THE BUILDER FEBRUARY 1926

Pulaski

By BRO. WILLIAM M. STUART

AMONG the distinguished foreigners, Masons as well as soldiers, who
aided mightily in the American Revolution, not the least was Count
Casimir Pulaski, a native of the province of Lithuania in Poland.
Count Pulaski was educated for the law, but fate ordained that he
should be a soldier. The internal troubles of Poland led, in 1769,
to a rebellion against King Stanislaus, and in this insurrection
both Count Casimir and his father, the old count, were concerned.
Eventually Casimir's father was captured and executed. The next
year Count Pulaski was elected commander-in-chief of the rebel
army, but was unable to gather a sufficient force to make headway
with his cause.

He now conceived a desperate undertaking. It was no less than a
plan to seize the king, place him at the head of the troops by
force and thus, with royalty as a figure head, rally a sufficient
number of fighters to beat back the army that Catherine of Russia
had dispatched to invade Poland. In conformity with this hazardous
plan, forty young men, of whom Count Pulaski was one, entered
Warsaw disguised as peasants. For a time fortune favored the
adventurers. Meeting the equipage of the king in the street, they
stopped it, took hence His Majesty and conveyed him in safety
without the walls of the city. But here the hue and cry became too
hot for them; they were forced to abandon their royal prey and make
their escape.

Very soon after this abortive attempt Pulaski's force was defeated,
his estates were confiscated, himself outlawed. Thereupon he
entered the service of the Turks. Eventually he went to Paris and,
the war of American Independence now being on, had an interview
with Benjamin Franklin. Through the influence of Poor Richard,
Count Pulaski was induced to come to America and cast in his
fortune with the struggling patriots. This was in 1777.

PULASKI COMES TO AMERICA

Whether Masonry had anything to do with Pulaski's meeting Dr.
Franklin and the ensuing result is not now known, at least to the
writer. It is, however, a rather remarkable fact that a majority of
the foreign soldiers whom Franklin influenced to take up our cause
were of the Ancient Craft. Franklin's Masonic status is too known
to need exposition. To Washington and Congress Franklin recommended
Count Pulaski an officer famous throughout Europe for his bravery
and conduct in defense of the liberties of his country against
Russia, Austria and Prussia."

For a time, however, there was no command offered this
distinguished officer, as Congress, to use an apt phrase, was
"getting rather fed up" on foreign soldiers of fortune. Hence for
the present he was content to serve as a gentleman volunteer with
the light horse. In this capacity he fought in the bloody Battle of
Brandywine and distinguished himself for his bravery, approaching
to foolhardiness. More than once he rode up to pistol shot distance
of
enemy's line to reconnoitrer.

The Battle of Brandywine was remarkable, if for no other reason
than that Washington, with a poorly equipped and largely untrained
army of eleven thousand troops, fought, without being annihilated,
an enemy, perfectly appointed and drilled, numbering over eighteen
thousand men. And although Washington was outflanked and had part
of his army crushed, the result was little less than a drawn battle
for the patriots, owing to the resolute stand and splendid fighting
of the division commanded by Bro. Nathalliel Greene.

Washington now recommended to Congress that Count Pulaski be
commissioned a brigadier-general and placed in command of the
cavalry. "This gentleman," said Washington, "has been, like us,
engaged in defending the liberty and independence of his country,
and has sacrificed his fortune to his zeal for those objects. He
derived from hence a title to our respect that ought to operate in
his favor as far as the good of the service will permit."

Congress was not slow in adopting the suggestion of the
commander-in-chief. At the onfall of Germantown, where the American
army, confused by a heavy fog, retreated in the very moment of
victory, the count again won honors by his steady conduct in
covering with his cavalry the retreat of two divisions of infantry.

PULASKI'S LEGION AUTHORIZED BY CONGRESS

A few months after the Battle of Germantown, Count Pulaski resigned 
his command and asked of Congress authority to raise an independent
corps, to consist of a troop of horse, sixty-eight in number,
together with two hundred foot. This authority was granted and
"Pulaski's Legion," as it was presently called, was raised in 1778,
chiefly among the better families of Baltimore. Many of the
officers, though, were foreigners.

Numerous stories have been told concerning the horsemanship of the
count. Says Lossing: "It is related that, among other feats, that
daring horseman would sometimes, while his steed was under full
gallop, discharge his pistol, throw it in the air, catch it by the
barrel, and then hurl it in front as if at an enemy. Without
checking the speed of his horse, he would take one foot from the
stirrup and, bending over toward the ground, recover his pistol and
wheel into line with as much precision as if he had been engaged in
nothing but the management of the animal." Anyone who has witnessed
the justly famous "monkey drill" of the regular cavalry in the
American army of the present can not help but speculate as to
whether this mode of rough riding did not originate in the days of
Pulaski.

General Lafayette had been wounded in the Battle of Brandywine and
for a time was under the care of the Moravian nuns of Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania. While in the hospital at this place he was visited by
Count Pulaski. Learning of the presence of the distinguished
foreigner, the nuns of the Moravian order prepared for him a
beautiful banner of crimson silk, richly embroidered with intricate
needlework. It was twenty inches square and intended to be attached
to a lance when borne in battle.

Although the youthful Lafayette was not a Mason at this time, being
later raised in a military lodge, it is supposed that the Count was
a member of the Order when he came to America. Whether he was
consulted as to the design on the banner we do not know; but
certain it is that on one side is a Masonic design; being no less
than the All-Seeing Eye enclosed by a triangle. Longfellow has
written a poem concerning this famous banner, the last two verses
of which read:

"'Take thy banner. But when night
Closes round the ghastly fight,
If the vanquished warrior bow,
Spare him--by our holy vow;
By our prayers and many tears;
By the mercy that endears;
Spare him--he our love hath shared;
Spare him--as thou wouldst be spared.

"'Take thy banner; and, if e'er
Thou should'st press the soldier's bier, 
And the muffled drum should beat
To the tread of mournful feet
Then the crimson flag shall be
Martial cloak and shroud for thee.
And the warrior took that banner proud,
And it was his martial cloak and shroud."

In the spring of 1778 the British launched an expedition against
Little Egg Harbor on the Jersey Coast, a rendezvous for American
privateers. The invading force comprised three hundred regulars and
a large number of Loyalist volunteers; the whole being under the
command of Captain Patrick Ferguson, a talented officer who was to
meet his death at the Battle of King's Mountain later in the war,
as was related in the article on Nolichucky Jack in a recent number
of THE BUILDER. As the expedition was long en route, many of the
privateers received warning and put out to sea, others fled up the
river to a place called Chestnut Neck, whither they were presently
followed by Ferguson. The town and shipping were completely wrecked
by the vengeful British.

Among the troops sent against the marauders at this time was
Pulaski's Legion, accompanied by a gun of Proctor's artillery.
Unhappily, a deserter from the legion carried word to Ferguson that
the Americans were encamped but twelve miles up the river; the
infantry being quartered in three houses by themselves, while
Pulaski with the cavalry was located at some distance.


FERGUSON AND PULASKI MEET

This intelligence was enough for Ferguson, enterprising soldier as
he was. Taking two hundred and fifty men, he proceeded up the river
in boats and at four o'clock the next morning approached the spot
occupied by the Legion. The oarlocks had been muffled; it was very
dark. A few smouldering brands indicated where the campfires of the
previous night had been. There was no light in the houses that
loomed ghostlike and grey through the haze of early morning as the
boats neared the shore.

They grated on the beach, and yet there came no hoarse challenge of
sentry. Perhaps the guards were asleep. It is possible that none
had been posted; although that would be hard to believe concerning
an officer of Pulaski's stripe.

Silently Ferguson marshalled his men and led them to surround the
three houses. A sudden gruff command and the blaze and roar of a
volley of musketry were the first intimations that the sleeping
Americans had concerning the presence of the foe. Then ensued a
scene of confusion worse confounded. Some of the suddenly aroused
men of the Legion thrust their muskets out of the shattered windows
and fired at random into the gloom. Others rushed from the houses,
only to be spitted like partridges on the bayonets of the British
regulars. Hoarse shouts, cheers, screams and groans, blended with
the constant banging of muskets to produce a pandemonium of horror.
And so the bloody work went on unchecked. In the official report
which Captain Ferguson later made to his superior, he says: "It
being a night attack, little quarter, of course, could be given, so
there were only FIVE PRISONERS." At this moment Ferguson was
tasting the sweets of victory; but in time he was to behold men of
his command being shot down like rabbits by the infuriated
mountaineers of Tennessee.

The tumult of the conflict now roused the cavalry camp at which
Count Pulaski was personally located. Through the foggy dawn came
the wailing of a bugle, followed soon by the pounding of hoofs and
the cries of charging dragoons. Hastily collecting his men,
Ferguson embarked and succeeded in getting well out into the stream
before the cavalry arrived. There was much random firing, but the
British were safe. All that remained for the horsemen to do was to
bury fifty men of the infantry who had been butchered. Among the
dead were two officers of foreign birth.

During the winter of 1778-79 Count Pulaski with his Legion was
stationed at Minisink. This was one oldest settlements in Orange
County, New York; dating back as far as 1669. It was located
between the sites of the present towns of Goshen and Port Jervis,
among the Shawangunk Mountains. In February, 1779, Pulaski was
ordered to join General Lincoln's army in the South, and this left
the Minisink region without the protection of regular troops.

Thayendanegea, the famous Mohawk chief, commonly known as Joseph
Brant, was not long in seizing the opportunity thus presented. At
the head of a considerable force he invaded the country round about
Port Jervis plundered and burned, then, upon the approach of a body
of militia, retreated up the Delaware Valley. He was overtaken near
the location of the present village of Lackawaxen and a severe
battle ensued. Owing to the lack of ammunition the Americans were
finally defeated and a large number slain. Brant, who was a
Freemason, saved the life of Major Wood of Goshen when the latter
inadvertently gave a Masonic sign; not at the time being of the
Order. Having been apprized of the reason for his life being
spared, the major hastened to affiliate himself with the Craft.
This was not by any means the only time during the war that Brant
recognized and honored the sign.

SAVANNAH BESIEGED BY THE CONTINENTALS

In October, 1779, General Lincoln, in conjunction with the French
Count D'Estaing, laid siege to Savannah, Georgia, then occupied by
General Prevost with a British force of two thousand, eight hundred
and fifty. The combined French and American army numbered about
five thousand, of which rather more than half were French. A fierce
bombardment failing to reduce the place at once, D'Estaing urged an
assault. Fearing the effect of the autumnal storms along the coast,
he wished to take his fleet away as soon as possible. Accordingly
the morning of the ninth of October was selected as the time to
launch the attack.

Unfortunately, a sergeant of one of the Charleston militia
companies deserted during the night of the eighth and divulged to
Prevost the complete plan of attack. The British general at once
took measures to profit by this information. Just before dawn on
Oct. 9 the French and American armies pressed forward through a
heavy fog to the attack, under cover of a tremendous burst of
artillery.

The British were waiting. They opened with such a devastating fire
that the French column was crushed almost at once, D'Estaing
himself being wounded and borne from the field. The Americans
pressed forward and forced an entrance to a strong position known
as the Spring Hill Redoubt. Across the ditch and up the glacis they
swarmed, planted the flag on the parapet and strove valiantly to
hold what they had gained.

Against this forlorn hope the British commander massed his best
troops. A contest grim and great followed. Here fell many of the
bravest. Sergeant Jasper, the hero of Fort Moultrie, perished while
carrying the flag. The line was swept away.

PULASKI KILLED IN THE BATTLE

In the meantime Count Pulaski, at the head of two hundred horse,
was endeavoring to force his way into the town in another quarter.
Galloping in advance of his troops, carrying the banner that had
been presented to him by the Moravian nuns, he had crossed the
ditch and abatis when he was struck by a grapeshot and fell from
his horse. His first lieutenant seized the banner, rallied the
troops and continued the charge. But the constant blazing of guns
in front, the whining grapeshot and musket balls annihilated the
heads of the columns and drove the men back in confusion. By ten
o'clock the French had given up the contest and the Continentals
were retreating. The combined army lost over eleven hundred men in
the terrible assault.

Some of Pulaski's men found him in a great pile of dead and
wounded. They bore him from the field, still alive but mortally
hurt. He was taken to an American man-of-war and there he died.
Under a large tree on St. Helen's Island, fifty miles from
Savannah, they buried him. Congress voted to erect a monument to
his memory.

The famous banner was given by the first lieutenant, Charles
Litomiski, to Captain Bentalon, who took the flag to Baltimore when
he retired from the army. Lossing records: "It was used in the
procession that welcomed Lafayette to that city in 1824, and was
then deposited in Peale's Museum. On that occasion it was
ceremoniously received by several young ladies. Mr. Edmund Peale
presented it to the Maryland Historical Society in 1844, where it
is now carefully preserved in a glass case. But little of its
former beauty remains. It is composed of double crimson silk, now
faded to a dull brownish red. The designs on each side are
embroidered with yellow silk, the letters shaded with green. A deep
green bullion fringe ornaments the edges." (Lossing wrote in 1852.)
And so that courageous nobleman who lost father, estates and title
in defense of his own land, gave his life for the land of his
adoption. Never did he forfeit honor. Pulaski is a name of which
both America and Masonry are proud.

