Belated Honours For Polish Hero

The Polish nobleman regarded as the father of the American cavalry finally received a hero's funeral on the 226th anniversary of the Revolutionary War battle in which he was mortally wounded.

However, the mystery continues over whether the remains buried Sunday are those of Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski, a hero in Poland and among Polish-Americans for his sacrifice.

"Certainly from a historical standing it was overdue," said Francis X. Hayes, the Savannah businessman who organized the burial. "His remains were just unceremoniously sealed up in the monument. This gave him the kind of ceremony he would have received had he been in Poland."

Chatham County Coroner James C. Metts Jr. had exhumed the remains in 1996 when the monument was dismantled for repairs. After eight years of trying, investigators failed to extract a complete DNA sequence to compare with a living Pulaski descendant found in Poland.

A draft report by Metts' team, made public in June, concluded "the mystery remains unsolved." It also said "strong circumstantial evidence does suggest that the remains are Casimir Pulaski."

The unsolved mystery, though, did not halt the funeral. More than 700 people filled the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist for a memorial Mass.

A regiment of Polish cavalrymen on horseback escorted the casket in a procession through the streets, followed by a riderless horse with empty boots in the stirrups.

Polish Bishop Tadeusz Pwoski read funeral rites beneath the marble obelisk built to Pulaski in 1854, sprinkling the flag-draped casket with holy water and dirt from the gravesite.

Janusz Reiter, Poland's ambassador to the United States, said it doesn't matter that the remains were never proven to be Pulaski's.

"This is considered by most people in Poland to be absolutely irrelevant," Reiter said. "The opinion of the experts is divided. This is a question of whether you believe or don't believe."

Pulaski came to America in 1777, exiled from Poland after helping lead an uprising against Russian incursion. Recommended by George Washington, he took command of the colonial cavalry.

After his legion of 600 troops helped fight off the British at Charleston, S.C., Pulaski headed to Savannah for the ill-fated battle to reclaim the captured city. He fell mortally wounded by grapeshot from a British cannon on Oct. 9, 1779.

The bones had been entombed inside the marble monument in 1854 after they were discovered in an unmarked grave at the former family plantation of William P. Bowen. Bowen said his grandmother and aunt told him the grave was Pulaski's.

However, other historical accounts - from two officers who served under Pulaski - say the general was buried at sea after dying on a ship bound for Charleston.

Metts, the coroner, said nine years after he exhumed the remains, he needed to see them returned to the grave.

"I feel it'd be sacrilegious if I didn't," Metts said. "It would be sort of letting Pulaski down. It's time to put him to rest, with well-deserved honors."