Newmarket of the Virginia Turf

Abstract

Is it not an irony of history that one of the celebrated pleasure grounds in the United States of the period between the Revolution and the War between the States should be remembered and visited as a battleground of the latter struggle, earlier and more cheerful character known to few other than those conversant with the history of the American turf and those whose examination of military records has acquainted them with the presence of a race course? is the case of the Newmarket course, in Prince George County, a mile east of the city of Petersburg. immediate vicinity was the scene of bloody warfare on June 18, 1864, and of the last grand offensive of General Lee's forces, the attack on Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865. In own right Newmarket was famous long before war gave it this grim association, for if the name is a large one in the history of the English turf it has a corresponding connotation in Virginia. At the Virginia Newmarket fame crowned the sportsmanship of Colonel William R. Johnson, the Napoleon of the Turf, Colonel William Wynn, and others of scarcely less renown. Here John Randolph of Roanoke made frequent visits and the last public address of his career. This [the Newmarket Jockey Club] is the oldest and popular club in Virginia, wrote The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine in first issue; its races are over a course, one mile in length, of good soil for running, and commanding an extensive and beautiful prospect in every direction; they commence, regularly, the first Tuesday in May, and the second Tuesday in October.' At this period the course, already an old one, was operated by proprietor, Thomas Branch., and the following associates of the jockey club: James M. Selden, James J. Harrison, William R. Johnson, Edward Wyatt, and Thomas Watson.2 The southern counties were the heart of the Virginia racing country, certainly in the post-revolutionary years, with the contiguous upper counties of North Carolina holding a similar eminence in that state. The section derived a proper satisfaction from recognition of service in keeping interest in racing alive when it languished elsewhere. The gentlemen of lower Virginia enjoyed a reputation for more diligence in the pursuit of pleasure than in the cultivation of their farms. While the jest that they never rose from their beds until the mocking-bird uttered a note which most nearly resembles the words, julap, julap, julap, quickly repeated was, of course, a humorous slander, travelers commented