Military officer; born in Podolia,
Poland, March 4, 1748.
His father was the
Count Pulaski, who formed the Confederation of Bar in 1768.
He had served under his father in his struggle for liberty in
Poland; and when his sire perished in a dungeon the young count was elected commander-inchief (1770). In 1771 he, with thirty-nine others, disguised as peasants, entered
Warsaw, and, seizing King Stanislaus, carried him out of the city, but were compelled to leave their captive and fly for safety.
His little army was soon afterwards defeated.
He was outlawed, and his estates were confiscated, when he entered the Turkish army and made war on
Russia.
Sympathizing with the
Americans in their struggle for independence, he came to
America in the summer of 1777, joined the army under
Washington, and fought bravely in the
battle of Brandywine.
Congress gave him command of cavalry, with the rank of brigadier-general.
He was in the
battle of Germantown; and in 1778 his “Legion” was formed, composed of sixty light horsemen and 200 foot-soldiers.
When about to take the field in the
South the “Moravian nuns,” or singing women at
Bethlehem, Pa., sent him a banner
Greene and
Pulaski monument.
wrought by them, which he received with grateful acknowledgments, and which he bore until he fell at
Savannah in 1779.
This event is commemorated in
Longfellow's
Hymn of the Moravian nuns.
The banner is now in possession of the Maryland Historical Society.
Surprised near
Little Egg Harbor, on the
New Jersey coast, nearly all of his foot-soldiers were killed.
Recruiting his ranks, he went South in February, 1779, and was in active service under
General Lincoln, engaging bravely in the siege of
Savannah, Ga. (q. v.), in which he was mortally wounded, taken to the United States brig
Wasp, and there died, Oct. 11.
The citizens of
Savannah erected a monument to “
Greene and
Pulaski,” the cornerstone of which was laid by
Lafayette in 1825.
