Cornerstone: A Story of Peter Francisco & American Independence - Paperback

by James Allen Murray (Author)

An historical ficton (more history than fiction) set in 1765-1781 during the American struggle for independence with the main character being Peter Francisco. Cornerstobne opens on the wharf at City Point, Virginia in 1765 with Peter, then a young boy, speaking a strange language mysteriously found. He had been kidnapped by pirates from his family's estate in the Azores. Judge Anthony Winston takes him in, raises and educates him. The judge is Patrick Henry's uncle. Peter becomes interested in the colonial protests...the Stamp Act, the Intolerable Acts, and witnesses Patrick Henry's famous speach. Cornerstone also goes to Boston where the Redcoats march in the streets. Street gangs hate the British but Jacky Macneal, one of the gang ldrs befriends a Redcoat, Tom Preston. Tom is in charge at the Boston Massacre and is tried for murder. John Adams defends him and he joins the patriot cause with Jacky. Tom and Jacky go off to the wilderness to hunt, trap and fish for survival, but return to Boston to care for Jacky's dying mother and take part in the Boston Tea Party. They then head west to Fort Pitt and travel into the forbidden Ohio Country. Another gang ldr, Wills Winkman leads the Sons of Liberty & Minuetmen. He later joins Washibngton at Cambridge and serves as his secretary during the war. Other settings are London, Paris, Philadelphia, the frontier asettlements of Kentucky. Peter Francisco and his friends from Williamsburg march with Lord Dunmore up the Scioto Valley of the Ohio Country following the Battle of Pt. Pleasant in Dunmore's War, to treat with the Mingo Chief Logan. Cornerstone continues onto the battlefields of the Revolutionary War with Peter and his Virginia Regiment fighting alongside Washington at Harlem Heights and crossing the Delaware the Battle of Trenton. Peter's best friends are the fictional characters Garrett Hicks and his cousin Malcolm Shepherd from Manassas, Va, the real Jimmy Madison, Jimmie Monroe and Peter Patrick. Peter is wounded at Brandywine and recuperates with the French nobleman LaFayette in a Quaker farmhouse. Peter grows to near seven feet and is being called the Virginia Giant. LaFayette and Washington have a special large sword made for him. He winters at Valley Forge and is wounded again at Monmouth. His is with Mad Anthony Wayne storming Stony Point when he is again wounded. He his hon. discharged and returns home. He is given a farm in Buckingham County, Locust Grove. When the war heads south Peter leaves the farm and fights at Camden where he carries a cannon on his shoulders, fights with the Swamp Fox and at Cowpens and is left for dead on the battlefield at Guilford CH. After recuperating he is ambushed by some of Ban the Butcher Tarleton's dragoos at Wards Tavern. He singlehandedly slays six. Cornerstone deals with Nathan Hale's hanging as a spy and the betrayal of Benedict Arnold, the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Scotch-Irish settlers at the Waxhaw where Andy Jackson is a boy. Cornerstone ends with the British surrender at Yorktown Oct 19, 1781. Cornerstone is an easy-read, page-turning 646-page adventure story, following real history with real characters. It is written for all Americans who wish to better understand who we won our independence and how important it is we keep it. Also in Cornerstone are Martha Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, King George III, Lord Dunmore, Wm Pitt, Lord North, Sam Adams, Abigail Adams, Paul Revere, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Be Franklin, Betsy Ross, Nathaniel Greene, Horatio Gates, Dan Morgan, the overmountain men, Cornstalk, Ebenezer Zane, and others. Another fict. charac, Johnny Kilkenny, joins the 1st American Navy and fights the 1at Am. Naval battle, the real Battle of the Bahamas.