Was the namesake of Pulaski, New York, a woman?

Researchers say the Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski was not a man in a new documentary airing on The Smithsonian Channel next week. The Chicago Tribune reports scientists examined the Polish-born general’s skeleton in the late 1990s and discovered the bones matched that of a female.

“It’s a woman. It’s not Pulaski," a forensic anthropologist said.

According to the Tribune, that means one of three possibilities: The bones extracted from a monument in Savannah, Georgia, may not have belonged to Pulaski; Pulaski was a biological woman who lived as a man; or Pulaski was “intersex,” previously referred to as a hermaphrodite. An estimated 1 in 1,500 people are born intersex, or with bodies that are not readily defined as male or female.

The new documentary -- “The General Was Female?” -- explores how skeletal remains and DNA testing have been used to show that Pulaski was intersex. Researchers identified a female-looking pelvis and a feminine facial structure and jaw, leading to the conclusion that Pulaski had a condition known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

This video still from a Smithsonian Channel documentary shows a painting of Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born war hero in the American Revolution. Pulaski, N.Y., and nearly a dozen other U.S. towns are named after the military general.

According to the Daily Mail, congenital adrenal hyperplasia is the result of genetic females producing excessive amounts of male steroid hormones that can lead to abnormal sexual development and make genitals appear more masculine.

“That’s pretty much the only way to explain the combination of features that we see,” Virginia Hutton Estabrook, a Georgia Southern University assistant professor of anthropology who appears in the doc, told the Tribune.

The Daily Mail reports researchers also verified the remains were Pulaski’s, using DNA testing to match the remains to Pulaski’s grand-niece. The skeleton also showed evidence of horseback riding and a battle wound injury Pulaski suffered in the American Revolution

Pulaski, born in Poland in 1745, is a Polish hero in the U.S. and commonly referred to as the “Father of the American Cavalry." Pulaski fought against Russia before joining the American colonies as a general in the fight for independence from Great Britain, and famously helped save George Washington’s life in the Battle of Brandywine by stalling British military.

Pulaski died in 1779 at the age of 34 after fighting a battle in Savannah, Georgia. Pulaski was buried on a plantation in Savannah, but the remains were later dug up and buried in a memorial in the city in 1854.

The village of Pulaski in Oswego County and nearly a dozen other U.S. towns are named after the war hero. Pulaski is one of just eight people awarded honorary United States citizenship, along with Sir Winston Churchill and Saint Theresa.

“He was so important as a touchstone” for the Polish community, Estabrook told the Tribune. “And it’s kind of cool that in the 21st century, Pulaski can be a touchstone for a different group of people: That, hey, there were intersex people in history, too, and here’s this one who had this really amazing life: heroic, resourceful, all of the features in the American narrative that we value and treasure.”

“The General Was Female?” airs Monday, April 8 at 8 p.m. on the Smithsonian Channel as part of its “America’s Hidden Stories” series.

The Smithsonian Channel is available in the Syracuse area on the following channels:

Spectrum: Channel 131

Verizon FiOS: Channel 134 / 634

DirecTV: Channel 570

Dish Network: Channel 367

The network is also available through streaming platforms like YouTube TV, Hulu Live and Playstation Vue. A cable provider login may be required.