CHEEKTOWAGA
Descendants of Pulaski give their side of his story
The city of Savannah, Ga., in 2005 gave an unforgettable funeral for Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski, the Polish military man who led colonial forces in the American Revolution.
After a memorial service that included a 21-gun salute, cavalrymen on horseback and Polish dignitaries among the hundreds in attendance, Pulaski’s remains were placed inside the base of a restored monument built in his honor.
But one thing about Pulaski has refused to die: a debate over who exactly is buried there.
Descendants of the Pulaski family who live in the Buffalo Niagara region argue that the general was buried at sea, the most popular and accepted account of how he died.
“They are changing history, and we don’t like it,” said Stanley Pulaski Sr. of Depew.
Pulaski and two sons, Richard and Eric, attended Sunday’s fundraiser for the Pulaski Day Parade at the Pvt. Leonard Post Jr. Post 6251, Veterans of Foreign Wars, in Cheektowaga, carrying a folder full of papers about the general.
They recently have started speaking at such area events to counter what they see as an attempt by a small group of people to alter the facts around Pulaski’s death.
“These people keep writing and talking about his death being a mystery that they have solved. There never was a mystery. We know how he died,” said Richard.
Known as the father of the American calvary, Pulaski formed an independent corps of cavalry and light infantry known as the Pulaski Legion. The corps successfully defended Charleston, S. C., against British attack in 1779, but later that year Pulaski was wounded by a shot in an attack on Savannah.
This is where the stories diverge. To Buffalo’s Pulaski family descendants and many others, the general was taken on board the brig Wasp, died several days later as the ship was leaving the river and was buried at sea. Their evidence includes an eyewitness account by Pulaski’s military aide-de-camp.
The alternative account arose in the 1850s, when Savannah built a monument to Pulaski. William P. Bowen, chairman of the monument commission, claimed his grandmother and aunt saw a body buried on their plantation near Savannah in an unmarked grave. They were told it was Pulaski, according to Bowen’s account.
The Bowen story received a boost in the 1970s when Edward Pinkowski, a retired Florida newspaper columnist, found a letter from the captain of the Wasp that referred to an unnamed injured American who was brought ashore and buried. Pinkowski funded a DNA examination of the remains in 1996 when the monument was dismantled for repairs.
DNA results were inconclusive, and both sides seemed to find arguments for their case in an examination of the bones by the local coroner.
Francis X. Hayes, chief organizer of burial events in 2005, said he prefers to call them “presumed remains.”
“Perhaps DNA tests in the future will be more sophisticated,” he said.
For Pulaski descendants, the controversy over the burial is no small matter.
“We got angry,” said Stanley. “To us, the Pulaski mystery is nothing but a made-up story.”
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