Kazimierz was the son of Jozef Pulaski (1704–69), one of the initiators of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772), which was an association of Polish nobles formed at the fortress of Bar in Podolia in order to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. As a young man Pulaski distinguished himself in the defense of Berdichev (1768) and Czestochowa (1770–71) against Russian forces. In October 1771 he unsuccessfully attempted to kidnap Poland's King Stanislaw II to the confederates’ camp and was falsely accused of an attempt on the king. After Prussia and Austria invaded Poland in the spring of 1772, Pulaski left for Saxony, later moving to France where he lived in financial straits.

In December 1776 in Paris Pulaski met the American statesman Benjamin Franklin, who recommended him to General George Washington. Pulaski landed in America in June 1777. He served in Washington’s army at Brandywine, at Germantown and in the winter campaign of 1777–78, and was made general and chief of cavalry by Congress. The Pulaski Legion, a mixed unit he formed in 1778, made use of his experience in guerrilla warfare. In May 1779 Pulaski defended Charleston. Wounded at Savannah on October 9 1779, he died aboard the warship Wasp. (Poland.pl)

On learning of the American Revolution, Kościuszko, himself a man of revolutionary aspirations, sympathetic to the American cause and an advocate of human rights, sailed for America in June 1776 along with other foreign officers, likely with the help of a French supporter of the American revolutionaries, Pierre Beaumarchais. On 30 August 1776, Kościuszko submitted an application to the Second Continental Congress; he was assigned to the Continental Army the next day. (Wikipedia)