Brigadier General Kazimierz Pulaski mortally wounded at the battle of Savannah on the 9th of October 1779 by Stanislaw Batowski Kaczor, Polish Museum, Chicago. Click for enlargment of central figures

Historians are unsure how Pulaski died. The popular account holds that Pulaski rallied the troops in a cavalry charge upon hearing that a fellow officer was hit in the leg by a musket ball. During the charge, Pulaski was struck in the thigh by grapeshot and fell from his horse. Within days, gangrene claimed the war hero's life. Historians continue to debate what happened to Pulaski's body after his death. One traditional account is that Pulaski died aboard the American ship Wasp and is buried at sea. A second claim is that he was first buried at Greenwich Plantation in Georgia and later reburied under a monument in one of the downtown Savannah squares. September 27, 1996, bones were disinterred from under the Pulaski Monument in Monterey Square. To date, the bone analysis is inconclusive.