With recommendations from Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette, in 1777 Pulaski joined the American War for Independence. On September 15, 1777, he was commissioned a Brigadier General and made "Commander of the Horse." He is considered the "Father of the American Cavalry." At largely his own expense, he formed an independent cavalry and infantry corps in Baltimore, known as that time as ?Pulaski's Legion." While leading a cavalry charge against the British at Savannah, Georgia, he was mortally wounded on October 14, 1779.

In 1929, the Pulaski Monument Committee commissioned architect A.C. Radziszewski and sculptor Hans Schuler to design a monument depicting Pulaski leading his final cavalry charge. On October 14, 1951, the completed monument was dedicated.

In 2001, for its 50th anniversary, under the leadership of the Pulaski Monument Restoration Committee, Polish Legion of American Veterans General Casimir Pulaski Post 209, the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, Department of Recreation and Parks, and the Friends of Patterson Park, the monument was restored and rededicated.

While visiting Bethlehem, PA, Pulaski received a silken banner made by Moravian nuns. This is one of the first instances that the US abbreviation was used. Image courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society.

Pulaski Monument Restoration Committee, Sponsor Sheila Dixon, Mayor

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