Pulaski's Banner
Bethlehem, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
While Pulaski guarded this area in 1778, the Moravian women made a banner which his cavalry bore until he died at the Siege of Savannah in 1779. The banner was later immortalized in a poem by Longfellow.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
While the Polish cavalry officer Casimir Pulaski guarded this area in 1778, the Moravian women of Bethlehem stitched a crimson banner for his legion, which his horsemen carried until he fell at the Siege of Savannah in 1779. The gift became one of the Revolution's cherished legends, later immortalized in Longfellow's verse "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns." The story bound a foreign volunteer's sacrifice to the quiet devotion of a Pennsylvania religious community.
Why it matters
The banner joins two Revolutionary threads—the foreign volunteers who aided the cause and the women whose handiwork sustained it—into an enduring national legend.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1778 the American Revolution was at a critical stage. The Continental Army and its allies were fighting to secure independence, and every corner of the young country felt the strain of war. In eastern Pennsylvania, the Moravian community at Bethlehem was a center of quiet faith and careful industry, a town founded by a religious group known for its devotion, its music, and its disciplined way of life.
Bethlehem sat in the Lehigh Valley of Northampton County, a settlement whose orderly workshops and communal life stood in contrast to the upheaval of war swirling around it. During the Revolution the town served the American cause in many ways, and soldiers and officers passed through its landscape.
Into this setting rode a foreign volunteer, one of many Europeans who crossed the ocean to help the American fight for liberty. His presence, guarding the area in that difficult year, brought the wider Revolution directly to the doorstep of a devout Pennsylvania community.
People & events
Casimir Pulaski was a Polish cavalry officer who had come to America to serve the Revolutionary cause, and in 1778 he guarded this area. He was a horseman and a soldier of real reputation, one of the volunteers from abroad whose skill helped strengthen the American forces at a time when experienced officers were badly needed.
While he was here, the Moravian women of Bethlehem made a banner for his legion. It was an act of devotion and craftsmanship from a community known for both, and his cavalry carried that banner into the field. The gift bound the quiet religious town to the dashing foreign officer in a way no one could have foreseen.
Pulaski's horsemen bore the banner until he fell at the Siege of Savannah in 1779, where he was mortally wounded fighting for the country he had chosen to serve. The story did not end on the battlefield. It was later immortalized by the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose verse turned the banner and the women who made it into an enduring piece of American legend.
Its place in the American story
This marker gathers up two threads that run through the whole story of the Revolution. One is the crucial role of foreign volunteers, men who left their homelands to help a distant people win independence. Pulaski was among the most celebrated of them, and his death in the American cause made him a lasting symbol of that international sacrifice.
The other thread is the contribution of women, whose handiwork and devotion sustained the war effort in ways that rarely made the battle reports. The banner sewn by the Moravian women is a tangible reminder that the Revolution was carried forward not only by soldiers in the field but by communities at home who gave what they could.
That the tale was later immortalized in Longfellow's verse shows how such moments pass from history into national memory. A gift of cloth, a foreign officer's fall, and a poet's imagination combined to create a legend that helped Americans understand their founding as a shared and even romantic sacrifice.
If you visit
This is a monument in historic Bethlehem, so come ready to feel the weight of both the Revolution and the Moravian community that shaped this town. The marker invites you to imagine the year 1778, when a foreign cavalry officer guarded these grounds and the women of the settlement set to work on a banner for his legion.
Bethlehem's Moravian heritage is very much alive in its old streets and buildings, and this site fits naturally into a walk through that history. As you stand here, think of the contrast the story holds, between the disciplined devotion of the town and the daring of the horsemen who carried its gift into battle.
Let the connection to Longfellow deepen the visit. You are standing where a real event became an American legend, later carried into verse. On a road trip through the Lehigh Valley and Revolutionary Pennsylvania, this monument is a fine place to remember that the founding of the nation drew on volunteers from far away and on the quiet labors of a community close at hand.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Casimir Pulaski
- · Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Themes & tags
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Built in 1744 and first used as a Brothers' House, this Bethlehem building soon became home to the Moravian community's unmarried women, who lived and worked here practicing the arts and crafts assigned to the sisterhood. In 1778, during the Revolutionary War, the sisters stitched the banner carried by Casimir Pulaski's cavalry legion—a piece of needlework later immortalized in American memory. The Single Sisters' choir was a distinctive feature of Moravian communal life, giving women a defined economic and spiritual role.
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