18 Facts About Peter Francisco

Peter Francisco's mother spoke French and his father spoke another language that he did not know.

The Azorean legend says the Francisco family had many political enemies and set up Peter's abduction to protect him from accident or death by his parents' foes.

Peter Francisco was taken in by the judge Anthony Winston of Buckingham County, Virginia, an uncle of Patrick Henry's.

Peter Francisco lived with Winston and his family until the beginning of the American Revolution and was tutored by them.

Peter Francisco was well known as the Virginian Hercules or the Virginia Giant.

At the age of 16, Peter Francisco joined the 10th Virginia Regiment in 1776 and soon gained notoriety for his size and strength.

Peter Francisco was hospitalized at Valley Forge for two weeks following these engagements.

Peter Francisco was part of General Anthony Wayne's attack on the British fort of Stony Point on the Hudson River.

Peter Francisco reportedly killed eleven enemy soldiers during the battle, including one who wounded him severely in the thigh with a bayonet.

Peter Francisco volunteered to spy on the British Legion, who were operating in the area.

Peter Francisco claimed to have defeated a British Legion detachment and captured several of their horses.

Peter Francisco grabbed it from the soldier's hands, knocked him off his mount, and escaped with the horse.

However, in his 1820 letter to the Virginia legislature, Peter Francisco reported having killed one and wounded eight enemy soldiers along with capturing eight of their horses.

In 1781, Peter Francisco was ordered by his commanding officer to join the Franco-American army participating in the siege of Yorktown; he arrived too late to participate in the fighting but witnessed the surrender of the besieged British army under the command of Lord Cornwallis.

Peter Francisco went to school with young children, who were fascinated by his stories of the war.

Peter Francisco was the daughter of Captain James Anderson and his wife Elizabeth Tyler Baker Anderson.

Peter Francisco spent the last three years of his life working as the Sergeant-at-Arms to the Virginia State Senate.

Peter Francisco died of appendicitis, on January 16,1831, and was buried with full military honors in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond.