In Illinois, the schools are closed on Pulaski Day. If you’ve never lived near a large Polish community, there is a good chance you’ve never heard of Casimir Pulaski.
He had made a name for himself fighting in Poland against Russia. He was a member of the “landed nobility” and had developed tactics to use men on horseback for fighting the Russians, with mixed results. He fled to exile in France in 1771 and bumped into a guy named Benjamin Franklin. He came to join the American Revolution in 1777, spending mostly his own money to outfit his cavalry unit – since the Continental Congress had little in terms of funding sources. Not being able to speak English and acting the part of a European Nobleman in a war to get rid of European Noblemen somewhat impaired his ability to build an effective cavalry of American volunteers.
At the Battle of Brandywine, as the British were moving down to recapture Philadelphia, Goerge Washington and his troops barely escaped being destroyed as they retreated because Pulaski discovered that the British were cutting off Washington’s path of escape and sent word to Washington in time.
Pulaski would later die in South Carolina, working with the French allies, who were bringing in war supplies through the ports there.
You can read more about him at the monument on the Washington Mall dedicated to all of the Polish people who died in the Revolutionary War. Oh, hold on a minute. There is no such monument. My bad. There is a statue of Pulaski however, located about two blocks off the mall.
http://wikimapia.org/10584921/Commerative-Statue-of-Casimir-Pulaski
