Casimir Pulaski at Brandywine

Near here on September eleventh, seventeen seventy-seven, the Polish cavalry commander Casimir Pulaski helped cover Washington's retreat after the American defeat at Brandywine. Pulaski had come to America earlier that year, a volunteer exile from Poland where his forces had fought against Russian domination. Benjamin Franklin vouched for him to Congress.

After Brandywine, Pulaski was commissioned a brigadier general and in September seventeen seventy-seven became the first overall commander of the Continental Army's cavalry. He served until March of seventeen seventy-eight, then formed his own Pulaski Legion. He was mortally wounded at the siege of Savannah on October ninth, seventeen seventy-nine, dying in service to a republic he had crossed an ocean to help defend.