"Hercules of the Revolution" Monument

Greensboro, North Carolina

Portugese-born Peter Francisco was captured by pirates when he was five and abandoned in Virginia, where he grew up on a plantation as illiterate and enslaved. When he was 16 he was already 260 pounds and stood six-and-a-half feet tall. He enlisted as an American mercenary in the Revolutionary War and spent the next five years killing British soldiers. His various superhuman battlefield exploits earned him the title, "Hercules of the Revolution." George Washington called him "a one-man army" and gave him a six-foot long broadsword; two days later Francisco used it to hack eleven Redcoats to death at the Battle of Guilford Court House.

A monument marks the spot, and three different states -- Virginia, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts -- celebrate the battle's anniversary as Peter Francisco Day.