Polish freedom fighter who fought for Americas Independence-Casimir Pulaski

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pulaski07.html

The mystery man behind the holiday

March 7, 2005

BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter


Don't know much about Casimir Pulaski?

Join the club. snip

Pulaski -- whose March 4 birthday is observed on the first Monday of March -- often is called the "father of the American cavalry" for his introduction of a horseback-based military force to the country.

The nobleman from Winiary, Poland, spent most of his young life battling Catherine the Great's Russia and its tyrannical hold on his homeland, according to University of Illinois at Chicago history professor John Kulczycki. "He was a freedom fighter. He was against foreign domination," said Kulczycki, author of Casimir Pulaski 1747-1779: A Short Biography. snip

Pulaski's passion for freedom couldn't be snuffed out even after he fled to France when he was accused of trying to assassinate the Polish king appointed by the Russians. So, he jumped at the chance of helping the colonists when Benjamin Franklin recruited him to fight the British in 1777.

"I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it," Pulaski wrote in his first letter to George Washington.

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I bet the British did not consider him a freedom fighter. They probably considered him a terrorist foreign fighter back then.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. OK, everybody now -

THEY FORGOT POLAND!

[rurallib]

2. My daughter teaches school in Illinois.

She has the day off, so I spent some time telling her about Pulaski and what he meant to this country. Chicago has a huge Polish population and it used to be a BIG day there.

[CottonBear]

3. He's famous in Georgia.

He is quite famous in Georgia history. There's even a Pulaski County.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. There's the Pulaski Skyway in NJ...

...and in Boston, Pulaski Circle, on the Dorchester-Southie line, where Morrisey Blvd becomes Day Blvd. Old Colony Blvd. and the Strandway.

[steely]

5. oops, we missed it - can I say Sto Lat?

n/t