COUNT CASIMIR PULASKI GETS A DAY, NOT RECOGNITION

Count Casimir Pulaski is no mystery to Cairo Mayor James Wilson.

A sixth grader at Meridian Elementary School, located north of Mounds, Ill. in Pulaski County, knows about Count Pulaski.

A bank employee in Southern Illinois says she has heard about "the Count," but doesn't know exactly who he was.

Wilson is in the minority of Southern Illinoisans who know that Pulaski, a Polish immigrant, became a U.S. general during the Revolutionary War.

The bank clerk is in the majority of Illinoisans who "may have heard" of Pulaski but can't recall who he was, or why a holiday was named after him.

Meanwhile, the sixth grader says simply, "he was a friend of George Washington," which is partially correct.

"I remember when they passed the legislation to make the first Monday in March, Count Casimir Pulaski Day," said Wilson. "It was about seven years ago. Chicago has more Polish people than any city in the U.S., and the holiday was named in recognition of that fact."

Wilson said a number of people were aware of Monday being "some sort of holiday. At first, I thought I had forgotten about a holiday," he said. "People were telling me that schools were out."

Joe Jackson, director of the Cairo Public Library, said he was in Washington, D.C. when the Count Pulaski holiday was declared in Illinois.

"I heard about it," he said. "A number of state legislators from the Chicago area proposed it."

"Actually, Chicago has more Polish people than Warsaw," said Jackson, a Pulaski County native.

Jackson said that both Pulaski, a small community of about 350 people, and Pulaski County in Southern Illinois are named after Casimir Pulaski.

A military fort in Georgia, Fort Pulaski, is also named in his honor.

Fort Pulaski, a former military fortification on Cockspur Island, 17 miles east of Savannah, Ga., was made into a national monument in 1924. The fort, which features brick walls that are 7 to 11 feet thick, is surrounded by a moat, which has a drawbridge.

Gen. Pulaski was fatally wounded during a siege of Savannah in the Revolutionary War. He commanded a cavalry troop and light infantry, which became known as "Pulaski's Legion."

It was in October of 1779 that he started his assault on Savannah. On Oct. 9, he was wounded and was taken aboard a ship in Savannah Harbor, where he died two days later.

The Illinois holiday is described as a "semi-holiday" affecting only schools and banks. Many banks, especially those in Southern Illinois, do not observe Casimir Pulaski Day at all.

"It's just another Monday," said one banker.

"The schools are all closed," said Gene Dixon of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department, another person who knows of Count Pulaski.

For the record, the Pulaski story is one of a Polish nobleman and army general. He was born in Lithuania on March 4, 1748, studied law and served in the army under Charles, Duke of Courland.

He was exiled from his country after being accused of attempting to kill King Stanislaw Augustus III, and wound up in France where he met Benjamin Franklin. Pulaski eventually found his way to the United States, and offered his services to the cause of American independence. In 1777, he joined Washington's Army as a volunteer.

An unscientific poll of Southern Illinoisans Monday showed few knew about Count Pulaski.

One youngster, quizzed at a shopping mall, said, "I don't know who he was, but it's sure fun being out of school on a pretty day like this."

Another added, "He was a rich man wasn't he? Was he president?"

And from yet a third: "He was a man who came over from another country to help in a war here."