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Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm

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Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. In the

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Speaker 1: early hours of October ninth, seventeen seventy nine, in the

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Speaker 1: marshes to the south of Savannah, Georgia, the cavalry commander

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Speaker 1: was awaiting his call to glory. If he succeeded, the

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Speaker 1: plan that he had spearheaded would unite a force of

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Speaker 1: American and French troops in a bold, multi pronged attack

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Speaker 1: to reclaim the city Savannah from the British. Once the

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Speaker 1: infantry located a defensive weakness, the cavalry would charge, break

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Speaker 1: through enemy lines and overwhelm their opposition. If they won,

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Speaker 1: it would be a resounding victory in the American Revolutionary War,

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Speaker 1: and also it would be a crowning achievement for one

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Speaker 1: of the most unlikely heroes of the Continental Army, because

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Speaker 1: the general that day waiting on his horse was neither

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Speaker 1: American nor French. Count Casimir Pulaski was a Polish noble. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: for Pulaski, the elements that fateful morning were against him.

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Speaker 1: The foggy weather and swampy terrain delayed the foot soldiers

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Speaker 1: in reaching their starting positions. The conditions also impeded the

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Speaker 1: Allied military units from effectively communicating with one another, a

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Speaker 1: process which was already difficult given the involved egos, tenuous agreements,

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Speaker 1: and language barriers between many of the officers, enlisted men,

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Speaker 1: and members of the militia. But far worse than all

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Speaker 1: of that, and unbeknownst to Pulaski, a critical betrayal had

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Speaker 1: taken place the night before. Someone had leaked their plans,

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Speaker 1: and so the fortifications they were attacking actually held far

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Speaker 1: more heavily armed reinforcements than Pulaski had counted on. British

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Speaker 1: riflemen were able to start brutally picking off the majority

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Speaker 1: of the sodden and struggling soldiers as they approached. Pulaski

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Speaker 1: waited with his cavalry while all this was happening. As

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Speaker 1: someone who lived for the thrill of battle, Pulaski found

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Speaker 1: the long period of anticipation to be nearly unbearable. It

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Speaker 1: was all he could do to keep his anti cavalrymen

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Speaker 1: ready and organized while gunshots and disembodied shouts filtered through

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Speaker 1: the misty air.

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Speaker 2: Finally, word came that the leader of the French forces,

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Speaker 2: Charles Hector, Comte de Stang, had been gravely wounded. Knowing

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Speaker 2: that the death of Distang could throw France's units into

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Speaker 2: chaos and thereby doom the ally's chances, he made the

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Speaker 2: decision to spur his steed forward. After all, this was

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Speaker 2: what the cavalry was all about, speed, precision, daring action.

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Speaker 2: He detested structured, predictable warfare anyway, and he was certainly

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Speaker 2: used to being vastly outnumbered. And so Pulaski rode into

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Speaker 2: the fray, convinced that there was still hope for the

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Speaker 2: man who would later be called the father of the

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Speaker 2: American Cavalry. There was always still hope of shifting the momentum,

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Speaker 2: of fighting for freedom, of harnessing his unrivaled skills atop

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Speaker 2: a horse, of saving the day. I'm Danah Schwartz, and

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Speaker 2: this is noble blood. Through almost every phase of his life,

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Speaker 2: Casimir Pulaski seemed to spark some form of debate or conflict.

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Speaker 2: Case in point, his entry into the world somehow generated

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Speaker 2: four different birth records, which lead historians to often disagree

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Speaker 2: on his birthday. Nevertheless, the consensus among modern scholars seems

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Speaker 2: to be that the man whose name is commonly anglicized

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Speaker 2: as Casimir Pulaski was born on March sixth, seventeen forty

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Speaker 2: five in Warsaw, Poland. His family was devoutly Catholic and

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Speaker 2: prominent among the Polish nobility. Some sources quibble over Pulaski's

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Speaker 2: education and whether he was possibly a freemason, but three

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Speaker 2: things his biographers all appear to agree on are the

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Speaker 2: on Count was highly driven to fight for independence. He

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Speaker 2: was exceedingly passionate about horse riding, and he felt that

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Speaker 2: the more he could combine the two, the better. Pulaski's

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Speaker 2: armed ambitions pushed him to join multiple wars on multiple

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Speaker 2: continents and connect with some of eighty eighteenth century's most

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Speaker 2: influential figures, rather than cover his entire military career or life, though,

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Speaker 2: especially since Pulaski's own mood and movements seemed so often

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Speaker 2: hinged on whichever campaign was directly at hand, will zoom

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Speaker 2: in on two specific battles of the American Revolutionary War that,

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Speaker 2: in my mind serve as intriguing windows into his personality,

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Speaker 2: his superlative horse sense, and his lasting effect on the

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Speaker 2: fledgling country's fortunes. Our first battle, the Battle of Brandywine,

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Speaker 2: was a doozy. The fighting along Brandywine Creek on September eleventh,

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Speaker 2: seventeen seventy seven reportedly involved more soldiers than any skirmish

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Speaker 2: in the war other than the Battle of Long Island.

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Speaker 2: Most estimates put a total number of American and British

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Speaker 2: troops who flashed at a little over thirty thousand. However,

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Speaker 2: even with army size being so vital, Pulaski almost wasn't

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Speaker 2: allowed to participate at all. The Polish soldier had only

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Speaker 2: recently arrived from commanding a cavalry for the bar Confederation,

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Speaker 2: a group who had fiercely fought against Russian control of

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Speaker 2: the Poland Lithuania Commonwealth. Pulaski's exploits there were divisive, leading

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Speaker 2: many contemporaries to describe him as brave and honest, while

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Speaker 2: others characterized him as a loose cannon. But again there

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Speaker 2: was little argument about his larger aspirations. Fellow soldiers frequently

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Speaker 2: remarked on his disinterest in women, in drinking, and other

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Speaker 2: common pursuits, as he singularly obsessively sought to fight for

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Speaker 2: nations whose quests for independence he viewed as honorable and worthy.

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Speaker 2: Pulaski's reputation was so considerable that, after his side lost

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Speaker 2: in Poland, he arrived in America bearing a recommendation letter

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Speaker 2: from another than notable diplomat, Benjamin Franklin. Three weeks prior

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Speaker 2: to the Battle of Brandywine, Pulaski had presented himself and

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Speaker 2: his letter to George Washington in Pennsylvania, as the American

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Speaker 2: general was strategizing about how to keep British forces from

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Speaker 2: capturing the US capital at the time, Philadelphia. The thirty

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Speaker 2: one year old Polish Man, who a resident doctor described

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Speaker 2: as a man of hardly middling stature, sharp continents, and

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Speaker 2: lively hair, may not have had the most awe inspiring

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Speaker 2: physical presence, and he hardly spoke English, but once he

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Speaker 2: got on a horse, he was captivating. Pulaski reportedly performed

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Speaker 2: writing stunts Washington's officers to showcase his prowess and to

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Speaker 2: emphasize his claim that well trained cavalry corps could perform

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Speaker 2: feats far beyond the capacity of any infantry. It's worth

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Speaker 2: taking a moment here to appreciate just how dazzling Pulaski's

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Speaker 2: riding skills were. Multiple historians have related that one of

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Speaker 2: the stunts Pulaski executed at Washington's headquarters involved him urging

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Speaker 2: his horse to a full gallop, then shooting his pistol,

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Speaker 2: tossing his pistol into the air, catching it, and precisely

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Speaker 2: hurling it at a target. He'd then circle back and,

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Speaker 2: without slowing down, balance on a single stirrup, bend over

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Speaker 2: to retrieve his pistol, and deftly right himself ready for

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Speaker 2: his next charge. Many impressed American officers apparently could not

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Speaker 2: replicate the dangerous maneuver without falling off their horses a

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Speaker 2: and injuring themselves. Clearly, even in the midst of experienced horsemen,

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Speaker 2: Pulaski was a stallion among foles. However, Pulaski struggled to

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Speaker 2: secure an appointment to the Continental Army before the Battle

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Speaker 2: of Brandywine. Despite Pulaski's experience, Washington was reluctant to make

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Speaker 2: the brash count a high ranking officer for several reasons.

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Speaker 2: For one, many Europeans were arriving to seek fame and

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Speaker 2: fortune in the war, and American soldiers resented foreigners getting

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Speaker 2: positions above them. In addition, Washington was not the biggest

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Speaker 2: believer in having a large cavalry. Several historians assert that

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Speaker 2: this skepticism was partly due to naivete as he had

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Speaker 2: not witnessed a mounted division used in as effective a

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Speaker 2: fashion as it had been in Europe. Practicality also heavily

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Speaker 2: factored into Washington's decisions. Overseeing America's war operation was a

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Speaker 2: daunting managerial task, and Washington evidently saw infantry and artillery

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Speaker 2: units as more cost effective than a cavalry, given that

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Speaker 2: his side had relatively little infrastructure for training riders or

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Speaker 2: caring for war horses. But Pulaski valued a robust cavalry

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Speaker 2: above all and refused to take no for an answer.

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Speaker 2: After bouncing between Washington's camp and the United States Congress,

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Speaker 2: growing impatient while hearing that the British were steadily getting nearer,

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Speaker 2: Pulaski finally got Washington to let him act as a

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Speaker 2: volunteer cavalry officer and join Washington's forces at Brandywine. The

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Speaker 2: battle did not go well for the Continental Army. After

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Speaker 2: eleven hours of grueling fighting, Washington's route side was forced

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Speaker 2: to make a chaotic retreat. The situation looked dire for

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Speaker 2: the Americans, but also it offered a distinct opportunity for Pulaski.

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Speaker 2: Up to that point, Pulaski had not gotten involved in

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Speaker 2: much direct action, since Washington primarily saw fit to use

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Speaker 2: cavalrymen as messengers and scouts. With their forces in utter disarray, however,

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Speaker 2: Pulaski convinced Washington to let him lead thirty horsemen from

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Speaker 2: the general's own guard in a swift strike on the

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Speaker 2: advancing British. Quickly finding success with his decisive, unconventional style

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Speaker 2: of fighting, Pulaski reportedly then rounded up scattered soldiers and

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Speaker 2: led them in an audacious attack on the enemy's oncoming flink,

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Speaker 2: buying the American's precious time to retreat. The battle still

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Speaker 2: ended in defeat for the Continental Army, and the British

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Speaker 2: still eventually captured Philadelphia, but numerous historians claim that without

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Speaker 2: Pulaski's rear guard heroics, George Washington would have died that day,

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Speaker 2: So by extension, it's not really a huge exaggeration to

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Speaker 2: say that if it were not for Pulaski's persistence at Brandywine,

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Speaker 2: the United States might be a very different place today.

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Speaker 2: The second of our two key Casimir Pulaski influenced battles

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Speaker 2: is the Siege of Savannah in seventeen seventy nine. As

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Speaker 2: the name suggests, this conflict greatly contrasted the Brandywine in

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Speaker 2: terms of geography and strategy, although according to many accounts

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Speaker 2: it was also one of the bloodiest of the American Revolution.

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Speaker 2: The Siege of Savannah was also a fascinating microcosm of

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Speaker 2: the larger war, as it involved troops arriving by land

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Speaker 2: and sea, complex tactics, and awkwardly desperate diplomacy. Even Pulaski's

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Speaker 2: journey to Savannah was arduous in both a physical and

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Speaker 2: emotional sense. The trek to reach the British occupied city

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Speaker 2: was roughly seven hundred miles and involved numerous side missions, skirmishes,

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Speaker 2: and tragic losses, many of which Pulaski endured while simultaneously

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Speaker 2: suffering from malaria. But at least by this point he

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Speaker 2: had a dedicated cavalry corps. Pulaski's deeds at the Brandywine

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Speaker 2: had been so undeniably valiant that Congress had allowed Washington

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Speaker 2: to commission him as a brigadier general of the Continental

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Speaker 2: Army's cavalry. It was a big leap, but Pulaski had

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Speaker 2: been far from satisfied as his grand horse centered dreams

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Speaker 2: or corralled by several harsh realities. Namely, Washington still underestimated

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Speaker 2: the cavalry's full potential, and Pulaski's own, let's say intense

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Speaker 2: leadership style and limited fluency in English had reputedly caused

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Speaker 2: friction between him and other officers. Before Pulaski traveled South.

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Speaker 2: Financial issues in bureaucratic oversight had also frustrated him, so

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Speaker 2: much so that he supposedly often covered his soldier's pay himself,

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Speaker 2: and he had once even resigned. But thanks to a

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Speaker 2: productive meeting with General Horatio Gates in which the determined

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Speaker 2: cavalryman had laid out his vision for an elite lancer unit,

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Speaker 2: Pulaski had been reconfirmed to his rank, given the unique

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Speaker 2: title of Commander of the Horse, and permitted to assemble

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Speaker 2: a division of cavalry and light infant try men more

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Speaker 2: to his liking, which became known as Pulaski's Legion. Recruiting

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Speaker 2: for this unit was still a constant challenge, to the

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Speaker 2: point that, despite the reservations of Washington and others, Pulaski

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Speaker 2: often accepted British deserters and prisoners of war into his

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Speaker 2: ranks as long as he was able to personally vet

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Speaker 2: each recruit. By February seventeen seventy nine, through sheer force

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Speaker 2: of will and meticulous training, Pulaski at last led a

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Speaker 2: formidable cavalry unit, and in eyeing the Southern front of

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Speaker 2: the war, he saw a great opportunity to put his

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Speaker 2: new legion to use. The British were shifting many troops

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Speaker 2: and resources southward, and in riding down to Savannah, Pulaski

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Speaker 2: relished the chance to utilize his favorite battle tactics. According

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Speaker 2: to his correspondence, the Polish general viewed it as advantageous

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Speaker 2: to avoid large, straightforward battles, as so many in the

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Speaker 2: North were doing, and instead deploy smaller detachments to attack

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Speaker 2: quickly and unpredictably. On his way to meet General Benjamin

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Speaker 2: Lincoln in Georgia, Pulaski put his style to warfare in practice,

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Speaker 2: and in doing so impactfully defended several Southern sites, while

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Speaker 2: also making plenty of decisions that some Southern officers viewed

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Speaker 2: as impulsive and irresponsible. Times were desperate, though, and the

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Speaker 2: Continental Army's only hope of reclaiming Savannah after almost a

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Speaker 2: year of British occupation was to make the best of

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Speaker 2: its imperfect alliances. The awkward nature of one of these

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Speaker 2: multinational relationships became especially apparent when three forces confron merged

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Speaker 2: near Savannah in September seventeen seventy nine. There was Pulaski's

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Speaker 2: cavalry of about two hundred and sixty men coordinating with

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Speaker 2: General Lincoln's small army of one thousand South Carolina continentals

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Speaker 2: and militia. And then there was the French Admiral Charles

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Speaker 2: ecdor Comte de Stang's roughly four thousand reinforcements that he

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Speaker 2: brought by ship. Whereas Pulaski was at times a divisive

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Speaker 2: figure in American military circles, Distang seems to have been

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Speaker 2: more universally disliked. If many accounts are to be believed,

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Speaker 2: he was haughty and egotistical, and unlike Pulaski, who did

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Speaker 2: largely win the trust of his legion, Distang frequently alienated

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Speaker 2: his closest officers by disregarding their council. That made it

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Speaker 2: tricky to orchestrate a successful siege against British General Augustin

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Speaker 2: Prevost and his thirty two hundred British defenders. And yet,

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Speaker 2: after coordinating with his American and French counterparts, Pulaski's cavalry

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Speaker 2: so speedily cut off British supply lines and reinforcements that Distaying,

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Speaker 2: eager to claim the victory, started negotiating the British side's surrender.

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Speaker 2: Distang naively gave the British extra time to consider his terms,

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Speaker 2: which the British General Prevost used to fortify his side's defenses.

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Speaker 2: Even so, Pulaski devised a solid assault plan, and despite

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Speaker 2: the French general and General Lincoln's struggle in seeing eye

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Speaker 2: to eye, he got both men to sign off. The

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Speaker 2: joint forces would launch a three pronged attack. American and

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Speaker 2: French divisions would engage the right and left flanks, while

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Speaker 2: the ally's largest forces would attack the spring Hill Redoubt,

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Speaker 2: a key British fortification. Pulaski would wait with his cavalry

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Speaker 2: and then break through into Savannah and create so much

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Speaker 2: chaos by riding through the streets and attacking the defensive

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Speaker 2: lines from behind that the British side's defensive advantage would evaporate.

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Speaker 2: It was a very good plan. Unfortunately for Pulaski, his

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Speaker 2: plan was largely undone by a timely betrayal. Ironically, given

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Speaker 2: all the handwringing about the trustworthiness of the deserters and

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Speaker 2: POW's in Pulaski's legion, the double crosser in this case

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Speaker 2: was American. The night before the planned attack, a member

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Speaker 2: of the Charleston Grenadiers snuck over to General Prevost and

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Speaker 2: told him of the Continental Army's intentions. Thus it came

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Speaker 2: to be that Annakt Sober ninth, seventeen seventy nine. After

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Speaker 2: the French and American infantry divisions were substantially repelled and

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Speaker 2: decimated while moving through the swamps and rice fields, Pulaski

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Speaker 2: rode through the foggy marshes to try to save the

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Speaker 2: gravely wounded Disdain. The rescue was not unlike so many

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Speaker 2: other daring ones that Pulaski had previously pulled off, but

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Speaker 2: this time his luck ran out and he was shot

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Speaker 2: in the upper right thigh by grape shot. Even as

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Speaker 2: he was being pulled from the battlefield, Pulaski continued giving

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Speaker 2: orders to his second in command, but the loss of

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Speaker 2: their fearless general disenheartened Pulaski's legion, and ultimately the Continental

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Speaker 2: Army suffered a defeat that some British accounts claimed was

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Speaker 2: one of the largest of the war. Meanwhile, a surgeon

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Speaker 2: tended to Pulaski, removing the Peace of grape Shot, which

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Speaker 2: fun fact is now on display in a museum in Savannah.

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Speaker 2: But Pulaski was paranoid. He didn't want to remain near

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Speaker 2: the British forces, fearing that if they captured him, they

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Speaker 2: would turn him over to his old nemeses, the Russians.

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Speaker 2: So Pulaski was taken to the American ship the Wasp.

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Speaker 2: French surgeons on board tried to treat him, but gangrene

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Speaker 2: spread across the wound, and Pulaski, after a little over

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Speaker 2: two years of service, died on October fifteenth, seventeen seventy nine.

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Speaker 2: He was then given an honorable burial at sea or

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Speaker 2: was he Like so many other chapters of his life,

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Speaker 2: Pulaski's burial stirred up eventual controversy. Some rumors claimed that

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Speaker 2: he was taken ashore and buried on land, some near Savannah.

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Speaker 2: After a lengthy search, the married owners of a plantation

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Speaker 2: claimed in eighteen fifty three that they had found Pulaski's remains.

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Speaker 2: These were later interred in the Pulaski Monument in Savannah.

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Speaker 2: Then in nineteen ninety six, those remains were exhumed from

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Speaker 2: the monument for DNA analysis. The results proved inconclusive, and

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Speaker 2: despite fur their studies and claims that the bones were Pulaski's,

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Speaker 2: the evidence still seems shaky. In addition to the proposed

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Speaker 2: burial logistics being puzzling and the plantation owner's story containing holes,

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Speaker 2: scholars revealed the owners to be British loyalists, so it's

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Speaker 2: fairly implausible that Pulaski would have basically been buried on

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Speaker 2: hostile territory. The bones that were studied also showed certain

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Speaker 2: female characteristics, which led some to propose that Pulaski could

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Speaker 2: have actually been intersex, but there does not appear to

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Speaker 2: be much convincing evidence to support that theory, and the

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Speaker 2: bones do not conclusively match with a descendant of the

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Speaker 2: Pulaski family, and so it seems most likely that the

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Speaker 2: career soldier who covered so much ground in the saddle

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Speaker 2: was indeed, though it may feel less narratively fitting given

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Speaker 2: a watery grave, regardless of his body's final resting place

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Speaker 2: and the fact that he never married and had no

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Speaker 2: known heirs, Pulaski left behind a massive legacy. His most

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Speaker 2: loyal officers and companions paid him glowing tributes, and even

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Speaker 2: many detractors and enemy officers credited his courage and influence

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Speaker 2: on the war. Pulaski's military strategies were also clearly ahead

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Speaker 2: of their time, as evidenced by cavalry units of effectively

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Speaker 2: utilizing many of his tactics during the American Civil War,

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Speaker 2: and although he faced plenty of xenophobia, Pulaski's contributions to

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Speaker 2: the United States's fight for independence were eventually appreciated to

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Speaker 2: such a degree that he was referred to as the

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Speaker 2: Soldier of Liberty, and as he probably would have likely

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Speaker 2: found the most pleasing, the father of the American Cavalry. Currently,

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Speaker 2: a staggering number of structures commemorate Casmir Pulaski in the US.

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Speaker 2: In addition to his monument in Savannah, other majestic statues

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Speaker 2: stand in cities like Washington.

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Speaker 1: D c.

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Speaker 2: Buffalo, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Hertford, and Providence. Fittingly, many depict him

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Speaker 2: riding a horse in addition, the Pulaski Bridge in New

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Speaker 2: York City, the Pulaski Skyway in New Jersey, and the

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Speaker 2: Pulaski Highway in Baltimore were all named after him, as

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Speaker 2: was Fort Pulaski in Georgia. Multiple military ships also bear

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Speaker 2: Pulaski's name, as do numerous villages and schools all over

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Speaker 2: the US. As you probably noticed, besides both being memorably illiterative,

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Speaker 2: the Battle of Brandywine and the Siege of Savannah also

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Speaker 2: both ended poorly for the American side, But rather than

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Speaker 2: being mere blights on Pulaski's record, these complex military engagements

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Speaker 2: highlight his unique value. By leading a misunderstood unit, Pulaski

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Speaker 2: often wound up in harrowing, long odds situations, and while

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Speaker 2: victories certainly deserve to be celebrated, defeats often offer deeper insight.

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Speaker 2: As the famed boxer Mike Tyson is so often quoted

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Speaker 2: as saying, everybody has a plan until they get punched

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Speaker 2: in the mouth. What made Pulaski remarkable is that he

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Speaker 2: constantly kept coming up with plans even after his enemies

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Speaker 2: kept proverbially punching him. If anything, Pulaski seemingly wanted to

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Speaker 2: weather his opponent's best shots, and thus proved how his

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Speaker 2: greatest strength was also his undoing bravery. Verging on recklessness

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Speaker 2: was a great blueprint for gaining an outsized reputation, but

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Speaker 2: not so much for ensuring a long life. In a way,

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Speaker 2: it's surprising that a Polish transplant who was so focused

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Speaker 2: on a relatively underutilized type of warfare would become such

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Speaker 2: a legendary figure in the United States's fight for independence.

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Speaker 2: But in another way, it makes perfect sense. Even for

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Speaker 2: those who did not fully grasp all of Pulaski's ambitions

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Speaker 2: and European achievements, the Cavalry General's unbridled apologies passed and

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Speaker 2: continually resonated to this day. Few individuals as sacrifices and

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Speaker 2: ocean bridging fighting spirits better embody one of Poland's unofficial

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Speaker 2: mottos for our freedom and yours. That's the cavalry centric

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Speaker 2: story of Casimir Pulaski. But stick around after a brief

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Speaker 2: sponsor break to take one last trot down memory lane.

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Speaker 2: If you are from Illinois like me, or a fan

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Speaker 2: of Sufyan Stevens, you might be aware that the first

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Speaker 2: Monday in March is celebrated as Casimir Pulaski Day, and

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Speaker 2: at least back when I was young, it was a

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Speaker 2: day we got off school. My freshman year of college

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Speaker 2: out of state, I remember telling a story about something

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Speaker 2: my friends and I did on Kasmir Pulaski Day when

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Speaker 2: we didn't have school, and I was met with confused stares.

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Speaker 2: It was only then that I realized that Kasimir Pulaski

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Speaker 2: Day was not, in fact a nationally observed holiday. Because

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Speaker 2: of Chicago's large Polish population, it was introduced as a

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Speaker 2: holiday in the city in nineteen eighty six, to be

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Speaker 2: celebrated on the first Monday in March. Apparently, though fairly recently,

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Speaker 2: it seems not every school gives the day off anymore,

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Speaker 2: and so if you live in a school district that

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Speaker 2: still gets Kasimir Pulaski Day off, please do let me know.

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Speaker 2: I'm curious. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and

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Speaker 2: Grim and Mild from Air. Noble Blood is hosted by

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Speaker 2: me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston,

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Speaker 2: hannah's Wick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milani. The

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Speaker 2: show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising

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Speaker 2: producer rima il KLi and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young,

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Speaker 2: and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

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Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 2: favorite shows.

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Speaker 1: Assass