He soon became a close confidante of General George Washington, and later served with distinction at the Battles of Gloucester, Barren Hill and Monmouth. “When I first learned of that quarrel, my heart was enlisted,” he later wrote, “and I thought only of joining my colors to those of the revolutionaries.” The young idealist secured a commission as a major general and was wounded in the leg during his first engagement at September 1777’s Battle of Brandywine. In 1777, the 19-year-old French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, left behind a sizable personal fortune and a pregnant wife and set off in search of military glory with the Continental Army. He is now honored with two holidays, Casimir Pulaski Day and General Pulaski Memorial Day. The 34-year-old’s heroic death established him among the American Revolution’s most famous foreign volunteers. Just a few months later, Pulaski was mortally wounded by grapeshot while leading a cavalry attack during the Siege of Savannah. In the spring of 1779, the Legion was posted to the war’s Southern theater and sustained severe casualties in the defense of Charleston. By 1778, he had taken over as commander of the “Pulaski Legion,” an independent cavalry unit composed of American and foreign recruits.
The dashing young officer immediately proved his value in his first engagement at September 1777’s Battle of Brandywine, where he led a rearguard action that helped cover General George Washington’s retreat.ĭespite not speaking a lick of English, Pulaski was later made a brigadier general in the Continental Cavalry. After being exiled from his homeland in the early 1770s, he made his way to France and came into contact with Benjamin Franklin, who recruited him to the cause of American independence. The man later called the “Father of the American Cavalry” first distinguished himself as a leader of the Bar Confederation, a band of nobles who fought against foreign domination of Poland. Polish-born Casimir Pulaski spent his brief life fighting as a revolutionary on two separate continents.
#HERO OF THE TWO WORLDS MANUAL#
He also penned the first military manual for the American army, “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States.” This “Blue Book,” as it was known, remained the bible of the American armed forces until the War of 1812. Over the next two years, his drill methods helped transform the patriot forces into an accomplished fighting force. The Baron’s successes saw him appointed inspector general of the Continental Army in May 1778. Upon arriving at George Washington’s winter encampment at Valley Forge, he introduced new sanitation measures and gave the troops a crash course in 18th-century military tactics that included bayonet combat and more effective techniques for firing and reloading muskets. Though prone to exaggeration-he wore flashy uniforms and styled himself a lieutenant general even though he had never risen above the rank of captain-he also possessed a keen military mind. The Baron was a former Prussian military officer who had once served on the staff of Frederick the Great. That started to change in early 1778, when the extravagantly named Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, the Baron von Steuben, arrived to assist the patriots.
Baron Friedrich Von Steuben (1730-1794) was a German officer who served with the Continental Army by training the forces stationed at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778.ĭuring the early stages of the revolution, the Continental Army had a reputation for being disorganized, undisciplined and poorly drilled.
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