Amsterdam, NY Celebrates Pulaski Day!
- PostEagle
- October 5, 2014
- Uncategorized
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NEW YORK – Amsterdam N.Y. is observing the eighty-fifth anniversary of National General Casimir Pulaski Day with a ceremony at City Hall at 61 Church St. on October 11 at twelve o’clock noon. A joint session of Congress passed a resolution designating this date as a national holiday in 1929 (Public Resolution 16 of 1929) on the sesquicentennial of his death which occurred two hundred and thirty-five years ago on October 11,1779, two days after being wounded by cannon fire in battle at Savannah, Georgia.
Local, regional, and national representatives, several Polish Polonia and other Slavic organizations as well as the general public are invited to attend. Along with the Amsterdam Polish-American Veterans & the V.F.W.’s John Wyszomirski Post 701, the American &Polish flags shall be raised & a Rifle Party shall deliver a three-volley salute. Both the American and Polish national anthems shall then be sung, led by Soprano Genie Marie Callahan.
Kazimierz Michal Waclaw Wiktor Pulaski (March 6, 1745 – October 11, 1779), a Polish aristocrat and patriot, was sent from Paris to America by Benjamin Franklin in 1777 with letters to meet George Washington. Upon arrival, Washington assigned him to train troops to fight on horseback, forming what became known as the Pulaski Cavalry Legion.
He is also credited with having saved Washington’s life by warning him of a planned ambush that failed due to his observation, thus becoming the Brigadier General of the newly-formed American Cavalry.
Five years ago President Obama declared Gen. Casimir Pulaski an honorary American citizen, one of only seven people ever to have attained this distinction.
The Pulaski Memorial Bridge in Amsterdam was inaugurated on July 21 1931 and rebuilt ten years ago. One of the plaques from the former bridge shall be on display at City Hall along with information about the General’s life. A second plaque along with a photo of the early bridge can be seen on the south end of Fourth Avenue along the Chuctanunda Creek. There is a project to erect a monument to General Pulaski, including this plaque, at Veterans’ Field on Locust Avenue . Donations with the mention “the Pulaski Project” may be made to the Historic Amsterdam League, P.O. Box 132, Amsterdam, N.Y. 12010. Thank you.
For more information, please call Tom Pikul at (518) 843 3983.