American Braveheart

Date

07/11/2026

Hosted By

Les Sillars, Tatton Strassheim

American Braveheart

0:00

WORLD Radio - American Braveheart

Peter Francisco was known in his lifetime as George Washington’s One-Man Army–but what if the stories aren’t true?

Peter Francisco U.S. Postage stamp The Smithsonian Institution

LES SILLARS, HOST: From WORLD Radio, this is Doubletake. I’m Les Sillars.

Travis Bowman stands six feet, six inches tall. That's pretty tall, by today's standards. But what if you transported him back to 1776 in colonial America? Bowman would be a giant next to most people. The average height of a man was five feet, nine inches.

But you don’t have to transport Bowman back. About 20 years ago he stumbled into a gift shop and discovered that his ancestor, Peter Francisco, was just as tall.

BOWMAN: And I'm a seventh-generation descendant of Peter Francisco through his second wife, mind you, as he was married three times.

That’s Bowman. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has his own environmental education company. He soon realized that Peter Francisco was not just tall. Standing in that gift shop, he discovered that his ancestor was a Revolutionary-era hero. Francisco was known in his lifetime as George Washington’s One-Man Army.

At that moment, Bowman realized that he was a descendent of a mighty warrior for freedom. A kind of American Braveheart. And their stories were somehow connected.

At that point Bowman embarked on a quest, you might say. He determined to bring the story of Peter Francisco to as many people as he can.

But there’s a problem: what if the story of Peter Francisco isn’t exactly what Bowman first thought it was? And more than that, what if our American heroes aren’t exactly who we think they were?

This summer America is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. So today, on Doubletake, a story about myth, and history, and legend. WORLD’s Tatton Strassheim has a piece about an American trying to retell the story of America’s founding fathers, and his own great-grandfather. Along the way, he discovers that sometimes reality doesn’t quite live up to the myth–but sometimes the myth doesn’t quite do justice to reality.

Here’s Tatton.

STRASSHEIM: Have you ever heard the legend of Peter Francisco?

BOWMAN: The legend of Peter Francisco is that he was George Washington's One-Man Army.

TATTON STRASSHEIM: Peter Francisco was born in 1760 to wealthy parents in the Azores on an island formerly known as the island of Jesus Christ, off the coast of Portugal. His family was descended from the Lusitanians, a first century people group that once held their own against the Roman Empire.

Kidnapped by pirates who left him orphaned in Virginia, just ten years before the War for Independence. He was five years old.

By the time of the Revolution, Francisco had grown into a two-hundred-and-sixty-pound giant. Inspired by Patrick Henry’s plea to “give me liberty or give me death,” he enlisted in the Continental Army.

The Virginian giant’s heroics were legendary. At the battle of Camden, in August, 1780, Francisco hoisted an eleven-hundred-pound cannon onto his shoulders and off the battlefield to keep it out of the hands of the British. A postage stamp depicting the event came out in 1975 for the bicentennial celebrations. His superhuman strength earned him the nickname “the Hercules of the Revolution.”

George Washington said that “without him we would have lost two crucial battles, perhaps the war, and with it our freedom.” To show his thanks, General Washington gave Francisco a special five-foot long broadsword.

Bowman says it’s an extraordinary tale of God’s providence.

But next to figures like Washington, Travis says, Francisco is ... obscure.

BOWMAN: He was like Shaquille O'Neal of the American Revolution, or William Wallace, the Braveheart story of the American Revolution … And yet he’s not widely known.

Growing up, Bowman heard the legend of Francisco from his grandmother. But it wasn’t until his 30’s that he investigated it for himself. Bowman had a business meeting near Guilford Courthouse, in Greensboro. It’s the site of a battle where Francisco famously led the cavalry and killed eleven British soldiers with his sword.

BOWMAN: … and it might have been my grandmother or somebody in my family, my uncle said you should go visit that monument that stands in honor of Peter Francisco in North Carolina. I said, what? There's a monument? I didn't even know there was any monuments.

The monument is over 20 feet tall, with 11 stones stacked to represent the eleven victims of Francisco’s sword. The plaque reads: “TO PETER FRANCISCO / A GIANT IN STATURE, / MIGHT AND COURAGE - WHO SLEW / IN THIS ENGAGEMENT ELEVEN OF THE / ENEMY WITH HIS OWN BROAD SWORD / RENDERING HIMSELF THEREBY PERHAPS THE MOST / FAMOUS PRIVATE SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.”

BOWMAN: And I’m like, what did this guy do?

Bowman entered the park’s gift shop, where he found a small section displaying Francisco’s razor case and one of his shoes.

BOWMAN: Like, how many soldiers fought this engagement? Like, you know, thousands of soldiers. And of all the soldiers they picked, they put a display case of my ancestor.

Bowman asked the park ranger for books on Francisco. They didn’t have any.

BOWMAN: I said, well, why don't you have any books on Peter Francisco, he’s my ancestor, I'm a descendant. And he goes, I don't know, you know, somebody needs to write a book. And he puts his finger and kind of in my nose, he's like, you're a descendant, you should write a book.

The rest is history.

He began to research his great grandfather. And found something… unusual. His grandmother used to say Francisco was nine or ten feet tall,

BOWMAN: I find out, Oh, he's six foot six. Like, well, that's weird. I'm six foot six.

There’s another thing. In Virginia, March 15 is “Peter Francisco Day.” The Virginia State Legislature passed a resolution marking the holiday on February 17, 1973.

That’s Bowman’s birthday.

BOWMAN: And I just was, I couldn't believe it.

It was like he was made to tell Peter Francisco’s story. So, he did, casting himself in the role of Francisco. With a script and a costume, including a replica broad sword, Bowman filled out Francisco’s frame for half an hour at a time. Performing for historical societies, schools, and churches. He even got to perform in Francisco’s home town of Porto Judeu for the First Lady of Portugal.

BOWMAN: People would hear about me in the newspaper and they wanted me to come and sign right next to their stamps, they’d bring out their stamp collection, say sign here, descendant of Peter Francisco.

But the more he looked into Francisco’s life, the more he realized there were certain ... inconsistencies. Some things that seemed ... implausible. And honestly, as I looked into it, I thought so, too.

STRASSHEIM: … it all fits together very nicely, but a lot of it is a little historically dubious. Do we know for certain that Peter lifted an 1,100-pound cannon over his shoulder and carried it off a battlefield?

BOWMAN: The 1,100-pound cannon. I think we could say absolutely not.

In the past, Bowman’s tried to explain how such a feat could be possible. Now, he admits it’s far-fetched.

The world record for deadlifting is held by Hafthor Bjornsson, who lifted 1124 pounds in September of 2025.

SOUND: [501KG Deadlift]

He’s six feet, nine inches tall and weighs 441 pounds. There’s no way two-hundred sixty-pound Peter Francisco hoisted the same weight onto his shoulder. And then hauled it off a battlefield.

The History Channel invited four of the world’s deadlifting champions to recreate Francisco’s feat. It took all four of them to just drag the cannon across the ground.

HISTORY CHANNEL: The numbers on the scale can say whatever they want about that, but, uh, the shape literally doubles the weight I think.

So, yeah. It’s dubious. In fact, all of Francisco’s stories are a little dubious.

But those kinds of inconsistencies don’t stop Travis from spreading the story.

BOWMAN: So the details of how big was he, how big was the sword, how heavy was the was the cannon? I mean, those are the details that people can debate until Jesus comes back. To me, those, those really don't change it, for me.

Don’t they?

What really happened?

A lot of Peter Francisco’s stories are myths. That is, they’re probably made up. Remember what George Washington said? That without him we would have lost two crucial battles, perhaps the war, and with it our freedom?

MICHAEL SCHELLHAMMER: No one knows where that quote comes from.

Michael Schellhammer is a retired army civilian, historian and writer. He’ll help us unravel truth from fable.

SCHELLHAMMER: Washington lauded individual soldiers all the time. When they did something, he wrote about it. Peter Francisco does not appear in any of George Washington’s writings.

So we don’t have proof that Washington even knew about this guy. And it gets worse. Schellhammer says Washington’s quote doesn’t make sense. Remember, Washington supposedly said that Francisco helped us win two crucial battles.

SCHELLHAMMER: All of the battles that Peter Francisco was in… It’s tough to call any of them a clear American victory. The battle of Brandywine, probably Peter Francisco's first action, was an American loss. The Battle of Camden, where Peter Francisco fought, where the story of him carrying the cannon comes from, was an embarrassing American loss.

There’s also no record of Washington commissioning Francisco’s sword, which is odd if it happened.

SCHELLHAMMER: Because Washington kept meticulous records for all of his expenses, and it does not appear there anywhere.

He says a sword like that would have cost between 20 and 50 continental dollars… an entire month of Washington’s pay.

Remember how the legend says he killed eleven redcoats at the Guildford Courthouse? Francisco himself only claimed to have killed two redcoats. There’s no evidence that he led Col. Washington’s cavalry, either.

As you might expect, there’s also no record of him hauling off a cannon at Camden.

SCHELLHAMMER: All possible, but improbable, without a record of it, without even him claiming it. I wonder, what did, what did Peter actually do at that battle? Did he do something that was similar, but it's been lost to the mists of time. He could very well have been extremely heroic. But if it's now covered up by this fanciful story, I think that’s a shame.

For Bowman, the facts of Francisco’s story may be uncertain, but that doesn’t change its meaning. Actually, he thinks a little mystery is a good thing if it makes us look for the answers.

BOWMAN: Go read some more history. I think that'll be helpful. The reason he's famous, and the reason there's monuments and all that, is because he was so instrumental and so extraordinary.

Yeah, he’s extraordinary in myth, but what about in real life? Was he actually a hero?

We find out at the Battle of Stony Point. Using just the historical facts.

A documentary from the American Battlefield Trust sets the scene like this:

AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST: In the summer of 1779, a large British force was sent up the Hudson River. They took the river crossing at Stony Point and fortified it.

Stony Point lived up to its name, sticking out into the river like a thorn. At 150 feet high, it was nicknamed the little Gibraltar. George Washington wanted it back.

AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST: A bold plan of attack was devised with the Light Infantry Corps at its heart. They were the continental army’s elite troops.

The light infantry was all volunteers. And Francisco was one of them.

SCHELLHAMMER: So we know from the records that he at least raised his hand and said, Hey, wait, you're putting together a core of light infantry that's full of the toughest soldiers that are going to take on the toughest missions. Yeah, I'm up for that. Sign me up.

AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST: The Patriot commander, General Anthony Wayne, had ordered his men not to load their muskets.

So Francisco went into battle without a musket. The goal was to surprise the British. The sound of musket fire would have given them away.

AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST: They went in with bayonets only.

But that wasn’t all.

SCHELLHAMMER: General Wayne, part of his tactics were to form what he called a Forlorn Hope.

“Forlorn Hope” was a standard military term for a group of soldiers that had next to no chance of survival. General Wayne’s Forlorn Hope would have to clear the forest shrubbery with axes.

SCHELLHAMMER: So these guys were going forward pretty much unarmed, chopping through the abate, which was sure to get British fire on them. And it did, okay, because you can't, because chopping is pretty loud, you can't disguise that.

He signed up for that too.

AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD TRUST: Just after midnight on July 16th, the Patriots went into action. The main force placed pieces of white paper in their hats so they could see each other in the dark … The other forces approached from the opposite side. Some patriots stayed at a distance, to keep the Redcoats distracted by musket fire, while others scaled the wall.

Francisco’s goal was to reach the parapet at the very top of the fort, where the British flag flew. Legend claims he was the second man over the wall, capturing the British colors.

But the first five men over the wall were recorded and rewarded. Francisco wasn’t.

That doesn’t diminish his heroism—we have documents proving he took a bayonet wound in the stomach. Hero material for sure.

And Francisco wasn’t the only hero at Stony Point. Without his brothers in arms, the day would have been lost.

SCHELLHAMMER: Units of armies win or lose battles … the unit is what is what bonds soldiers together and what makes them fight in trying times…

They probably made him a better fighter.

SCHELLHAMMER: I don't think he was doing it for himself, and he was not, probably not, doing it for an abstract ideal. He was probably doing it for the soldiers alongside.

Of course, Francisco and his countrymen did fight for the abstract ideal of liberty. In the legend, that’s why he enlisted.

But there’s a problem with that part of the story too… and the rest of colonial history. Turns out, many of our history books all suffer from the Francisco problem. For instance,

REENACTMENT: I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!!

Patrick Henry might not have said that.

Henry delivered his famous liberty or death speech in 1775 at St. John’s church in Richmond. That’s supposedly what inspired Francisco to enlist. The powerful speech was seared into the memory of its audience including, according to legend, Peter Francisco. But we have no proof he was there.

We don’t even know what Henry actually said. Nobody wrote it down. Forty years after the speech, a lawyer named William Wirt wrote a biography of Henry.

By then Patrick Henry had been dead for eighteen years. Everybody Wirt talked to said the same thing: he had to include “the speech” in his biography.

So, Wirt wrote a version of the speech based on whatever memories people had.

You’ve no doubt heard parts of it before. So even if Francisco was there, we don’t really know what he heard. It’s a mystery inside a mystery.

THOMAS KIDD: I have not heard that he was there.

Dr. Thomas Kidd is a professor of church history and the American founding at Baylor Theological Seminary. He knows a thing or two about Patrick Henry.

KIDD: For me, as someone who has written a biography of Patrick Henry, this is an extreme problem, because, I mean, this is the best-known thing about Patrick Henry and we don’t have the original speech.

He doesn’t know what Henry said, either.

KIDD: I think that the the liberty or death, give me liberty or give me death bit is, it is almost certain to have been part of the speech, because that was being remembered starting in 1775. But, you know, what we don't know is the rest of the speech and its details.

And it’s not just our histories of Francisco and Henry that have accuracy problems. A lot of our founding myths are embellished.

Some are just made up. Like the story of George Washington and the cherry tree.

KIDD: As far as we know, that simply did not happen and was made up by Mason Weems, early Washington biographer.

Or the story of Paul Revere’s midnight ride? Maybe you learned the poem in school—“Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, … / One if by land, and two if by sea; / And I on the opposite shore will be, …”

That’s not really how it happened.

KIDD: If you understand what happened in 1775 and 76, you know, it would, it would be nonsensical for him to have said the British are coming. … in 1775 the Patriots considered themselves to be British. So it would have been silly for him to say “the British.”

Revere wasn’t the only rider. He was joined by William Dawes and Samuel Prescott. They were all part of an elaborate network of patriots. And Revere never made it to Concord, like the poem says. The three men were stopped by a British patrol. Dawes and Prescott escaped, but Revere was taken to Lexington for questioning.

KIDD: There are a lot of stories like that that you know have some basis in, in fact, but the popularizers have gotten the details wrong.

And that’s actually by design.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem in 1860, on the eve of the civil war. He wanted to stir up patriotic feelings. So, he retold Revere’s story in poetic verse. Sent him galloping through the pages of history to remind Americans of their national pride. And he changed a few details for dramatic effect. It worked—Civil War notwithstanding.

For decades, schoolbooks reprinted Longfellow’s poem. Children recited the American hero’s journey through “every Middlesex village and farm.”

We sort of forgot all about the real Paul Revere. A lot like Peter Francisco.

A handful of books have been written about Francisco. But they didn’t popularize him like the Revolution’s greater heroes.

Bowman published his book Hercules of the Revolution in 2009, a novel based on Francisco’s life. Six years later, he published another novelization titled LUSO. They’re both historical fiction—based on a true story, with all the gaps filled in. They both include tall tales like the cannon at Camden.

When he signs copies of his books, Bowman cites Deuteronomy 4:8 and 9. In that passage, Moses reminds the nation of Israel of its greatness. Then he says, “be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

Bowman takes that advice seriously.

BOWMAN: We have got to teach the next generation what God did in our country. Otherwise we'll forget.

He sees God’s hand in Francisco’s story.

BOWMAN: Don’t forget! Look at this little kid, he’s kidnapped from the island of Jesus Christ! And he’s dropped off in Virginia, not in Brazil or South Africa. I mean, God was doing something extraordinary … don’t forget! … I think it's the perfect story to teach to our children and grandchildren, because it's kind of almost like a Marvel character, you know, larger than life, a hero, true story of God's providence. … I think it's critical that we have God-sized heroes.

KIDD: … my boys are in college now, but I mean, I would not tell them the story Washington chopping down the cherry tree because I know its not true…

Historian Kidd again. It stands to reason that he wouldn’t tell his kids the legend of Peter Francisco, either.

KIDD: I have an ethical problem as a historian with filling in the blanks or embellishing the story.

He doesn’t have any interest in historical mythmaking.

KIDD: I just think by definition, it makes the story less inspiring, if not useless.

But he’s not against having historical heroes. As long as they’re historically accurate.

KIDD: I still think Washington was probably the best president we've ever had. So I don't need the story of the cherry tree to to prop up my view of that.

It begs the question. If Washington really was a great man, why bother making up stories about him?

KIDD: There's all kinds of legends about the founding fathers. … there's such a desperate need to turn these people into sort of civil saints of civil religion.

Put simply, history needs heroes. People that embody the country’s ideals. They tell us who we are as Americans. But there’s a difference between heroes and saints.

KIDD: Something like Washington chopping down the cherry tree. I mean, when I get to heaven, I'm not going to care whether that's true or not, but I sure will care about whether Jesus actually rose from the dead.

Christ is Dr. Kidd’s ideal. A God-sized hero whose resurrection isn’t a myth. It's a historical fact. If it didn’t really happen, it wouldn’t be worth believing in.

KIDD: Washington is, I mean, he's not perfect, he's he's not Jesus, but he's a highly admirable, virtuous man. So I don't, I don't need any of the myths to reach that conclusion.

For Schellhammer, the myth is less inspiring than the truth.

SCHELLHAMMER: I would not read the Peter Francisco story about him picking up an 1100 pound cannon and be inspired. I can't do that. There's no way I can do that. I'm never going to be able to do that. The myth has its value. I think the true story has more value.

And the true story gives us a pretty clear picture of what kind of man Francisco was.

SCHELLHAMMER: We had trouble having soldiers just complete their enlistments, okay, let alone sign up three times.

We know that Francisco enlisted in the Continental Army three times. He was also wounded several times. Besides the bayonet to the stomach, he took a musket ball and a bayonet to the thigh. He may have even fought in the War of 1812 during his fifties. In the continental army, commitment like that was unheard of.

SCHELLHAMMER: The multiple times he volunteered… and kept going back to it okay, even after being wounded. I think that's the true story and inspiration of a guy like Peter Francisco for me.

In 2024, Bowman released Luso: the short film. In nine minutes, it tells Francisco’s story, from his child in the Azores to his battlefield heroics.

TRAILER: But God had a plan for one Luso warrior…

He’s hoping the film will help raise funding for a nine-episode miniseries “that shows the entire Revolutionary War through the eyes of a God-ordained, giant hero.” Including the mythical tall tales.

Bowman insists, there’s a greater truth behind the details, accurate or not.

BOWMAN: God had an extraordinary plan for his life. God has a plan, a purpose for all of us. And sometimes people go through life not really paying attention to that.

When his sons were little, he would pray with them before they went to bed.

BOWMAN: I'd say, you know, the night that you came into the world, the night that you were born. There was thousands and thousands of other kids that were born, but God providently, providentially, put you into this great country, not into another country, and into this family, and not into a different family. That was God.

God, he says, has a plan for everyone. Not Just Peter Francisco.

SILLARS: Tatton Strassheim reported and wrote this story. Produced by Benj Eicher.

Please don’t forget to rate and review us on your favorite podcast app. And if you enjoyed this piece, the best way to support us is to share it with a friend or family member. Thanks!

I’m Les Sillars. This is Doubletake. We’ll see you next time.

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