Peter Francisco, a six foot eight inch soldier long associated with Nottoway County because of his famous fight at Ward's Tavern outside present-day Crewe, called that action "the last favor I ever did the British." Born July 9, 1760 in the Azores to a wealthy family, he was kidnapped at age 5, taken to Virginia, and abandoned at City Point, then adopted by Judge Anthony Winston of Buckingham County and apprenticed as a blacksmith. In December 1776, at age 16, he enlisted in the 10th Virginia Continental Line and fought at Brandywine, Germantown, and Fort Mifflin, survived the winter at Valley Forge, was wounded through the right thigh by a musket ball at Monmouth, and was wounded again during the storming of Stony Point, where he was one of the forlorn hope and the second man to enter the fort. Despite a severe nine-inch wound across his stomach, he continued fighting and captured a flag, and Washington ordered a 6-foot-long sword made for him to suit his size while he served as a bodyguard for the commander in chief. His Continental Line service ended in December 1779, after which he joined the Virginia militia. In 1780, his horse was shot from under him while skirmishing near Charleston, and at the Battle of Camden he allegedly saved a cannon by picking it up off its carriage so it could be removed before capture. In the fighting, when a British grenadier tried to bayonet an officer, Francisco intervened by firing his rifle with buck and ball, then after dispatching a British dragoon, he took the horse and gave it to the officer to help him escape. The officer later willed Francisco a thousand acres of land in Kentucky in gratitude.