University of Virginia Library

Peter Francisco, a soldier of the Revolution, and celebrated for his personal strength,
lived and raised his family in Buckingham, where he died a few years since. His origin
was obscure. He supposed that he was a Portuguese by birth, and that he was kidnapped
when an infant, and carried to Ireland. He had no recollection of his parents, and
the first knowledge he preserved of himself was in that country when a small boy.
Hearing much of America, and being of an adventurous turn, he indented himself to a
sea-captain for seven years, in payment for his passage. On his arrival he was sold to
Anthony Winston, Esq., of this county, on whose estate he labored faithfully until the
breaking out of the revolution. He was then at the age of 16, and partaking of the
patriotic enthusiasm of the times, he asked and obtained permission of his owner to
enlist in the continental army. At the storming of Stony-Point, he was the first soldier,
after Major Gibbon, who entered the fortress, on which occasion he received a
bayonet wound in the thigh. He was at Brandywine, Monmouth, and other battles at
the north, and was transferred to the south under Greene, where he was engaged in the
actions of the Cowpens, Camden, Guilford Court-House, &c. He was a very brave
man, and possessed such confidence in his prowess as to be almost fearless. He used
a sword having a blade five feet in length, which he could wield as a feather, and every
swordsman who came in contact with him, paid the forfeit of his life. His services
were so distinguished, that he would have been promoted to an office had he been enabled
to write. His stature was 6 feet and an inch, and his weight 260 pounds. His
complexion was dark and swarthy, features bold and manly, and his hands and feet uncommonly
large. Such was his personal strength, that he could easily shoulder a cannon
weighing 1100 pounds; and our informant, a highly respectable gentleman now residing
in this county, in a communication before us, says: "he could take me in his right
hand and pass over the room with me, and play my head against the ceiling, as though
I had been a doll-baby. My weight was 195 pounds!" The following anecdote, illustrative
of Francisco's valor, has often been published:—

"While the British army were spreading havoc and desolation all around them, by
their plunderings and burnings in Virginia, in 1781, Francisco had been reconnoitring,
and while stopping at the house of a Mr. Wand, then in Amelia, now Nottoway county,
nine of Tarleton's cavalry came up, with three negroes, and told him he was their prisoner.
Seeing he was overpowered by numbers, he made no resistance. Believing him
to be very peaceable, they all went into the house, leaving him and the paymaster together.
`Give up instantly all that you possess of value,' said the latter, `or prepare to
die.' `I have nothing to give up,' said Francisco, `so use your pleasure.' `Deliver instantly,'
rejoined the soldier, `those massy silver buckles which you wear in your shoes.'
`They were a present from a valued friend,' replied Francisco, `and it would grieve me
to part with them. Give them into your hands I never will. You have the power;
take them, if you think fit.' The soldier put his sabre under his arm, and bent down
to take them. Francisco, finding so favorable an opportunity to recover his liberty,
stepped one pace in his rear, drew the sword with force from under his arm, and instantly
gave him a blow across the scull. `My enemy,' observed Francisco, `was
brave, and though severely wounded, drew a pistol, and, in the same moment that he
pulled the trigger, I cut his hand nearly off. The bullet grazed my side. Ben Wand
(the man of the house) very ungenerously brought out a musket, and gave it to one of
the British soldiers, and told him to make use of that. He mounted the only horse they
could get, and presented it at my breast. It missed fire. I rushed on the muzzle of
the gun. A short struggle ensued. I disarmed and wounded him. Tarleton's troop

of four hundred men were in sight. All was hurry and confusion, which I increased
by repeatedly hallooing, as loud as I could, Come on, my brave boys; now's your time;
we will soon dispatch these few, and then attack the main body! The wounded man

Francisco's Encounter with Nine British Dragoons.

[This representation of Peter Francisco's gallant action with nine of Tarleton's cavalry, in sight of a
troop of 400 men, which took place in Amelia county, Virginia, 1781, is respectfully inscribed to him, by
James Webster and James Warrell.—Published Dec. 1st, 1814, by James Webster of Pennsylvania.]

flew to the troop; the others were panic struck, and fled. I seized Wand, and would
have dispatched him, but the poor wretch begged for his life; he was not only an object
of my contempt, but pity. The eight horses that were left behind, I gave him to
conceal for me. Discovering Tarleton had dispatched ten more in pursuit of me, I
made off. I evaded their vigilance. They stopped to refresh themselves. I, like an
old fox, doubled, and fell on their rear. I went the next day to Wand for my horses;
he demanded two, for his trouble and generous intentions. Finding my situation dangerous,
and surrounded by enemies where I ought to have found friends, I went off with
my six horses. I intended to have avenged myself of Wand at a future day, but Providence
ordained I should not be his executioner, for he broke his neck by a fall from
one of the very horses.' "

Several other anecdotes are related of the strength and bravery of Francisco. At
Gates' defeat at Camden, after running some distance along a road, he took to the woods
and sat down to rest; a British trooper came up and ordered him to surrender. With
feigned humility, he replied he would, and added, as his musket was empty, he had no
further use for it. He then carelessly presented it sideways, and thus throwing the soldier
off his guard, he suddenly levelled the piece, and driving the bayonet through his abdomen,
hurled him off his horse, mounted it, and continued his retreat. Soon he overtook
his colonel, William Mayo, of Powhatan, who was on foot. Francisco generously dismounted
and gave up the animal to his retreating officer, for which act of kindness the
colonel subsequently presented him with a thousand acres of land in Kentucky.

Francisco possessed strong natural sense, and an amiable disposition. He was, withal,
a companionable man, and ever a welcome visitor in the first families in this region of the
state. He was industrious and temperate, and always advocated the part of the weak

and unprotected. On occasions of outbreaks at public gatherings, he was better in rushing
in and preserving public peace, than all the conservative authorities on the ground.
Late in life, partly through the influence of his friend, Chas. Yancey, Esq., he was appointed
sergeant-at-arms to the House of Delegates, in which service he died, in 1836,
and was interred with military honors in the public burying-ground at Richmond.