At Guilford Courthouse Francisco once again gave a most astonishing performance. As Benson Lossing reported in his 1850 Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, Francisco, a brave Virginian, cut down eleven men in succession with his broadsword. One of the guards pinned Francisco’s leg to his horse with a bayonet. Forbearing to strike, he assisted the assailant to draw his bayonet forth, when, with terrible force, he brought down his broadsword and cleft the poor fellow’s head to his shoulders!¹

Subscribe Today

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

Despite his latest wound, Francisco did not leave the battle, and in one final assault against the British he killed two more of the enemy before receiving a bayonet thrust in his right thigh the whole length of the bayonet, entering above the knee and coming out at the socket of his hip. As his comrades retreated, the fallen cavalryman was left for dead on the field. A Quaker named Robinson is said to have taken Francisco to his home and cared for him until he rallied.

After this fray, Francisco again limped home to Virginia. Having suffered five wounds for his country’s cause, Peter could easily have been excused from further service at this late date in the war, but his military career was not quite over. He volunteered as a scout to monitor the Virginia operations of Banastre Tarleton and his horsemen. While out on a mission, Peter stopped off at the inn of one Ben Ward. Nine of Tarleton’s troopers surrounded the tavern and announced Peter’s arrest. One of the soldiers further demanded that Francisco surrender his silver shoe buckles; in a scene worthy of a Hollywood script-writer, Francisco told him, in effect, to take them yourself. As the cavalryman bent to do just that, Peter snatched his captor’s saber and struck him a blow on the head. The wounded trooper fired a pistol, grazing Peter in the side for his sixth wound of the war; Francisco at the same moment cut the soldier’s hand nearly off. Another cavalryman aimed a musket at the American, but when it misfired Peter wrenched it from the soldier’s grasp, knocked him from the saddle, and escaped on his horse.

With this feat of derring-do, Francisco’s career of terrorizing British troops ended. He was granted, however, the supreme satisfaction of being present when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

Peter then returned to Richmond in the company of Lafayette. There is an unverifiable story that as the two were strolling in front of St. John’s Church, a young lady who was leaving the building tripped and was caught by the strapping young veteran. And that was how Francisco first encountered Susannah Anderson, the woman he would marry.

Before giving any thought to marriage, however, Peter sought the education he had earlier been denied. The story of his determination to rise above his humble status is as inspiring as the tales of his battlefield achievements. He went to school, sat his hulking form down next to the children, and within three years was reading the classics.

At the same time that Peter was pursuing learning, he worked as a blacksmith. During this time a diarist named Samuel Shepard observed him at work and recorded that he never before saw muscles as great and developed in so young a man, or boy, he is still a boy . . . his great hands, long broad the fingers square, the thumbs heavy and larger in the nail than the usual great toe. His feet are as exceptional for length and thickness as is his whole body. His shoulders like some old statue, like a figure of Michelangelo’s imagination like his Moses but not like David. His jaw is long, heavy, the nose powerful, the slant [of his] forehead partly concealed by uncombed black hair of a shaggy aspect. His voice was light, surprising me as if a bull should bellow in a whimper. Other contemporary accounts emphasize Francisco’s gentle nature and note that his prominent traits of character for temperance, good temper, and charity were no less striking.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to