This monument has a plaque on a large boulder. The boulder is engraved:
"PETER FRANCISCO
AMERICAN PATRIOT
OF PORTUGUESE DESCENT"
and on the cobbled-stone pavement around the Monument:
ONE-MAN-ARMY"
The Plaque reads:
"IN HONOR OF
PETER FRANCISCO
THE HERCULES OF
AMERICAN
INDEPENDENCE
"WITHOUT HIM WE WOULD HAVE LOST TWO
CRUCIAL BATTLES, PERHAPS THE WAR, AND
WITH IT OUR FREEDOM. HE WAS TRULY A
ONE-MAN-ARMY."
GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON"
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Peter Francisco (c. 1760 – January 16, 1831), known variously as the "Virginia Giant" or the "Giant of the Revolution" (and occasionally as the "Virginia Hercules"), was an American patriot and soldier in the American Revolutionary War...
American Revolution
At the age of 16, Francisco joined the 10th Virginia Regiment in 1777, and soon gained notoriety for his size and strength. He fought with distinction at numerous engagements, including the Battle of Brandywine in September. He fought a few skirmishes under Colonel Morgan, before transferring to the regiment of Colonel Mayo of Powhatan. In October, Francisco rejoined his regiment and fought in the Battle of Germantown, and also appeared with the troops at Fort Mifflin on Port Island in the Delaware River. Francisco was hospitalized at Valley Forge for two weeks following these skirmishes. On June 28, 1778, he fought at Monmouth Court House, New Jersey, where a musket ball tore through his right thigh. He never fully recovered from this wound, but fought at Cowpens and other battles.
He was part of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne's attack on the British fort, Stony Point, on the Hudson River. Upon attacking the fort, Francisco suffered a nine-inch gash in his stomach, but continued to fight; he was second to enter the fort. He killed three British grenadiers and captured the enemy flag. Francisco's entry into the fort is mentioned in Wayne's report on the battle to General Washington, dated July 17, 1779, and in a letter written by Captain William Evans to accompany Francisco's letter to the Virginia General Assembly in November 1820 for pay.
Following the Battle of Camden, South Carolina, Francisco noticed the Americans were leaving behind one of their valuable cannons, mired in mud. Legend says he freed and picked up the approximately 1,100-pound cannon and carried it on his shoulder to keep it from falling into the hands of the enemy. In a petition Francisco wrote 11 November 1820 to the Virginia Legislature in his own words, he said that at Camden, he had shot a grenadier who had tried to shoot his Colonel (Mayo); he escaped by bayoneting one of Banastre Tarleton's cavalrymen and fled on the horse making cries to make the British think he was a Loyalist, and gave the horse to Mayo.
Monument to Francisco, Guilford Courthouse National Military ParkHearing that Colonel Watkins was headed on a march through the Carolinas, Francisco joined him, seeing action at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. He allegedly killed eleven men on the field of battle, including one who wounded him severely in the thigh with a bayonet. The feat is commemorated with a monument to Francisco at the National Military Park. Francisco in his own accounts claimed that he killed two men of the enemy-including one who bayoneted him in the leg-and mentions striking "panes" to others.
Francisco was sent home to Buckingham to recuperate. He volunteered to spy on Tarleton and his horsemen, who were operating in the area. On this journey, he performed his best-known action, Francisco's Fight. He claims to have defeated a band of Tarleton's Raiders and escaped with their horses by his own actions. Legend has it that he killed or mortally wounded 3 of 11 raiders. One night, nine of Tarleton's men surrounded Francisco outside of a tavern and ordered him to be arrested. They told him to give over his silver shoe buckles. Francisco told Tarleton's men to take the buckles themselves. When they began to seize his shoe buckles, Francisco took a soldier's saber and struck him on the head. The wounded soldier fired his pistol, grazing Francisco's side; the American nearly cut off the soldier's hand. Another enemy soldier aimed a musket at Francisco, but the musket misfired. Francisco grabbed it from the soldier's hands, knocked him off his mount, and escaped with the horse.
In later accounts, the numbers vary. In Francisco's petition in 1820 to the Virginia Legislature, he reported having killed one and wounded eight of the nine raiders, and capturing eight of their nine horses. In his 1829 petition to the United States Congress, he claimed to have dispatched or killed three Tarleton raiders and frightened the other six away. Francisco was ordered by his commanding officer to join the army in 1781 at Yorktown; he did not fight but was witness to the British surrender."