
been actuated only by impetuous patriotism and enthusiasm. The city
of Charleston held a public funeral in Pulaski's honor, and

(29:23):
after the war was over, the city of Savannah started
trying to raise money for a monument to him and
to General Nathaniel Greene. At first, they couldn't get enough funds,
but that started to change ahead of the Marquis de
Lafayette's tour of the United States, which started in eighteen
twenty four. Lafayette lay cornerstones honoring Pulaskian green on March

(29:44):
twenty first, eighteen twenty five, during his visit to Savannah.
It took a while for these monuments to be completed, though.
Pulaski's monument, which is an obelisk with Pulaski on horseback
shown in relief at the base was finished in eighteen
fifty five. A completely different account of Pulaski's death and

(30:05):
burial emerged in eighteen fifty one. As this monument was
being built, stories started to circulate that Pulaski was not
buried at sea, but under a tree on the bank
of a creek in Georgia. In December of eighteen fifty three,
William Parker Bowen said that he had found this burial
site at Greenwich Plantation in Chatham County, which had previously

(30:27):
been owned by his family. Pulaski had purportedly been taken there,
either instead of being taken aboard the Wasp, or after
being removed from the Wasp. Bowen said that his grandmother
and aunt had personally witnessed Pulaski's burial, and that that
story had been passed down through the family. He excavated

(30:50):
a site on the property and he removed what appeared
to be a complete skeleton, which was sealed in a
metal box and placed behind the monument's cornerstone. Other documents
were put forth to support the Greenwich Plantation as Pulaski's
true burial place. One is a letter written by the
Captain of the Wasp, Samuel Bullfinch. This letter, dated October fifteenth,

(31:14):
seventeen seventy nine says that Bullfinch quote took on board
the Americans that was sent down, one of which died
this day, and I have brought him ashore and buried him.
Bullfinch doesn't name this American, though, so it could have
been Pulaski, meaning that earlier accounts got the date of
his death wrong, or it could have been some other

(31:35):
unnamed soldier who died on October fifteenth, possibly a different person.
Another source that was put forth to substantiate this is
the pension application of Martha Milliner Phillips' widow of Eliezer Phillips,
a cabinet maker who had served aboard the Wasp. Multiple

(31:55):
documents in this pension file referenced Pulaski, although they all
say slightly different things. One letter says Pulaski died aboard
the Wasp while it was anchored in a river not
far from Savannah, and that he was taken ashore and buried.
Supporters of the Greenwich Plantation burial site reference this letter

(32:17):
while ignoring another letter that says that Eliezer Phillips built
the coffin when it was believed that it would be
needed for Pulaski's burial, which was going to take place
in Charlestown, but that was before the weather kept them
from being able to actually get there and the decision
was made to bury him at sea. The Greenwich supporters

(32:37):
also ignore the record of Martha Milliner Phillips to herself
her own testimony about her husband's time aboard the Wasp,
which was sworn before a judge. Quote deponent saith that
the gallant Pulaski being wounded at Savannah in October seventeen
seventy nine, he was put on board said brig where

(32:58):
he died and was buried in the ocean between North
and South Edistow. Debate about Pulaski's burial at sea or
at Greenwich Plantation has been going on since the middle
of the nineteenth century, with numerous very passionate arguments in speeches, articles,
and eventually websites. Then, in nineteen ninety six, the Pulaski

(33:21):
Monument in Savannah was badly in need of repair, and
the restoration it required offered an opportunity for DNA testing
on the remains, so that had the potential to answer
these questions. When the Pulaski Identification Committee issued its final
report ten years later, the questions weren't answered. Researchers had

(33:44):
not actually been able to extract any identifiable DNA from
the bones, but the committee stated in the report that
quote strong circumstantial evidence does suggest that the remains are
Casimir Pulaski's. Additional DNA research was conducted in two thousand
and four, this time comparing mitochondrial DNA from one of

(34:05):
Pulaski's teeth with mitochondrial DNA from a living female relative
of Pulaski's named Anna Prasinska. According to this test, Prasinska
was not related to whoever's bones had been enclosed in
the monument. Tests on samples from two other potential female
Pulaski relatives also reached the same conclusion. Researchers had already

(34:30):
noted that the bones in the monument seemed to have
come from someone who had a small stature and spent
a lot of time on horseback, and died at an
early age. Those are all things that were true of
Casimir Pulaski. And then another observation came from this additional
study of the bones, and that was that they had
a number of traits that are more common in females

(34:52):
than in males, including the shape of the pelvis. This
led to speculation that Pulaski may have been female or intersex,
possibly due to a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia. No
tests have actually been done to try to confirm whether
that's the case, though. Then in twenty nineteen, there was

(35:13):
another round of research on the bones and the DNA
within them. This is what came up on a previous
installment of an Earth and it became part of an
episode of America's Hidden Stories on Smithsonian Channel titled The
General Was Female. This episode walks through the basics of
Pulaski's life, including the reference to an infirmity on his

(35:33):
baptismal records, implying that may have been a reference to
his external genitals being ambiguous. It also discusses the contradictory
accounts of his burial and various details about the bones
that were buried in the monument and what they might
say about that person's life. Yes, is continue to build
the idea that these are Pulaski's bones, and there are

(35:57):
indications that he might have been an At the end
of the Smithsonian Channel episode, a researcher announces that additional
mitochondrial DNA research has confirmed a match between a new
sample taken from a talus bone from the remains from
the Pulaski Monument and a metatarsal bone from Pulaski's maternal

(36:20):
great grand niece to Rasa Vitavska. That is the opposite
of what I thought they were going to say, based
on what I had concluded from all of the research
I had done by the time I watched this Smithsonian
Channel episode. Something that happened on the very last day
of research on this episode, so that announcement seems definitive.

(36:41):
But Polish American historian James S. Pula published a paper
in the Polish Review in twenty twenty two in which
he noted that there's no clear chain of custody for
these new samples, which had been sent through the mail.
It's not clear how the samples were handled or whether
they could have been taminated. It also seems that the

(37:02):
researchers who carried out these tests did not have a
clear answer for why three previous tests all failed to
find a match. But that this one had a match.
Pula asked if tests were done to see if the
new sample matched the previous sample taken from the Savannah
Monument bones, and their answer was quote, the second set
of samples had some similarities with the first. Pula noted

(37:27):
that's not the same thing as saying that they matched.
Pula has published other work on Pulaski, including other work
that was skeptical of the claims that these are his bones.
So if those bones from the monument really are Pulaski's bones,
and if he really had female anatomy, or if he
really was intersex, then he is an example of how

(37:49):
there have always been people whose lives and whose bodies
don't align with their society's understanding or expectations around sex
and gender. This is not a new thing at all.
But if that's the case, we really don't have information
at all about how Pulaski felt about it or how
he understood himself. And it's also possible that those are

(38:11):
just someone else's bones and that the test results that
were announced on America's Hidden Stories are incorrect. If those
results have been published somewhere and subjected to peer review,
I sure could not find it, aside from the ongoing
debates around Pulaski's burial site and whether the bones from
the monument are his. As we said, soon after his

(38:32):
death at the Siege of Savannah, he was being hailed
as a hero, and he became a particularly important hero
to the Polish immigrant community in the US, especially as
people fled to North America after a rebellion against Russian
rules started in Poland in eighteen thirty In eighteen thirty three,
a fort on Cockspur Island off the coast of Savannah

(38:54):
was named in his honor. Now it is Fort Pulaski
National Monument. A lot of cities, town streets, et cetera
that are named for him. The USS Pulaski was a
steamship that was in service from eighteen fifty eight to
eighteen sixty three, and then the USS Kasimir Pulaski was
a submarine that was in service from nineteen sixty four

(39:16):
to nineteen ninety four. During World War One, the stories
of Kasimir Pulaski and of Polish engineer today as Kazuko
were both used as propaganda to try to raise American
support for Poland. Kuzhuko also fought during the Revolutionary War,
and he arguably had a bigger impact on the course

(39:36):
of the war than Pulaski did. He did a lot
of work that involved things like fortifications. Kashuko returned to
Poland after the war, and he died there on October fifteenth,
eighteen seventeen. Today General Pulaski Memorial Day is observed in
the US on October eleventh. Presidential proclamations about the day

(39:56):
often referenced Pulaski's sacrifice, as well as that of Polish
Americans who have served in the US Armed forces more generally.
In nineteen seventy seven, after years of advocacy, primarily by
Chicago's Polish community, the first Monday in March was also
established as Kasimir Pulaski Day in Illinois. Chicago has one

(40:18):
of the largest concentrations of Polish people outside of Poland,
and apparently this date was chosen to avoid a collision
with the observance of Columbus Day. In nineteen eighty five,
Kasimir Pulaski Day was made a full public holiday in
Illinois rather than just a commemorative day. This change to
the holiday's status happened alongside the establishment of Martin Luther

(40:41):
King Junior Day as a federal holiday in nineteen eighty
three that went into effect in nineteen eighty six. In
two thousand and nine, Kasimir Pulaski became one of only
eight people to be given honorary US citizenship. This was
sponsored by Illinois Senator Richard Durbin with a lot of
coastbind and it was passed by unanimous consent. It was

(41:03):
signed by President Barack Obama on November sixth of that year.
You're thinking it seems a little odd to give people
citizenship posthumously. Only a couple of the people who have
received honorary US citizenship were alive when it happened, So
that's Casmir Polaski. Do you have some a live listener mail?

(41:25):
I do have a live listener mail. This is from Rosalie,
and Rosalie wrote after we were talking about Peter Kerpotkin
being in prison and getting dark at three o'clock in
the afternoon, So Rosalie wrote, Hi, Holly and Tracy, I
saved up maybe a few too many episodes from my
recent half marathon and now I'm a touch behind. Thanks
for not making me cry this year with the topics

(41:47):
while I was racing, which happens sometimes. You're still my
favorite hang while running long distance, so it's worth the
risk anyway. All that to say in your behind the
scenes for Peter Kerpotkin, Tracy mentioned the early sunsets in
New England. I'm prepping for my summer job at the
Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Whole, Massachusetts, and I have
to give some hate to the early summer sunrises. Bird

(42:10):
chorus gets started at four feels like and I am
never ready, especially after a night up in the lab
until two am. I tell all the students to bring
a good imask for the pet section. I'm sad to
report that my beloved Rufus passed on after about nineteen
wonderful years. Ed is still a menace, but he's our menace.
Not sure when I'll be ready for another cat, but
we had the opportunity to rescue the world's sweetest dog

(42:33):
and he's actually been helping my heart. Still waiting for
his name to come to us. Pictured his dog ed
on his poof and Rufus in one of our last snugs.
Thanks for all the miles, Rosalie, Well, thank you Rosalie
for this email, and thank you for these great pet pictures.
I love them so much. I'm sorry for your loss

(42:53):
of rufus. I wanted to thank you for the reminder
that I needed to replace my imasks because I lose them.
They get lost while traveling, they like fall down and
get kicked under the bed, and then the cats kick
them farther under the bed, the various things that I
just I am great at losing imasks, and they are

(43:16):
a wonderful, wonderful help. When the sun is coming up
so early in Massachusetts, and it would be even a
little bit earlier at woods Hole than at my house,
I would rather deal with the sun coming up with
it in an emask. It's kind of the same thing
that makes me not like wearing earbuds. I just don't wait, sure,
it makes me crazy. I can't sleep right. Yeah, yeah,

(43:36):
I understand. I keep finding imasks and going why do
I have so many imss? So I should start shipping
them to you. My best guess is going to be
red eye flights. Sometimes they are handed out exactly. And yeah,
I I do sleep a whole lot better in the
summertime in Massachusetts when I have an imask one because

(43:58):
otherwise the sunlight wakes me up up very early. We
currently have a cat who is having to wear a
donut and she cannot. We have a little thing that
keeps the door to the bedroom partially open. She cannot
get in and out through it with the donut on,
so we have to leave the door wide open, and
that just brings another source of sunlight from a window

(44:18):
into the room and it is like full daylight. Uh yeah,
even with our even with our lined blinds that keep
the other windows darker. So thank you again for this
email and these pictures. If you would like to send
us a note, we're at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com.

(44:38):
If you would like to see the research that went
into this episode, all of our show notes, that's on
our our website which is at missinhistory dot com. And
you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app
and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff
you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

(44:59):
From podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Life and Afterlife of Casimir Pulaski