There are several reasons why we have parades in his honor, and bridges named after Kazimierz Michał Wacław Wiktor Pułaski (1745-1779), or, as Americans call him; Pulaski. We just don’t know them. Still, we like to celebrate
GENERAL PULASKI MEMORIAL DAY!
Certainly one reason has to be that debonaire matinee idol mustache, and another was that in Poland, his birthplace, he was accused of attempted regicide, for having taken up arms against the King of Poland, where he was on the War Council for the rebel forces of the Bar Confederation.
He won some battles, was imprisoned and released, and fought with distinction again, but the rebellion was crushed when Russia joined the Royalists and Pulaski had to take it on the lam, stripped of lands and property, a wanted man with a death sentence hanging over him.
After a brief sojourn in Prussia, he sought refuge in France, where he was imprisoned for being in debt 3 times, until he met Mr. C-Note himself, old Ben Franklin, who was in France to seek allies for the Revolution and sleep his way through every cougar in Paris. They hit it off handsomely, and the next thing you know, Brigadier General Pulaski is leading American cavalry troops against British Forces in the British Colonies, risking a second death sentence for attempted regicide.
Luck ran out for this international adventurer on October 11, 1779, when he succumbed to his battle wounds in Savannah, Georgia. He crammed a lot into 34 years, even spending the legendary Winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, drilling and training the Continental Army, a key member of General Washington’s staff.
General Pulaski was a true hero of the American Revolution and, by all reports, one sharp dresser.
•Suggested Activities: Charging into the breach