Pulaski Memorial, (sculpture).

Pulaski Memorial, (sculpture).

Schuler, Hans, 1874-1951, sculptor.

Radziszewski, A. C., architect.

Pulaski Memorial, (sculpture).

1942. Dedicated Oct. 14, 1951.

Digital Reference:

Relief: bronze; Base: marble and brick.

Relief: approx. 129 in. x 15 ft. x 26 in.; Base: approx. 20 ft. x 21 1/2 ft. x 5 ft. 3 in.

(Relief, lower right corner:) SCHULER '42/CAPITAL PRODUCTS INC./L.IC. N.Y. (Base, along top edge, incised letters:) PULASKI (Base, long lower edge, incised letters:) -1748- BRIGADIER GENERAL COUNT CASIMIR PULASKI -1779-/HERO OF AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR - FATHER OF AMERICAN CAVALRY (Base, back:) HANS SCHULER/SC/THOMAS D'ALESANDRO, JR/MAYOR OF CITY OF BALTIMORE/A.C.RADZISZEWSKI/ARCHITECT signed Founder's mark appears.

The monument consists of a twenty-foot square of marble with a bronze relief panel depicting General Pulaski astride his horse leading the charge of his cavalry unit at the Siege of Savannah. Pulaski, his horse rearing back, is turned around in his saddle shouting commands back to his soldiers. With his proper right hand he thrusts a sword into the air, but the end of the sword is now missing. Paul Bentalou, one of Pulaski's captains, is shown on his horse just behind Pulaski. In the foreground a horse stumbles forward, almost falling to its knees. In the background the faces of more soldiers can be seen in low relief. The bronze relief is framed by a stone base, which is adorned with fluted pilasters on each side and a brick panel along the lower edge.

History -- United States -- Revolution

History -- United States -- Siege of Savannah

Portrait male -- Pulaski, Casimir -- Full length

Portrait male -- Bentalou, Paul -- Full length

Occupation -- Military -- Brigadier General

Occupation -- Military -- Captain

Occupation -- Other -- Aristocrat

Ethnic -- Polish

Architecture -- Military -- Battlefield

State of Being -- Evil -- War

Outdoor Sculpture -- Maryland -- Baltimore

Administered by City of Baltimore, Recreation and Parks, 2600 Madison Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21217

Located Patterson Park, Entrance, Eastern Avenue & Linwood Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland

At the age of twenty, Polish-born Count Casimir Pulaski (1748-1779) joined his father and other noblemen who were defending Poland from Imperial Russia. After his father died in a Russian prison, Pulaski, now an outlaw, fled to Paris where he met Benjamin Franklin, who recommended him to George Washington. Pulaski joined the American forces during the summer of 1777 and so distinguished himself at the Battle of Brandywine, that Washington made him a brigadier general and asked him to organize the Continental Army cavalry. Thus, Pulaski became known as the "Father of the American Cavalry."

In Baltimore, Pulaski recruited cavalry soldiers and formed three companies of horse and three of infantry which became known as the Maryland Legion. While preparing for battle, Pulaski visited a wounded Lafayette recovering in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Here he admired the beautiful handwork of the Moravian Sisters and was offered an embroidered banner for his Maryland Legion. His men carried the banner in battle and after Pulaski's death, it was preserved by Captain Paul Bentalou, and in 1844 it was given to the Maryland Historical Society. At the Siege of Savannah, on October 11, 1779, Pulaski was shot in his right thigh and died two days later on a ship bound for Charleston, South Carolina.

In 1929, the General Pulaski Monument Committee began making plans for a monument to Polish Count, Casimir Pulaski, who lost his life fighting for American independence during the Revolutionary War. Funds were solicited from Baltimore's Polish-American community and other groups, but a series of incidents delayed the monument. First was the failure during the depression of the bank where the monument fund had been deposited; then the shortage of bronze during World War II; and finally postwar inflation increased the original cost estimates and the project was stalled until the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore each contributed funds the monument's completion. Hans Schuler created the bronze relief and architect A. C. Radziszewski designed the marble setting.

IAS files contain newspaper articles from The Sun (Baltimore, MD), July 1, 1936; June 18, 1938; Oct. 12, 1938; Nov. 15, 1939; Oct. 11, 1940; June 11, 1936; Sept. 15, 1950; Oct. 16, 1950; Oct. 12, 1951; Oct. 15, 1951; The Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), Sept. 1, 1950; Oct. 13, 1951; Aut. 16, 1960; and American Motorist (Jan. 1931). For additional information see: Kathleen Kotarba's report "The Baltimore Bronze Project," Baltimore: Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, July 1989; Henry and Caroline Naylor's "Public Monuments & Sculpture of Baltimore: An Introduction to the Collection," 1987; and Wilbur Harvey Hunter's "The Monumental City, The Rinehart School of Sculpture 75th Anniversary Catalogue 1896-1971," pg. 16-47.

Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985

The Peale Museum.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Maryland, Baltimore survey, 1993.

Inventory staff, 2001.

The Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), Aug. 16, 1960.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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