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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 321
which marks the last resting-place is a wreath of bronze, there placed
by Savannah Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and
unveiled at the time of re-interment.
Though it was designed originally that the monument to Count
Pulaski should stand in Chippewa Square, the corner-stone, on Octo
ber 11, 1853, was relaid in Monterey Square; and, on January 9, 1855,
the superb structure was dedicated with impressive ceremonies. It is
fifty feet in height; a column of solid marble resting upon a base of
granite and surmounted by a statue of the goddess of liberty, holding a
wreath in her outstretched hand. On each of the four corners of the
base is chiseled an inverted cannon, emblematic of loss and mourning.
The coats-of-arms of both Poland and Georgia, entwined with branches
of laurel, ornament the cornices, while the bird of freedom rests upon
both. Pulaski, on an elegant tablet of bronze, is portrayed in the act
of falling, mortally wounded, from his horse, at the time of the famous
siege; and the whole is a work of consummate art. It was executed in
Italy at a cost of $18,000 and was considered at the time one of the most
elegant memorials in America. The inscription on the monument reads:
"Pulaski, the Heroic Pole, who fell mortally wounded,
fighting for American Liberty at the siege of Savannah,
October 9, 1779."
Underneath the monument, soon after the laying of the corner-stone,
were placed what at the time were supposed to be the remains of the
gallant foreigner. These, having been exhumed at Greenwich, on Augus
tine Creek, the traditional place of Pulaski's burial, were placed beside
the corner-stone, in a receptacle specially designed for them. The con
formity of the remains to such a man as Pulaski, ascertained upon an
anatomical examination by medical experts, decided the commissioners
to place the remains beneath the structure. [However, there are some
who insist that Pulaski was buried at sea and that his' real ashes are
entombed between Savannah and Charleston.] To Maj. William P.
Boweii belongs the chief honor of the project which culminated in the
erection of the monument. Dr. Richard D. Arnold was the chairman of
the commission.
Among the numerous articles deposited in the corner-stone was a
piece of the oak tree from Sunbury, under which General Oglethorpe
opened the first Lodge of Free Masons in Georgia, and under which also,
in 1779, the charter of the Union Society, of Savannah, was preserved
and Mordecai Sheftall, then a prisoner of war, was elected president.
It was the contribution of Mrs. Purla Sheftall Solomons. Col. A. R.
Lawton, afterwards General, was in command of the various military
organizations at the time of the relaying of the corner-stone. Robert E.
Launitz, of New York, was the designer of the monument, and Robert
D. Walker, the sculptor. Richard R. Cuyler officiated in the Masonic
rites.
On February 2, 1888, in Madison Square, .near the handsome new
DeSoto Hotel, was unveiled the superb monument to Sergeant Jasper.