Coming from a partitioned country, Polish men often entered military service in other countries such as France or Spain as a way of making a living and perhaps a fortune. From time to time, Texas was appropriate.

At the upstart French Champ d'Asile, the Napoleonic artilleryman Constantin Malczewski helped plan the fortifications that were never to be used except in later French fiction. He became a general of artillery in the Mexican army. Captain Joseph Alexander Czyczeryn was a member of Dr. Long's filibustering expedition, which entered Spanish Texas with revolutionary hopes in 1821.

After the unsuccessful uprising against Russia in 1830, many Poles left for anywhere. Some of these found the Texas Revolution timely and sufficiently dangerous. Michael Debricki, a major in Poland, was an engineer at Goliad. Also with Fannin's artillery were the brothers Francis and Adolph Petrussewicz and John Kornicky. The artillery commander killed at Coleto was Francis Petrussewicz. All others were executed with Fannin.

Felix Wardzinski was a San Jacinto survivor who became a landowner in Harris County and a veteran of the Mexican War. An enlistee, he fought with Texas volunteers at the Battle of Monterrey.

Private Kaminski, losing his first name to bad record keeping, was in the Texan army in 1840. He died opposing Comanches during the Council House fight in San Antonio.

And the presence of military men and women of Polish descent extends into contemporary times in great numbers.