Casimir Pulaski

Casimir Pulaski, a Polish cavalry officer for whom Pulaski and Pulaski Township in Williams County are named, fled to Paris and then to America after being charged with attempting to kidnap the king of Poland, met General George Washington in 1777, and joined the colonies' struggle for independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. At the Battle of Brandywine, he covered the American retreat with a daring charge against pursuing British forces. After Brandywine, the Continental Congress commissioned him a Brigadier General of Cavalry, and after later resigning his command, he petitioned Washington to organize what became known in March 1778 as Pulaski's Legion. Ordered south in February 1779, the Legion assisted in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina, in May and then moved to help French and American forces take British-held Savannah, Georgia, where Pulaski was mortally wounded on October 9, 1779, in support of French admiral Charles Henri d' Estaing's attack. Remembered as the "Father of American Cavalry," Pulaski forged a force that could scout and report British troop movements, conduct long-range forage raids to feed and clothe soldiers at Valley Forge, and fight rearguard actions to cover retreating American forces.

Pulaski, Ohio · United States