HORSES IN HISTORY

from Equestrian Hub Magazine August 2019

ROCKING HORSES

‘Traveller is my only companion, I may also say my pleasure. He and I, ‘ whenever practical, wander out in the mountains and enjoy sweet confidences.

HORSE HISTORY

A Horse Fit for a General

General Robert E. Lee had several horses, but his favourite was an American Saddlebred, the brave and fearless Traveller writes N. G. QUINLAN.

It was late summer in 1861 when General Robert Edward Lee first saw the grey gelding. Standing almost sixteen hands high, the horse was then named Jeff Davis in honour of the Mississippi senator who would eventually become president of the Confederate states. General Lee was impressed from the first moment he saw the horse, playfully calling him ‘my colt’ and stating that he would use him before the war was over.

At that time the horse’s owner was Joseph M. Broun, a captain in the Confederate Army. Knowing that Lee was partial to the gelding, Broun offered him to the General as a gift. Lee declined, saying, “If you will willingly sell me the horse, I will gladly use it for a week or so to learn its qualities.”

The two men eventually reached an agreement whereby Broun would sell the horse for $175, the same amount he had paid. Lee added $25 to the price to allow for the devaluation of Southern currency.

General Lee owned several horses throughout the American Civil War, but the grey gelding he named Traveller was undoubtedly his favourite mount. Born in 1857, the horse was an American Saddlebred and was said to possess the best qualities of that breed, having good spirit and a bold carriage, although apparently his trot was somewhat high and uncomfortable. As Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, General Lee rode Traveller in every campaign from Second Manassas in August 1862 through to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, 1865.

Traveller and the General shared a special bond. On one occasion Traveller broke loose from his ties and was trotting up the road, pursued by a number of men trying to stop him. Unperturbed, Lee whistled low and the horse immediately halted. The General whistled a second time and Traveller returned to his master without complaint. In October 1865, Lee became president of Washington College (now called Washington and Lee University) and served in that capacity for the rest of his life. He continued to ride Traveller after the war, often taking him for long trips into the countryside. Lee said of his equine friend: “Traveller is my only companion, I may also say my pleasure. He and I, whenever practical, wander out in the mountains and enjoy sweet confidences.”

Robert E. Lee passed away on October 12th, 1870 after suffering a stroke two weeks earlier. Among those at his funeral was the proud grey gelding Traveller, stepping directly behind the hearse with his saddle and bridle draped in black crepe. Less than a year after the General’s death, Traveller trod on a rusty nail and contracted tetanus, then known as ‘lockjaw’. In those days there was no cure for the infection, so Traveller was euthanised to spare him an ignoble and painful death.

After being exhibited for some years, his bones were interred at the university’s chapel, close to the Lee family crypt where the General’s body lies. According to campus tradition, the doors of Traveller’s old stable are left open so that the soul of the Confederate grey may be free to come and go at will.

Many fine horses became well known

during the Civil War – General Ulysses S. Grant had Cincinnati, General Sherman had Lexington and General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson rode Little Sorrell – yet the faithful grey named Traveller remains perhaps the most celebrated of them all. Richard Adams (of Watership Down fame) tells the story of the Civil War through the eyes of the Confederate grey in his 1988 bestseller Traveller. The General’s horse even has his own Facebook page, called Traveller…The most famous horse in US history and companion of General Robert E. Lee.

In 1928, American poet Stephen Vincent Benét immortalised Traveller in his Pulitzer Prize-winning poem John Brown’s Body: ‘And now at last, comes Traveller and his master. Look at them well. 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…’ General Lee’s Traveller, immortalized in prose and poetry.