John Lee Carroll & Jousting

Believe it or not, jousting was made the state sport of Maryland in 1962. Though jousts were held in Maryland and Virginia since colonial times, the era of modern jousting in Maryland began with William Gilmor (of the family that would produce famed cavalryman, Harry Gilmor.) Gilmor had witnessed the famed Eglington Tournament in Scotland in 1839 and in the following year, hosted a tournament at his estate outside Baltimore. Tournaments were held at Doughoregan when the Carrolls were children, and the sport was ideal for Marylanders who cherished the novels of Sir Walter Scott and the notion of the knightly chivalry. The language of chivalry was repeatedly used throughout the Civil War; for example, Harper's commander, Jeb Stuart, was referred to as the "plumed knight" for the feather in his hat. So great was the infatuation of the southerner with Scott's "dreams and phantoms" that Mark Twain claimed there would not have been a Civil War without him. The tournaments became especially popular in the South after the Civil War as a way of honoring the Confederacy and what the "knights in gray" perceived to be the ideals that motivated that war.