Pimlico and Reconstruction

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Since the Preakness was this past weekend, here's a little bit of Pimlico Race Course history, courtesy of the Baltimore Provost Marshal files. Pimlico is widely known to have opened its doors in 1870- but there seems to have already been a race site nearby, called "Pimlico" or "Pemlico"- which in 1865, caused quite a stir. Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson declared June 1, 1865 a "National Day of Mourning." But, a horse race had already been planned for that day, and several participants refused to cancel. The State Attorney for Baltimore County wrote to Lieutenant Colonel John Woolley of the 8th Army Corps for assistance in preventing the race.

"Many persons have applied to the authorities of Baltimore County, to stop a Horse Race, which has been fixed to take place at the 'Pemlico Race Track,' about two miles west of Baltimore,, in this County, on Thursday next.... It is in a neighborhood where persons wish to attend church and observe in proper manner the day set apart by the President of the United States for Thanksgiving, and do not wish to be annoyed by this Race and do not think that this mark of disrespect to the authorities should be tolerated."

The US Army agreed that this event needed stopped, and Lt. Col. Woolley was ordered to:

"[S]end a squad of cavalry (10 men) in [the] charge of a commissioned officer to the Race course on the Reistertown pike about four (4) miles from Baltimore known as the Pimlico course, at an early hour to-morrow morning June 1st 1865, with instructions to prevent any assemblage of persons on said Track for any purpose inconsistent with or inimical to the object for which the day has been set apart by his Excellency, the President of the United States, as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer for the calamity to the nation by the assassination of President Lincoln."

No record in the Provost Marshal's file indicated the reception Woolley's men were given, but there were likely any disappointed race fans that day.