BUY Rebel Flags For SaleOf all the horses that carried Confederate officers through the War Between the States, none is remembered with more affection than Traveller, the iron-gray gelding that carried General Robert E. Lee from 1862 through Appomattox and into the quiet years that followed. He was spirited, hard to handle and fearless under fire, and for the last nine years of Lee’s life the two were almost never apart. Here is the full story of Lee’s famous war horse, from a blue-ribbon colt in the Virginia mountains to his grave beside Lee Chapel.
From “Jeff Davis” to “Greenbrier” to “Traveller”
Traveller was foaled in 1857 near Blue Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, Virginia, in what is now West Virginia. His sire was the well-known Thoroughbred racehorse Grey Eagle and his dam was a mare named Flora. His first owner, Andrew Johnston, named the colt Jeff Davis, after the Mississippi senator and Mexican War hero who would later become President of the Confederacy.
The young horse was a standout from the beginning. He took top honors at the Greenbrier County fair in Lewisburg as a two-year-old in 1859 and again in 1860. When war came in 1861, Captain Joseph M. Broun of the 3rd Virginia Infantry in Wise’s Legion bought him for $175 to serve as his mount and renamed him Greenbrier, after the county of his birth.
General Lee first saw the horse that fall while commanding Confederate forces in the mountains of western Virginia, near Sewell Mountain. He admired the gray right away and nicknamed him “my colt.” The two crossed paths again in early 1862, when Broun’s unit was sent to South Carolina, where Lee was then in command of coastal defenses. Broun offered the horse to the general as a gift. Lee refused to take him for free and paid $200 in Confederate money instead, adding a little to the original price because the currency had already begun to lose value.
Lee renamed him Traveller for his quick, ground-eating walk. Some historians also believe the name honored one of George Washington’s horses, a fitting tribute from Lee, whose wife was a descendant of Martha Washington.
What Did Traveller Look Like?
Traveller was an iron gray with black “points,” meaning a black mane, tail and lower legs. He stood about 16 hands high and weighed around 1,100 pounds, and he is usually described as an American Saddlebred type. As he aged, his coat lightened until he looked almost white in later photographs.
Lee was proud of him. In a letter after the war, he praised the horse’s fine proportions, deep chest, short back, strong haunches, small head, delicate ears and quick eye, and joked that if he were a painter he would paint a true portrait of Traveller himself.
A Difficult Horse With a Brave Heart
Traveller was not an easy ride. He was high-strung and restless, and soldiers recalled that he pranced and jigged instead of walking calmly. He had little patience for standing still, and he startled easily at sudden noises.
That nervous energy once came at a cost. On August 31, 1862, just after the victory at Second Manassas, Lee was standing on the ground holding Traveller’s reins when the horse bolted at a sudden alarm. Lee was pulled off his feet and fell, spraining both wrists and breaking a small bone in one hand. For much of the Maryland Campaign that followed, including the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam), the commanding general had to travel by ambulance instead of riding.
That same nervousness could also save his rider. According to one wartime account, Traveller reared up when an artillery shell burst nearby, and a cannonball passed beneath him at the exact spot where his chest and Lee’s legs would have been a moment earlier.
Traveller’s Battles
From mid-1862 to the end of the war, Traveller carried Lee through nearly every major campaign of the Army of Northern Virginia, including:
- Fredericksburg (December 1862)
- Chancellorsville (May 1863), Lee’s greatest victory and the battle that cost him Stonewall Jackson
- Gettysburg (July 1863)
- The Wilderness and Spotsylvania (May 1864)
- The Siege of Petersburg (1864 to 1865)
- Appomattox (April 1865)
“Lee to the Rear!”
The most famous moment in Traveller’s war came on the morning of May 6, 1864, in the Battle of the Wilderness. The Confederate line was giving way when the Texas Brigade, the hard-fighting unit first made famous under John Bell Hood and then led by General John Gregg, came forward to counterattack. Lee rode to the front on Traveller, ready to lead the charge himself.
The Texans would not allow it. Men began shouting “Lee to the rear!” and refused to advance until their general turned back, and one sergeant reportedly took hold of Traveller’s bridle to lead him away. Lee finally gave way, and the Texans charged without him. During the Overland Campaign, soldiers stopped Lee from leading attacks in person more than once. Each time, it was Traveller who had carried him toward the fire.
Eleven months later, on April 9, 1865, Lee rode Traveller to the McLean House at Appomattox Court House to meet General Ulysses S. Grant and surrender the Army of Northern Virginia. As he rode back through his lines afterward, his soldiers crowded around horse and rider, many of them in tears, reaching out to touch Traveller as he passed.
The Bond Between Lee and Traveller
The general and his horse understood each other in a way that impressed everyone who saw them together. In one well-known story, Lee was seeing guests off at a boat landing when someone called out that Traveller had broken loose and was trotting away up the road, dodging the men trying to catch him. Lee stepped ashore, asked everyone to stand still and gave a low whistle. Traveller stopped, pricked his ears and came trotting back to his master. When a bystander expressed surprise, Lee remarked that he did not see how a man could ride a horse for long without the two coming to a perfect understanding.
After the war, Traveller became a celebrity in his own right. Visitors and admirers in Lexington plucked hairs from his tail as souvenirs, and Lee wrote to his daughter Mildred that “the boys are plucking out his tail, and he is presenting the appearance of a plucked chicken.”
Traveller’s Last Years in Lexington
In 1865, Lee accepted the presidency of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, the school now known as Washington and Lee University. Traveller went with him. Lee rode him almost every afternoon through the hills of the Shenandoah Valley, and the horse became a familiar sight on the campus and in town.
When Lee died on October 12, 1870, Traveller walked behind the caisson in the funeral procession, his saddle and bridle draped in black crepe.
He outlived his master by only about eight months. In June 1871, Traveller stepped on a nail, developed tetanus (lockjaw) and could not be saved. He was put down to end his suffering.
Where Is Traveller Buried?
Traveller was first buried on the college grounds. Over the following decades his bones were exhumed, mounted and put on display, first in the university’s museum beginning in 1907 and later in the Lee Chapel museum. In 1971, exactly one hundred years after his death, his remains were sealed in a concrete-encased box and buried just outside Lee Chapel, a few feet from the crypt where Lee and his family rest.
Visitors still leave apples, carrots and coins on Traveller’s grave. By long campus tradition, the doors of his old stable are kept open so that his spirit can roam free.
Traveller also lives on in stone. The great carving on the face of Stone Mountain in Georgia, the largest bas-relief sculpture in the world, shows Lee riding Traveller between Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson.
Frequently Asked Questions About Traveller
What kind of horse was Traveller?
Traveller was an iron-gray gelding of American Saddlebred type, sired by the Thoroughbred racehorse Grey Eagle. He stood about 16 hands and weighed roughly 1,100 pounds.
How did Traveller get his name?
Lee renamed him Traveller because of his fast, eager walk. Before that he had been called Jeff Davis by his breeder and Greenbrier by Captain Joseph Broun.
How much did Robert E. Lee pay for Traveller?
Lee paid $200 in Confederate money in February 1862. Captain Broun had paid $175 for him the year before and offered him to Lee as a gift, but Lee insisted on paying.
Did Lee ride Traveller to the surrender at Appomattox?
Yes. Lee rode Traveller to the McLean House at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, to meet Ulysses S. Grant.
How did Traveller die?
In June 1871, about eight months after Lee’s death, Traveller stepped on a nail and developed tetanus. There was no cure, so he was put down to end his suffering.
Where is Traveller buried?
Traveller is buried just outside Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, near the Lee family crypt. He was reburied there in 1971.
What other horses did Robert E. Lee own?
Lee owned several horses during the war, including Richmond, Brown-Roan, Ajax and the mare Lucy Long. Traveller was by far his favorite and the one he rode most.
Honor General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia
Few partnerships in American military history are as well loved as the one between Robert E. Lee and Traveller. To learn more about the man in the saddle, read Understanding Robert E. Lee and Did R.E. Lee Have Any Regrets? You can also honor the general with our General Lee Headquarters Flag or the Confederate 2nd National Flag, the “Stainless Banner.”
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