THE STATE
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
Kotar») aa Mf«nddaai mailer. Juna 1, 1933. al Iba Poiloffica al Ralalfb, North
Carolina, onder Ilia Art of March 3. 1879.
Vol. VIII. No. 48 April 26, 1941
Guilford County
It lias always played an impor¬
tant role in tlie affairs of the
state and there are many in¬
teresting' and historic places
within its hoiindaries.
By CAUL C.OIICCII
6 II ILFORD COUNTY has had
many great citizens. Among
them were Dr. David Caldwell,
Governor Alexander Martin, Governor
Morehead, Governor Scales, Governor
Worth. Uncle -Toe Cannon, John A.
Gilmer, Sidney I’orter. Dolly Madi¬
son, and a host of others.
To our way of thinking, however,
there was one individual who was
more picturesque than any of the
above. True, he wasn’t n native of
Guilford County, but lie transacted
a little business within its boundaries
that was of a very important and very
interesting nature.
His name was Peter Francisco, lie
was the big mau of his day and time:
a veritable giant in stature and a
man of tremendous strength. When he
hit a man, the man stayed hit. The
story is told that a big fellow rode
down into North Carolina from Ten¬
nessee to do a little high-elnss wrass-
lin’ with Peter. The latter wasn’t in
the mood for any foolishness on that
particular day and told him to scram.
The visitor didn’t like that and pro¬
ceeded to say some harsh things about
Mr. Francisco. Whereupon Peter
stalked forward, grabbed the Tennes¬
seean by the slack of bis britches and
threw him over the fence. Not satis¬
fied with that, Peter took the visitor’s
horse and threw him over the fence
too.
Then he went hack to his work.
When the Revolutionary War
broke out, Peter enlisted on the side
of the Patriots. You may recall that
the Rattle of Guilford C ourthonse was
one of the important engagements of
the war. General Nathaniel Greene’s
soldiers sort of discouraged the army
of Lord Cornwallis in that battle; to
such an extent that Cornwallis lost
heart to a large degree in future mili¬
tary activity. It was at Guilford
Courthouse that Peter Francisco had
his big day. The British had broken
through General Greene’s first line of
defense. Things weren’t going so good
for the Patriots and it looked as
though they might be overwhelmed by
the British. And that’s when Mr. Peter
Francisco proceeded to get busy.
Spitting on his hands, he pulled his
huge broad sword from its sheath and
sailed into the enemy. He struck right
ami left, ami whenever he struck,
somebody suffered. More than any
other individual, he helped to break
the resistance of the British and per¬
suaded them to suspend further fight¬
ing in that immediate sector.
If you visit Guilford Battleground
today, you’ll see a tall shaft erected
to the memory of Peter Francisco. It
is appropriately inserihed as follows:
To Peter Francisco
A giant in stature, might and
courage, who slew in this engage-
ment eleven of the enemy with his
own broad sword, rendering him¬
self thereby perhaps the most
famous private soldier of the Rev¬
olutionary War.
The Peter Francisco monument at
Guilford Courthouse Battleground.
It was during the fight between the
Patriots and the British that Peter
performed his feat of valor which
helped to make him the outstanding
private of the Revolution.
There are many other beautiful
monuments and markers at the Bat¬
tleground. The General Greene Memo¬
rial is an equestrian statue which was
erected by the U. S. Government in
1915. The monument to Mrs. Kcren-
happuch Turner, a life-size bronze
figure of a woman, is one of the first
erected in America to a Revolutionary
heroine (1902). Mrs. Turner rode
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