This drawing in the 1882 Charleston Weekly News portrays a knight charging down the course in Pineville.
A 1936 edition of the Charleston (S. C.) Weekly News featured a reprint of W. M. Porcher’s 1882 feature on jousting ( a medieval sports contest in which two opponents on horseback fought with lances.) Porcher wrote that, before the Civil War, the small village of Pineville in Berkeley County, S.C., was the center for jousting in America, and the Age of Chivalry was living out its last act of noble honor that day.
Crowds came from Charleston and surrounding plantations to the Pineville Race Track on River Road. They parked their wagons and carriages behind a white canvas–covered pavilion decorated with red, white, and blue drapes. Inside were spectators waving flags with the colors and mottos of gallant knights.
The post for the ring, the target of the knight’s lance, was in front of the pavilion. The Judges’ Stand was adorned with all knights’ flags and a large banner with a quotation from John C. Calhoun a former U.S. congressman, senator, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of war had been buried in Charleston just 12 months earlier.
This drawing in the 1882 Charleston Weekly News portrays the Queens Court of the Pineville Lancing.
Buglers announced beautiful young women filing into the pavilion leading heralds bearing ceremonial banners.
The King–at–Arms and the Master–of–Horse rode in with knights who would challenge each other for the right to crown the Queen of the Pineville Lancing Tournament of April 23, 1851.
The knights faced the King–at–Arms, lowered their lances, and offered a salute. The King–at–Arms announced, “The beautiful ladies in the pavilion have their eyes are on you. You must brave danger! You must fear shame! Your ladies will reward your prowess or punish your cowardice.”
The Master–of–Horse announced to the King–at–Arms, “Sir, the knights are ready to tilt.”
And… the tilting began.
One by one, the heralds called out a name and a knight charged at full speed, attempted to remove the ring, returned to the end of the line, and reined up his steed. After all knights had completed the course, they did it again. Six times later, the knights appeared before the judges.
The grand prize went to the Knight of Carolina (Morton Waring) for taking the most rings. Waring pranced his horse to the pavilion, lowered his lance at the feet of Miss Elizabeth Porcher and shouted, “I proclaim you Queen of Love and Beauty.”
The King–at–Arms ushered Waring and Porcher into the pavilion where she was crowned with a wreath of white roses, and he a wreath of laurels. They joined hands and led a procession to the Banquet Hall for an evening of dining and dancing.
Next Week: The King’s Tree Trials
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