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Travis Bowman has said before that he would one day like to see a movie based on the life of his ancestor Revolutionary War soldier Peter Francisco.

He doesn't yet have a development deal for a full-length film, but he is working on a half-hour documentary that will air on the History Channel July 4.

The show, tentatively titled "Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About One of Our Founding Fathers," will focus on the exploits of the 6-foot-6-inch man who fought at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The anniversary celebration of the battle takes place this weekend in Greensboro.

"It's kind of a quick countdown that fits in perfectly with the other shows they air that day," Bowman said in a telephone interview from his home in Cornelius. "I'm hosting the show, and I'll be saying something like, 'No. 10 is this,' and then cut to a historian or a professor. And there will be some Revolutionary War dramatizations cut in."

Known as the Hercules of the Revolution, Francisco's biography reads like that of an action hero. Born in the Portuguese Azores in 1760, he is believed to have been kidnapped by pirates when he was 5 years old. He was found abandoned on the docks at Hopewell, Va., in 1765 uttering the name "Pedro Francisco." He was taken in as an indentured servant by Judge Anthony Winston, uncle of Patrick Henry.

In 1775, Francisco heard Henry utter his famous line, "Give me liberty or give me death," and a year later joined the Continental Army.

Among the achievements he was credited for during the course of the war was hoisting an 1,100-pound cannon on his shoulders and running away with it to keep out of British hands, killing three grenadiers and capturing an enemy flag after having suffered a bayonet wound to his abdomen and fighting off nine Tarleton's Raiders who tried to arrest him. Official reports say he killed 11 men at Guilford Courthouse in 1781, though he himself said he slew only four.

George Washington once said of him, "Without him, we would have lost two crucial battles, perhaps the war and with it our freedom. He was truly a one-man army."

Bowman, 37, works for an environmental services company and Web casts his own talk show, www.sundaynights.tv. A native of Baltimore, he has lived in North Carolina for four years.

About a year ago, he published a book, "Hercules of the Revolution," about Francisco. While attending a book show in New York, he was approached by a producer from the History Channel's parent company, A&E Television networks.

"He asked if I had considered putting together a documentary, and I said, 'As a matter of fact I have,' " Bowman said. "And a few weeks later I met with him in New York City and fleshed out the details. And he was talking about the idea of our founding fathers. And I said I had never really considered Peter Francisco to be a founding father. But we looked up the definition, and it's a broad term used not just for signers of the Declaration of Independence but anybody who was instrumental in the birthing of our nation."

Charlie Maday, who was working as senior vice president of the Military History Channel at the time, put him in touch with some people from the network.

"It was a story I hadn't heard before," he said in a telephone interview. "I thought it was fantastic. The guy was really quite a character."

Two years ago, Bowman showed up at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse anniversary observance dressed as Francisco. He won't be wearing a Revolutionary War uniform at the event this weekend, but he still plans to attend with his family.

"A lot of people don't know his story," Bowman said. "If you were to walk up to the average person, even in Greensboro, and ask if they know who Peter Francisco is, I bet most of them would say no. So my goal is to raise awareness of what he did."

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com