Francisco fought at Monmouth (near present-day Freehold, New Jersey) on June 28, 1778, where a musket ball tore into his right thigh, leaving a wound that nagged him for the rest of his life.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in American History magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

On July 15-16, 1779 the young Goliath took part in the daring surprise attack led by General Mad Anthony Wayne on Stony Point, the British Army's stronghold on the Hudson River, north of New York City. The American assault columns were spearheaded by two twenty-man commando units known as forlorn hopes; Francisco was in the northern one, commanded by a Lieutenant Gibbon. Gibbon's unit sustained so many casualties that only he, Francisco, and one other man reached their objective, but the advance party was right behind them, and the Americans captured the fort.

During the attack Francisco suffered his third wound of the war, a nine-inch gash in the stomach, but that didn't stop him from killing three enemy grenadiers and capturing the enemy's flag. After recuperating in Fishkill, New York, the wounded warrior bided his time with the troops in various locations until December 1779, when his three-year tour of duty expired and he returned to Virginia.

Francisco's journey southward coincided with a turn in the same direction by the war itself. In early 1778 the British decided to move their heaviest offensive activities into the South, partly because they expected to receive the backing of the many Loyalists they believed resided in the region. When Peter learned of the enemy's intentions, he joined the Virginia militia.

British strategy called for the capture of Savannah and the securing of Georgia, to be followed by a move north into South Carolina. Congress selected General Horatio Gates, the unpleasant intriguer whose victory at Saratoga in 1777 had puffed up his reputation, as the man to check the Redcoats' advance in the South. The ensuing operations, known as the Camden Campaign, were an American fiasco, and Francisco was there to experience the unfortunate episode.

The first major clash in the South between the Continentals and the British Army came at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780. The outcome, an utter rout, was labeled by nineteenth-century historian John Fiske as the most disastrous defeat ever inflicted on an American army, but nonetheless here Francisco achieved one of his most shining moments. Overtaken and surrounded by the enemy during the panicked American retreat, the lad speared a British cavalryman with a bayonet, hoisted him from his horse, and then, climbing onto the steed himself, escaped through the enemy line by pretending to be a Tory sympathizer. Catching up with his fleeing comrades, he gave the mount to his colonel, thereby saving the exhausted officer's life.

Next, seeing that one of two American cannon was being left behind, Peter–as the story has it–crouched beneath the 1,100-pound gun, lifted it from its carriage and onto his shoulder, and carried it off the field to prevent its falling into enemy hands. Some historians have questioned whether such a feat is possible, but during the American bicentennial celebrations of 1975-76 the U.S. Postal Service saw no reason to doubt it and issued a commemorative stamp showing the hulking Peter Francisco performing this stupendous deed. No wonder that, by the time of this battle, Peter had acquired the reputation as the strongest man in America.

Francisco again returned to Virginia after the Camden debacle, but not for long. When he learned that Captain Thomas Watkins was raising a cavalry troop, he got himself a horse and returned to action. Watkins's unit was assigned to the command of Colonel William Washington and was soon involved in the crucial confrontation at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, on March 15, 1781.

The Continentals were now under the command of Nathanael Greene, who, unlike Gates, proved worthy of the confidence placed in him. Greene's actions in the South were instrumental in bringing the war to a victorious conclusion. Technically, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a British victory, for Greene's soldiers retreated after a hard-fought contest; but it was a Pyrrhic one–the losses suffered by the British, now under the command of Lord Cornwallis, were so grave that his army was effectively wrecked. Later Cornwallis wrote that the Americans fought like demons in what was one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to