Traveller (horse)
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Traveller (1857 – 1871) was Confederate General Robert E. Lee's most famous horse during the American Civil War.
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[edit] Birth and war service
Traveller (birth name "Jeff Davis") was born near the Blue Sulphur Springs, in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia), raised by Andrew Johnston. An American Saddlebred, he was of the Gray Eagle stock, and, as a colt, took the first prize at the Lewisburg, Virginia, fairs in 1859 and 1860. As an adult gelding, he was a sturdy horse, 16 hands high and 1,100 pounds (500 kg), iron gray in color with black points, a long mane and flowing tail.
In the spring of 1861, a year before achieving fame as a Confederate general, Robert E. Lee was commanding a small force in western Virginia. The quartermaster of the 3rd Virginia Infantry, Captain Joseph M. Broun, was directed to "purchase a good serviceable horse of the best Greenbrier stock for our use during the war." Broun purchased the horse for $175 from Andrew Johnston's son, Captain James W. Johnston, and named him "Greenbrier". Major Thomas L. Broun, Joseph's brother recalled that Greenbrier
... was greatly admired in camp for his rapid, springy walk, his high spirit, bold carriage, and muscular strength. He needed neither whip nor spur, and would walk his five or six miles an hour over the rough mountain roads of Western Virginia with his rider sitting firmly in the saddle and holding him in check by a tight rein, such vim and eagerness did he manifest to go right ahead so soon as he was mounted.
—Major Thomas L. Broun
General Lee took a great fancy to the horse. He called him his "colt", and predicted to Broun that he would use it before the war was over. After Lee was transferred to South Carolina, Joseph Broun sold the horse to him for $200 in February, 1862. Lee named the horse "Traveller" (spelling the word with a double 'l' in British style).
Lee described his faithful horse in a letter in response to Mrs. Lee's cousin, Markie Williams, who wished to paint a portrait of Traveller:
If I was an artist like you, I would draw a true picture of Traveller; representing his fine proportions, muscular figure, deep chest, short back, strong haunches, flat legs, small head, broad forehead, delicate ears, quick eye, small feet, and black mane and tail. Such a picture would inspire a poet, whose genius could then depict his worth, and describe his endurance of toil, hunger, thirst, heat and cold; and the dangers and suffering through which he has passed. He could dilate upon his sagacity and affection, and his invariable response to every wish of his rider. He might even imagine his thoughts through the long night-marches and days of the battle through which he has passed. But I am no artist Markie, and can therefore only say he is a Confederate gray.
—Robert E. Lee, letter to Markie Williams
Traveller was a horse of great stamina and was usually a good horse for an officer in battle because he was difficult to frighten. He could sometimes become nervous and spirited, however. At the Second Battle of Bull Run, while General Lee was at the front reconnoitering dismounted and holding Traveller by the bridle, the horse became frightened at some movement of the enemy and, plunging, pulled Lee down on a stump, breaking both of his hands. Lee went through the remainder of that campaign chiefly in an ambulance. When he rode on horseback, a courier rode in front leading his horse.
After the war, Traveller accompanied Lee to Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. He lost many hairs from his tail to admirers (veterans and college students) who wanted a souvenir of the famous horse and his general. Lee wrote to his daughter Mildred that "The boys are plucking out his tail, and he is presenting the appearance of a plucked chicken."
[edit] Death and burials
In 1870, when Lee died, Traveller was led behind the General's hearse, following the caisson with his master's boots reversed in the stirrups, his saddle and bridle draped with black crepe. Not long after Lee's death, in the summer of 1871, Traveller stepped on a rusty nail and developed lockjaw. There was no cure, and he was euthanized to relieve his suffering.
Traveller was initially buried behind the main buildings of the college, but was unearthed by persons unknown and his bones were bleached for exhibition in Rochester, New York, in 1875 or 1876. In 1907, Richmond journalist Joseph Bryan paid to have the bones mounted and returned to the college, named Washington and Lee University since Lee's death, and they were displayed in the Brooks Museum, in what is now Robinson Hall. The skeleton was periodically vandalized there by students who carved their initials in it for good luck. In 1929, the bones were moved to the museum in the basement of the Lee Chapel, where they stood for 30 years, deteriorating with exposure.
Finally in 1971, Traveller's remains were buried in a wooden box encased in concrete next to the Lee Chapel on the Washington & Lee campus, a few feet away from the Lee family crypt inside, where his master's body rests. The stable where he lived his last days, directly connected to the Lee House on campus, traditionally stands with its doors left open; this is said to allow his spirit to wander freely. The 24th President of Washington & Lee (and thus a recent resident of Lee House), Dr. Thomas Burish, caught strong criticism from many members of the Washington & Lee community for closing the stable gates in violation of this tradition.
[edit] Traveller in verse
- And now at last,
- Comes Traveller and his master. Look at them well.
- The horse is an iron-grey, sixteen hands high,
- Short back, deep chest, strong haunch, flat legs, small head,
- Delicate ear, quick eye, black mane and tail,
- Wise brain, obedient mouth.
- Such horses are
- The jewels of the horseman's hands and thighs,
- They go by the word and hardly need the rein.
- They bred such horses in Virginia then,
- Horses that were remembered after death
- And buried not so far from Christian ground
- That if their sleeping riders should arise
- They could not witch them from the earth again
- And ride a printless course along the grass
- With the old manage and light ease of hand.
- — Passage from Army of Northern Virginia, a poem by Stephen Vincent Benet
[edit] Lee's other horses
Although the most famous, Traveller was not Lee's only horse during the war:
- Lucy Long, a mare, was the primary backup horse to Traveller. She remained with the Lee family after the war, dying considerably after Lee, when she was thirty-three years old.
- Richmond, a bay stallion, was acquired by General Lee in early 1861. He died in 1862 after the Battle of Malvern Hill.
- Brown-Roan, or The Roan, was purchased by Lee in West Virginia around the time of Traveller's purchase. He went blind in 1862 and had to be retired.
- Ajax, a sorrel horse, was too large for Lee to ride comfortably and thus used infrequently.
James Longstreet, one of Lee's most trusted generals, was referred to by Lee as his Old War Horse.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Southern Historical Society Papers, Richmond, Va., January–December, 1890.
- Lee's Horses website
- General Lee's Traveller, On the Campus of Washington and Lee, brochure published by the Lee Chapel Museum, 2005.
- Magner, Blake A., Traveller & Company, The Horses of Gettysburg, Farnsworth House Military Impressions, 1995, ISBN 0-9643632-2-4.
[edit] Further reading
- Adams, Richard, Traveller, 1988, Knopf, ISBN 0440204933. A first-person narrative, in dialect, by Traveller. His equine memoirs are told to a cat in the stable of the retired general.
[edit] External links
- General Lee and Traveller, a poem by Rev. Robert Tuttle
