Notes on the Tunes

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9. Peter Francisco

The most famous enlisted man of the American Revolution, he was wounded five times, yet survived to attend the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. Born in the Portuguese Azore Islands in 1760, he was found abandoned on the wharf in City Point, Virginia. He worked for one Anthony Wilson, Virginia plantation owner, judge, and Patrick Henry’s uncle. Peter, six-and-a-half feet tall, 260 lbs., performed legendary feats of manly strength while maintaining a reputation for amity and temperance. At the outbreak of the Revolution he enlisted in the 10th Virginia Regiment for three years and then the Continental forces in the Carolinas. Appointed Sergeant-at-Arms for the Virginia Legislature in 1825, he died six years later. (Kuntz) Fuzzy Mountain String Band member Tom Carter found the tune in the Knauff collection. Originally written in the key of F, he transposed in into D, a friendlier fiddle key, and perhaps the original one. We tune a step low.

Chris’ Strad GCGD : Whitt’s Enoch gCGBD