The contribution of Poles to the birth of the United States was direct and decisive: Tadeusz Kościuszko designed the fortifications that determined the victory at Saratoga and fortified West Point, while Kazimierz Pułaski organized and trained the Continental Army’s cavalry, earning the title “father of American cavalry.” On the 250th anniversary of American independence, celebrated on July 4, 2026, their names return as proof that the Polish longing for freedom was part of the foundations of this republic.
There are anniversaries that are just a date on the calendar, and there are those that make us question our own place in someone else’s story. The Semiquincentennial – two hundred and fifty years since the Declaration of Independence – belongs to the latter. As America celebrates under the slogans “America 250” and “Freedom 250,” Polonia has the right to remind that at the cradle of this nation stood people who spoke Polish and brought their dream of a free Republic across the ocean.
Who was Tadeusz Kościuszko to America?
Tadeusz Kościuszko arrived in America in 1776 – the same year the colonists declared independence – as an educated military engineer, yet unknown to anyone there. In Philadelphia, he sought out Benjamin Franklin, passed an examination in geometry and fortifications, and, as a colonel of engineers, was given a seemingly modest but, in fact, strategic task: to read the terrain as others read a battle map. At Saratoga, it was he who chose and fortified the Bemis Heights hills above the Hudson River, turning the landscape into a trap. The British advance broke on his fortifications, and the surrender of General Burgoyne’s army in October 1777 became the turning point of the entire war – after which France recognized that it was worth siding with the rebels.
Later, for nearly two years, Kościuszko designed the fortifications of West Point in New York State – a network of interconnected strongholds above the Hudson and a great chain stretched across the river to block the path of British ships. It was not without reason that he was later called the “patron of West Point.” What makes his figure so close to the Polish heart, however, is not just engineering. Kościuszko was a man of principle – he advocated for the freedom of black slaves, and in his will, he bequeathed his property in America for their purchase and education. When the war ended, and Congress appointed him brigadier general, he returned to Poland to lead the insurrection of his own dying country in 1794. He fought for freedom on both sides of the ocean – and that makes him a symbol, not just a hero of one war.
Why is Pulaski called the father of American cavalry?
Kazimierz Pułaski arrived in America by a different route than Kościuszko, but through the same man. It was Benjamin Franklin, having met him in France, who recommended the Polish Bar Confederator as an officer “famous throughout Europe for his courage in defending the freedom of his country.” Pułaski brought with him experience that the young American army lacked most – knowledge of cavalry as an independent, maneuverable force. He reorganized the scattered mounted units of the Continental Army, trained them, gave them a regular form, and, in time, created his own formation, the famous Pulaski Legion. The title “father of American cavalry” is not a compliment out of politeness – it is an acknowledgment that American cavalry began to exist as a true weapon thanks to the Polish nobleman.
However, his story has a bitter, heroic finale. In October 1779, during the Siege of Savannah in Georgia, Pulaski led a charge against British fortifications and was mortally wounded by grapeshot. He died on October 11, 1779, in his thirties, giving his life for a country that was just being born. His memory lives on to this day in a tangible way: General Pulaski Memorial Day is celebrated on October 11, Casimir Pulaski Day, and above all, the Pulaski Parade, which since 1937 has marched down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on the first Sunday of October, filling it with white and red banners, folk costumes, and the voices of successive generations of Polonia. [LINK: Pulaski Parade on poland.us]
Only Kościuszko and Pulaski? Lesser-known Poles of the Revolution
History tends to focus on two names because they are easier to remember. Meanwhile, the Polish contribution to the birth of America also had quieter, non-military faces. One of them was Haym Salomon – born in 1740 in Leszno, in the then Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a Jewish merchant and financier who, after arriving in New York, became one of the main financial intermediaries of the young state. As Robert Morris’s broker, supervisor of the revolution’s finances, he organized the sale of bills of exchange and raised funds at times when Congress was on the verge of bankruptcy. The funds obtained through his mediation supported, among other things, the Yorktown campaign, the war’s last great battle. He died in 1785 in poverty because the debts he helped incur for the American cause were never repaid to his family. Historians carefully separate legend from documents – not every number circulating about him is certain – but his role as a financial pillar of the revolution remains confirmed. This is proof that “Invisible Polonia” built America not only with a sword but also with an account book.
What do Poles celebrate on the 250th anniversary of the USA?
The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is not a foreign holiday for American Polonia, but a co-owned one. Already in 1976, on the bicentennial, the Polish nation – still from behind the Iron Curtain – gifted the United States with monuments of Kościuszko and Pulaski, cast in Poland and erected on American soil as material proof of a bond that neither history nor geography could break. These bronze figures still stand, and each of them says the same thing: we were here from the beginning.
In 2026, this community of memory means more than usual. As “Freedom Trucks” traverse successive states and cities prepare celebrations, it is worth ensuring that our names also resonate in Polish parishes, Saturday schools, and organizations – not out of a sense of rivalry, but out of a sense of continuity. Because an anniversary is the best time to pass on a simple truth to children and grandchildren: that being an American of Polish descent is not the sum of two loyalties, but one story that began on the Hudson and at Savannah.
Kościuszko returned to Poland to fight for its freedom; Pulaski gave his life for the freedom of a state that did not yet exist; Salomon became impoverished financing someone else’s independence, which also became his own. One thing unites them – the conviction that freedom is indivisible, that there is no “Polish” and “American” freedom, but one and the same, worth the highest price. On the 250th anniversary of the United States, we can carry this heritage with pride, not because we demand a place in someone else’s history, but because that place was fought for us by people who did not yet know the word “Polonia.” We will best honor their memory by passing this story on.
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Ewelina Modrzejewska, Poland.US (Voice of Polonia in the USA). More stories and profiles at poland.us.
