It was learned 200 years later: the general who created the American cavalry. This was a woman – 04/08/2019

He is considered in the United States as a heroic war general. It is even said that on one occasion he saved the life of the father of the American homeland, George Washington.

But scientists now say that this famous fighter in whose honor monuments have been erected, she was really a woman or an interbadual.

Casimir Pulaski, a US-Polish general of the eighteenth century, who joined Washington's army and fought British troops in 1777, He is considered a war hero in Poland and the United States, where he is considered the creator of the cavalry corps.

About 20 years ago, American scientists they exhumed his corpse, under a monument located in the city of Savanah (Georgia, United States).

At that point, the examiners realized that Pulaski's skeleton had feminine characteristics, but they could not prove that it was him.

Two decades later, DNA tests confirmed that the remains belonged to the general.

The surprising results will be told in a documentary of the American chain Smithsonian Channel, titled "United States Hidden Stories: Was the general a woman? " and its premiere will be on April 8th.

"As feminine as possible"

Pulaski was born in Warsaw in 1745 and has an early interest in politics.

In his adolescence, Russia has banned it to fight for the independence of Poland, after which he escaped to Paris.

There he met the American revolutionary Benjamin Franklin, who convinced him to support the colonies that fought against England during the Revolution of the United States.

Thinks that Pulaski saved the life of George Washington in 1777, during the Battle of Brandywine. The general would have found an escape route through which Washington and his soldiers could withdraw.

He died in 1779 at the age of 34, shortly after being fatally injured during the siege of the city of Savannah.

Then his bones were deposited in a metal container under a monument erected in his honor in this locality.

But sometime later, the mausoleum was to be temporarily removed, and that's when researchers they were able to exhume and study their skeleton.

Forensic Anthropologist at Arizona State University, Charles Merbs told the newspaper ASU now who examined the bones with Karen Burns, forensic scientist, from the University of Georgia.

"Dr. Burns told me before I entered, & # 39; Enter and do not go out screaming & # 39; " Merbs account.

"He told me to study the body carefully, then to sit down and discuss it." When I walked in, I immediately saw what it was. The skeleton was as feminine as possible"

Another member of the team, Virginia Hutton, explained to NBC News that one of the differences between male and female skeletons is by the basin.

"In women, the pelvic cavity has a more oval shape, less the shape of the heart than the male pelvis. That of Pulaski looked very feminine"

Raised as a man

The most immediate question was if the skeleton belonged to the general and it has not been replaced by anyone else.

Scientific tools at that time did not allow researchers to identify bones by DNA tests.

But the willingness of the team of experts has persisted over the years.

Recently, the identity of the skeleton could be confirmed through the mitochondrial DNA of Pulaski's grandmotherknown injuries and specific physical characteristics.

Merbs says that it's unlikely that Pulaski, who was raised as a man, I already thought I was a woman or an interbad.

The maximum you could have thought, says the scientist, is that "I thought it was a man, but something was wrong".

"At that time, people just did not know these things," he adds.

According to United Nations data, 1.7% of the world's population is born with interbad traitsthat is to say with characteristics (bad, chromosomal or hormonal) masculine and feminine.

BBC

GML