Haynie's Maria Against the World 259 



In the fall of 1812, over the Nashville Course, Maria 

 won a sweepstake, $500 entrance, 4-mile heats, beating 

 Col. Robert Bell's Diomed mare; a horse called Clifden; 

 and Col. Ed Bradley's Dungannon. (Gen. Jackson was 

 interested in Dungannon.) This was a most exciting and 

 interesting race, especially to the ladies, who attended 

 in great numbers; those of Davidson County with Aunt 

 Rachel Jackson and her niece, Miss Rachel Hays, at their 

 head, backing Dungannon; while the Sumner County 

 ladies, led by Miss Clarissa Bledsoe, daughter of the 

 pioneer hero, Col. Anthony Bledsoe, bet their last glove 

 on little Maria. 



After this second defeat, Gen. Jackson became terribly 

 in earnest, and before he gave up the effort to beat 

 Maria he ransacked Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia 

 and Kentucky. He was almost as clamorous for a horse 

 as was Richard in the battle of Bosworth Field. 



He first wrote Col. William R. Johnson to send him the 

 best 4-mile horse in Virginia, without regard to price, 

 expressing a preference for the famous Bellair mare, Old 

 Favorite. Col. Johnson sent him, at a high price, the 

 celebrated horse Pacolet, by imp Citizen, who had greatly 

 distinguished himself as a 4-miIer in Virginia. 



In the fall of 1813, at Nashville, Maria won a sweep- 

 stake, $1,000 entrance, $500 forfeit, 4-mile heats, beating 

 Pacolet with great ease, two paying forfeits. It was said 

 that Pacolet had received an injury in one of his four 

 ankles. 



The General, being anything but satisfied with the 

 result, made a match on Pacolet against Maria for $1,000 

 a side, $500 forfeit, 4-mile heats, to come off over the 

 same course the fall of 1814; but Pacolet, being still 

 lame, he paid forfeit. 



These repeated failures only made the General more 



