[
www.loc.gov]
Poles Fight for American Independence
Many Poles were well-read in the Enlightenment philosophers whose ideas informed the thinking of the founders of American democracy. Furthermore, ever since the sixteenth century, democratic institutions such as an elected monarch and an active parliament played an important role in the Polish Commonwealth. Thus, the struggle of the thirteen American colonies to win their independence excited the imagination of the Polish people. Numerous Poles who were already in America or came here to offer their services fought in the Revolutionary Army.
Among the better known was Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1817), who arrived in America in 1776 and participated in numerous campaigns under Generals George Washington and Horatio Gates. Kosciuszko had studied military engineering as well as architecture in Europe. He was thus able to teach the revolutionary forces how to build fortifications and mount artillery. During an important campaign in New York State, he helped build the fortifications at Ticonderoga and supervised the construction of fortifications at Bemis Heights and Saratoga. It was at these sites that the Americans succeeded in halting a British invasion from Canada intended to cut the infant nation in half. For his service, Congress granted Kosciuszko the rank of brigadier general.
Another well-known Pole who fought for American independence was Kazimierz Pulaski (1747-1779), who arrived in America in 1777. Threatened by arrest for having led an insurrection against foreign domination in Poland, Pulaski fled to France, where he met Benjamin Franklin. Franklin assisted him in reaching America. Because Poland was renowned for its cavalry and Pulaski was an experienced cavalry officer, General Washington gave him command of the Continental Army's regiments of mounted dragoons. Later Congress conferred on him the title commander of the horse and brigadier general.
Pulaski fought in the battles of Brandywine, Warren Tavern, Germantown and Haddonfield and later took part in relieving the siege of Charleston, South Carolina. He was mortally wounded in a battle in Savannah, Georgia, and died shortly thereafter. Pulaski is considered the "father of American cavalry."
Americans Fight for Polish Independence
At the end of the eighteenth century, precisely when Americans were establishing a republican form of government, Russia, Prussia, and Austria plotted to seize Polish territory in three successive partitions. After the final partition in 1795, the Polish Commonwealth ceased to exist. It was not until World War I that Poland was able to regain its independence with help from the United States.
Even before declaring war in 1917, Americans had assisted the Polish people by providing food for those caught in the clash of armies on the eastern front. When the United States finally entered the war, one of its objectives became the regaining of Polish independence. Point Thirteen in President Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points," his January 1918 statement of American war aims, declared: "An independent Polish state should be erected which would include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant." Accordingly, after the Allied victory in November 1918, an independent Poland was proclaimed.
In 1919 when the new Polish Republic was threatened by Bolshevik Russia, eleven American aviators--Elliott Chess, Carl Clark, Merian Cooper, Edward Corsi, George Crawford, Cedric Fauntleroy, Edmund Graves, Arthur Kelly, Edwin Noble, Harmon Rorison and Kenneth Shrewsbury--volunteered to fight for Poland by flying combat sorties and reconnaissance missions in support of Polish ground troops. They participated in the battle for Warsaw in 1920, a major turning point in the conflict, which halted the Bolshevik advance and brought an end to the war.
The American aviators were named the Kosciuszko Squadron for the Polish patriot who volunteered his services to fight for America's independence. To honor three pilots who perished during the Russo- Polish War, the Poles erected a monument in Lwow with an inscription that read: "They died so that we can live free."