Francisco's Fight - Skirmish

Skirmish

The only documented primary sources for this action originate with Peter Francisco himself. One source is Francisco's 1829 application to the United States Congress for financial support. His request was rejected on the grounds that he was already receiving a military pension. The other is a similar letter addressed to the Virginia State Assembly in 1820. The two accounts differ in some details, but much of the narrative is essentially the same. No other sources are known to corroborate the events he describes; Tarleton, in his memoir, only generally mentions casualties that occurred during the expedition.

In the 1820 account Francisco describes how, while passing through Amelia County, Virginia (in a part that is now Nottoway County) on his way home, he encountered a band of dragoons from Tarleton's regimental cavalry at Benjamin Ward's tavern. One of the dragoons demanded that he give up his watch and silver shoe buckles. He refused. As the dragoon bent down to take his buckles, Francisco, who was unarmed, reached down and drew the man's sword from its scabbard. He then used the sword to kill the man. According to the Virginia letter, he then "wounded and drove off the others", taking eight of the nine horses. In the 1829 letter to Congress, he claims to have killed two more men and "frightened off the rest of the party, amounting in number to six."