Francisco's Fight

Peter Francisco, a Continental Army veteran known for his lengthy service, is said to have clashed with a detachment of the British Legion in July 1781, an episode that has come to be known as Francisco's Fight. No corroborating evidence exists for this encounter, not even a precise date, and the entire account rests on nothing more than statements Francisco himself made while pursuing financial compensation from governments.

Over time, Francisco offered inconsistent versions of what happened, asserting that at least one man died and several others suffered wounds in the clash. No other person ever documented the event. Historians writing about the incident in later years added flourishes and particulars that cannot be found anywhere in the actual historical record.

Background

By the first days of July 1781, Charles Cornwallis, who held command over British forces in Virginia, reached Portsmouth with plans to load a portion of his men onto waiting transport vessels. Before he had even completed the journey there, he sent Banastre Tarleton ahead with a detachment of his British Legion, the unit sometimes called "Tarleton's Legion," to carry out a raid through the central part of the colony. Setting out from Suffolk on July 9, Tarleton pushed his men swiftly forward until they reached far into the hills at the base of the Blue Ridge. By the time the operation wrapped up, his force had covered some 400 miles (640 km) and managed to destroy a handful of military stockpiles, though the bulk of what they hoped to seize had already been shipped south to reinforce Nathanael Greene's Continental Army in South Carolina. Tarleton made his way back to Portsmouth on July 24.

Among the soldiers who fought in various units throughout the conflict was a private named Peter Francisco. He cut an imposing figure, said to stand around six feet six inches (roughly 198 cm) tall and weigh more than 260 pounds (120 kg), and his physical power was widely noted. During the fighting in the north, he took part in the engagements at Brandywine and Monmouth Court House, and stories held that he was the second soldier to reach the defenses at Stony Point. Later he joined Greene's forces in the south, where accounts credit him with cutting down eleven opponents at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in May 1781. He suffered a wound in that same fight and had gone back to his home in Buckingham, Virginia, to heal.

Skirmish

Everything known about this episode comes from Peter Francisco's own testimony, with no independent confirmation from any other quarter. The first piece of evidence is a letter he sent to the Virginia State Assembly in 1820, in which he sought payment for his wartime service. The second surfaced nine years later, when he petitioned the United States Congress in 1829 asking for financial assistance, a request that was ultimately turned down because he was already drawing a military pension. Though the two versions diverge on certain points, their overall shape remains largely consistent. Nobody else left behind an account to back up what Francisco claimed happened, and Tarleton's memoir offers only a vague nod to losses suffered during the expedition, without specifics.

According to the 1820 version, Francisco was traveling home through Amelia County, Virginia, in territory that today falls within Nottoway County, when he came upon dragoons from the British Legion at "West Creek," the plantation belonging to Capt. Benjamin Ward. One rider ordered him to hand over his watch along with his silver shoe buckles, but Francisco refused to comply. When the dragoon crouched down to grab the buckles himself, Francisco, though he carried no weapon, seized the opportunity to pull the man's own sword free from its scabbard and struck him dead with it. The Virginia letter goes on to say that he "wounded and drove off the others," making off with eight of the nine horses, since the ninth was still being ridden by a horseman bearing a deep gash across his back. By the time he wrote to Congress in 1829, however, Francisco's story had grown to include two additional kills, and he described the remaining attackers, six men in total, as having fled in fear.

Legacy

A monument went up in 1931, placed near where the fighting actually occurred by the area's Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, close to what is now Jennings Ordinary.

The engagement is also marked by a state historical sign. Mark Boatner's Landmarks of the American Revolution, in its 1992 edition, places this marker along U.S. Route 360, roughly six miles south of Burkeville, situated about five miles almost directly west from where Ward's tavern once stood.