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Posted on 04/06/2005 9:41:34 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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A six-and-a-half-foot-tall Hercules who wielded a six-foot-long broadsword, Peter Francisco was arguably the most remarkable soldier of the Revolutionary War.  Peter Francisco, giant member of the American forces at Guilford, who slew 11 men with his oversized sword during the battle. If such a film were made, one can imagine the opening scene: in the foreground a wooden pier juts out into a misty harbor, where the stillness is broken only by the cries of a few gulls. Gradually, the sound of splashing oars becomes audible. A longboat emerges from the fog; then, as the scene brightens, the silhouette of the merchantman from which it came appears in the distance. The boat pulls alongside the dock; sailors' rough voices mutter unintelligibly as the form of a small person is lifted from the bobbing craft and set on the pier. A shout is heard and the boat quickly departs. The bewildered castaway turns toward the camera. He is a young boy, no more than four or five years old, dressed in a once-fine suit that now is dirty and worn. On his shoes expensive silver buckles spell out the initials "P.F." At daybreak the pier begins to come to life. Waterfront residents gather curiously around the waif, asking questions. Unable to speak their language, he simply repeats the words "Pedro Francisco." Eventually a woman comes along, takes the child by the hand, and leads him away, saying "I'll take him to the poorhouse. They'll know what to do with him." This scenario, though a bit romanticized, is roughly what happened at City Point (now a part of Hopewell), Virginia, on June 23, 1765. The boy later grew up--and up--to become the most remarkable fighting man of the Revolutionary War, a giant of a soldier of whom General George Washington is reputed to have said: "Without him we would have lost two crucial battles, perhaps the War, and with it our freedom. He was truly a One-Man Army."  Diorama of Col. William Washington's cavalry attacking British regulars. Peter Francisco, left foreground. Soon after young Pedro Francisco was taken to the Prince George County poorhouse, his plight came to the attention of Anthony Winston, a local judge and uncle to Virginia firebrand Patrick Henry. Winston took the lad in and taught him to speak English. Once the boy could communicate with his new guardian, he recounted what he remembered of his past, but it wasn't much. He had lived in a mansion near the ocean, he said. His mother spoke what he thought was French; his father spoke another language--what, he couldn't say. One day, when Pedro and his younger sister were playing in the garden, rough men seized them. The girl fought and got away, but Pedro was bound, blindfolded, gagged, and carried to a ship. After what seemed an endless voyage, he was put ashore at the City Point dock. Winston never learned anything more about the boy's past, but later investigators have been more successful in piecing together what appears to be a likely, if partial, solution to the Peter Francisco mystery. In 1971, Virginia researcher John E. Manahan, reporting on studies he had carried out while teaching overseas, argued convincingly that Francisco's original home had been at Porto Judeu, on Terceira Island in the Portuguese-held Azores, and that he was the same Pedro Francisco born there on July 9, 1760. Why Francisco was abducted remains a mystery. Manahan theorized that the child had been kidnapped by sailors who intended to sell him in the New World as an indentured servant, but the researcher offered no explanation of why they abandoned their captive instead. An Azorean legend has it that the Francisco family, fearful of political enemies, engineered Pedro's abduction as a means of protecting him from some grisly form of reprisal planned against his parents. While this may be true, evidence is lacking. But that Peter Francisco was a Portuguese (which he himself suspected) seems almost certain, and Portuguese-Americans have eagerly accepted him as an illustrious forebear.  Peter Francisco's shoe. The shoe is equivalent to a size 10 1/2 D. "Mr. Francisco" is written in lining. Whether or not the sailors in fact intended to sell the boy into indentured servitude, that more or less became his fate. Rather than provide Peter with formal schooling, Judge Winston put him to work doing chores around his plantation, a 3,600-acre estate in Buckingham County, Virginia, known as "Hunting Tower." In adulthood Peter was destined to attain the then-prodigious height of six-feet-six-inches--nearly a foot taller than the average man at the time--and weigh at least 260 pounds. Already of surpassing stature by his early teens, the youth was instructed in the brawny trade of blacksmithing--an obvious calling for a person of his size and amazing strength. It was the latter rather than his height that got him noticed. In March 1775, when he was not yet fifteen, Francisco went along with Judge Winston to Richmond for a meeting of the Virginia Convention. Tempers flared as delegates hotly debated the colony's relationship with Great Britain.Young Peter contributed to the excitement when he broke up one tavern dispute by lifting the combatants into the air and banging them together until they ceased their argument.  Francisco's strength, bravery, and size made him one of the most famous soldiers of the American Revolution. Virginia Historical Society It was during this convention that the lad stood outside St. John's Church and heard through the window the renowned speech by Patrick Henry that ended: "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" Peter, as the story goes, was ready right there to take up arms against the British oppressors, but Judge Winston prevailed upon him to wait: though large enough to go to war, he was not quite old enough. In 1776 Winston relented, and at the age of sixteen Peter enlisted with the 10th Virginia regiment as a private. Although Francisco was not at Bunker Hill or Saratoga, in many other respects his military career closely followed the course of the War of Independence. After a stay of several months in New Jersey following his enlistment, Francisco received his first taste of action in September 1777 at Brandywine Creek in neighboring Pennsylvania, where General Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, attempted to halt the advance toward Philadelphia of some 12,500 British troops under the command of General William Howe. Outflanked by Howe, the Americans suffered a defeat in the ensuing battle, and Washington's army was forced into a disorderly retreat. The regiment of which Francisco was a member held the line at a narrow defile called Sandy Hollow Gap for a crucial forty-five minutes, allowing the rest of the force to withdraw and preventing an all-out rout. The young soldier suffered a gunshot wound to his leg during this hard-fought rear-guard action.
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On This Day In history
Birthdates which occurred on April 07:
1506 St Francis Xavier Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, & Japan
1534 José de Anchieta Spanish jesuit/missionary (Brazilian Tupi-Indians)
1629 Juan José of Austria, Spanish General/Governor of Netherlands
1632 MoJo2001 aka "Queen of the WooHoo" "Marchioness of Godiva". Nutritional scientist (Discovered that chocolate eaten late at night is devoid of calories).
Note: it's not my fault. AZamericonnie made me do it! HEY I'M THE VICTIM HERE!!! IT'S NOT MY FAULT!
1648 Ferdinand van Kessel Flemish painter
1770 William Wordsworth England, poet laureate (The Prelude)
1775 Francis C Lowell founded 1st raw cotton-to-cloth textile mill
1786 William Rufus DeVane King (D) 13th US Vice President (1853)
1801 Henry Eagle Commander (Union Navy), died in 1882
1805 Francis Wilkinson Pickens (Governor-SC, Confederacy), died in 1869
1822 Gershom Mott Major General (Union volunteers)
1837 J. Pierpont Morgan (J.P. Morgan, d.1913), American financier, born Hartford, Conn
1859 Walter Camp Connecticut, father of American football (Yale)
1860 W K Kellogg a real corn flake
1878 Jozef C Bittremieux Flemish theologist (Virgin & Mother of God)
1882 Kurt von Schleiger German chancellor (12/2/32-1/28/33)
1884 Charles Dodd English new testament authority
1890 Marjory Stoneman Douglas environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades)
1893 Allan W Dulles US diplomat/CIA head 1953-61 (Germany's Underground)
1893 Irene Castle dancer (leader in anti-vivisection movement)
1897 Walter Winchell Harlem New York NY, newscaster/columnist/muckracker (Untouchables)
1908 Le Duan Vietnamese politician
1915 Billie Holiday(Lady Day) [Eleanora Fagan] Philadelphia PA, singer (Ain't Nobody's Business)
1915 Henry Kuttner US, sci-fi author (Dark World, As You Were, Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner)
1920 Ravi Shankar Benares India, sitar player (Sounds of India)
1920 Terence Edward Armstrong polar geographer
1928 James [Scott Bumgarner] Garner Norman OK, actor (Rockford Files, Bret Maverick)
1928 James White UK, sci-fi author (Star Surgeon, Star Healer)
1930 Andrew Sachs actor (Manuel-Fawlty Towers)
1931 Daniel Ellsberg whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)
1933 Wayne Rogers Birmingham AL, actor (MASH, House Calls, Chiefs)
1935 Hodding Carter III press secretary (Jimmy Carter)
1935 Bobby Bare Irontown OH, country singer (Detroit City)
1938 Freddie Hubbard Indianapolis IN, jazz trumpeter (Art Blakey)
1938 Yvonne Lime Glendale CA, actress (Father Knows Best, Dobie Gillis)
1938 [Edmund G] Jerry Brown Jr San Francisco CA, (Governor-Democrat-CA, 1975-83)(governor moonbeam)
1939 David Frost Tenderdon England, TV host (That Was the Week That Was)
1939 Francis Ford Coppola Detroit MI, film maker (Godfather, Apocalypse Now, American Graffiti)
1949 John Oates guitarist/vocalist (Hall & Oates-Rich Girl)
1951 Janis Ian [Janis Eddy Fink] New York NY, folk singer (Society's Child, At 17)
1951 John Dittrich Union NJ, country singer (Restless Heart-Wheels)
1954 Jackie Chan martial art actor (Rumble in the Bronx)
1954 Tony Dorsett NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys, Heisman Trophy)
1966 Teri Ann Linn Honolulu HI, actress (Kristen-Bold & Beautiful)
1967 Steve Wisniewski NFL guard (Oakland Raiders)
Hey that is a great run-down! Thanks.
Almost any thing you would want to know about the IJN is on that website.
Good luck with the move, I haven't had to do that in over 25 years :-) Although when Mrs alfa6 and I were first hitched i think we moved 5 time in about 6 years.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Heh, the last 2 moves I thought were my last. In 1984 I moved to my home area - never intended to leave. Then I got a nice job opportunity in 2001. Decided to go for it. *sigh* now gotta go somewhere else. I'm too old to do this very much more.
Thanks for the good luck wishes. I am sure it will work out. I'd just rather be spending this spring fishing! :-)
duckie is off to Pine Bluff, AR (AGAIN!!!!! !@#$%^&*!) today.
free dixie HUGS,sw
LOL!
Okay, last week bittygirl unscrewed her bottle in her crib. I thought maybe I had not screwed it on tight enough or something. Tuesday, this week, she did it again, this time in the car on the way to grandma's. I thought, okay, maybe it is a fluke. Last night, she unscrewed the mentholatum and stuck her spoon in it, ready to take a bite, YIKES! We decide, it ain't a fluke. Today, she unscrewed the lid to the kitty litter jug.
elf-boy ~never~ tried anything like this. I am sure he could have if he had tried, but that is just it... he never thought of it. I am suddenly having a new appreciation for childproof caps.
Hmmm... I'm thinkin' that this time you ain't got a wizard on your hands. I think bittygirl may grow up to be more like me - a mechanical junkie! She's a motorhead! :-) She's gonna love muscle cars - we already know she has an affinity for Harley's. :-D
Be right there, after I get the spring cleaning and yard work done. ;^)
Girl, could I ever use the help *and company*
At least I've got my out-of-the house errands done now. They were some things I'd been needing to do since I left for spring break. Obviously not critical - but really needed. LOL
Now, I've got some packages to pack up and send to 3 soldiers, get to physical therapy and then I can think about packing some more for a couple of hours before work.
I have an IV straight from the coffee maker to alieve this problem.
Que?
There will be five updates for Windows. and one each for Microsoft Office and a couple of other applications.
Also, an update the April version of the malicious software removal tool will be coming down on Tuesday.
If you like to find out more go to
"http://www.microsoft.com/technet".
That thought had already occured to me. BG loves to play with wires and such in my ham shack. I have an old microphone with one end of the cord clamped into a hobby vise. The mic itself dangles just above the floor. OH nirvana!
~must have~ ~must have~ ~must have~
Well, actually, I'm awake now. Unusual. Usually at this time of the afternoon I'm ready for my pre-work nap.
VICTORY AT YORKTOWN by Richard M. Ketchum
This new book represents excellent narrative history. If you liked Ketcham's Saratoga, you'll love this volume. He breifly discussed the British Southern campaign.
Spiderboy too!
*SURELY* you don't think that looks like a boy's bike do ya? I mean - it has chick machine written all over it IMO. ~smirk~
(sorry spiderboy, just teasing)
I don't know. Can you make them any bigger?
Nice painting. Thanks alfa6.
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