Truxton was, undoubtedly, Jackson’s pride, but the Hermitage was noted for many famous horses. There was Pacolet, the dapple gray six-year-old, which the General had bought from Col. William R. Johnson, of Kentucky, about 1813. His immediate object in acquiring a new racer was, according to Marquis James, in his Andrew Jackson, the Border Captain, to defeat “Jesse Haynie’s chestnut mare Maria just as soon as he could send the British about their business.” This neither Pacolet, nor Truxton’s boasted colts could accomplish, and to Haynie’s Maria is awarded the distinction of being almost the only thing which Andrew Jackson, when he set his head to it, could not conquer.
To tell the story of Jackson’s horses would be to write the history of racing and breeding of thoroughbreds from the early days of the settlements in Middle Tennessee until after the Civil War. There was a close association between General Jackson and the owners of thoroughbreds in Sumner County, where, for a long period of years such men as Bailie Peyton, Barry, Carter, the Rev. Hardy Cryer and others produced magnificent horses.
There is a tradition that Andrew Jackson arrived in Nashville riding one fine horse and leading another—which was loaded in the customary manner with his personal belongings. Early in the spring after his arrival he purchased another, for we find at the Davidson County Court House a record showing that on April ninth, 1789, he bought of Thomas Smith “one Sorrell horse About fourteen hands high known by the name of Saml Martin’s Sorrel: Which sd Horse the sd Smith purchased from the sd Samuel Martin for the consideration of the Sum of One hundred pounds....”
The punctuation of this record is somewhat scant, but from the general context one gathers that Andrew Jackson paid one hundred pounds for the Horse, rather than that Thomas Smith paid this sum to Samuel Martin. At any rate “Samuel Martin’s Sorrel” was valued at one hundred pounds—a rather goodly sum for young Attorney Jackson to be paying. Throughout his long life he continued to buy the best horses he could afford—they were a passion with him—and, unlike many devotees of the turf, he made money, rather than lost it, in his deals.
One of General Jackson’s choice saddle horses was Duke, who is said to have been his favorite during the New Orleans campaign. If we credit the story of Uncle Alfred, the slave who for many years was his faithful bodyservant, he was mounted upon Duke on the day of victory. Mrs. Mary C. Dorris, in her Preservation of the Hermitage, quotes Uncle Alfred as saying:
“General Jackson is ridin’ Juke (Duke) dat day; he warn’t ridin’ Sam Patch, dat ’ar white horse standin’ in de parlor.... He’s ridin’ Juke. An’ Juke he dance Yankee-Doodle on three legs; and he dance it so plain dat de ban’ struck up an’ play ‘Jackson, Jackson, yer’s de man for me.’”
General Jackson, in a letter written to Mrs. Jackson during the Florida campaign of 1818, shows his affection for Duke.
“I am advised there are a few red sticks (hostile Indians) west of Appelachecola, should this be true, I will have to disperse them, this done I shall commence my journey home. I am almost on foot, I almost despair of getting my favourite Old Duke home.” (Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. II.)
Uncle Alfred referred to the portrait in the Hermitage parlor, a work of the artist Earl, which shows General Jackson mounted on the white charger presented to him by the citizens of Philadelphia. He was a graceful and daring horseman and, like Washington and other great generals, had a passion for horses. He had also a country gentleman’s interest in the breeding of blooded stock, and a sportsman’s interest in their speed and bottom. There came a time, however, when he was forced to give up the turf—although never, for a moment, did he relinquish his interest in the breeding of fine horses at his Hermitage estate. The severe criticism of his horse-racing proclivities by his political enemies caused him, after his elevation to the Presidency, to discontinue training his colts for the track at the Hermitage.
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