The College Fix reported that Traveller, Robert E. Lee's horse, is no longer welcome on the university campus. Traveller reportedly served Lee both during the Civil War and afterwards, when the general became president of then-Washington College. Lee served as the president of the university from 1865 to his death in 1871. Traveller passed away just a few months later.
The university apparently replaced one marker—Traveller's gravestone—with a version that omitted the original references to Lee and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. On July 16, it was revealed that university officials would also be replacing the plaque they had taken down from a campus building, which had referenced Traveller's last home.
As of Monday, the plaque had yet to be replaced.
The original marker said: “The last home of Traveller. Through war and peace the faithful, devoted and beloved horse of General Robert Lee. Placed by the Virginia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy.”
The recent changes come after a decision made in June 2021, when the college decided to retain its name while distancing itself from its Confederate history, per the report.
“We have reviewed campus symbols, names and practices, and we are making changes to remove doubt about our separation from the Confederacy and the Lost Cause,” the campus' board of trustees stated.
However, Traveller is an icon of the university.
Kamron Spivey, president of Students for Historical Preservation, said that "Traveller was a beloved part of the campus story."
“People like to hear tales about animals because they do no wrong. That is how Traveller has been immortalized in campus history,” Spivey continued. “He was a faithful horse whose beauty and loyalty Robert E. Lee said would inspire poets. Until this month, very few people seemed bothered by the horse.”
One campus tradition includes placing apples and pennies beside Traveller's gravestone. The apples are placed because horses like apples, but the pennies are placed for a more comical reason, with Spivey saying that they are placed there as a kind of "shot at Lincoln and the Union, placing the coin tails-up so that Lincoln is essentially kissing the grave of a horse."
