Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/340

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

334 Southern Historical Society Papers.

purchased by Major Broun in the Spring of 1861 at the price of one hundred and seventy-five dollars in gold. The price paid by General Lee, (his own valuation, as Major Brown offered to present the horse to him,) was two hundred dollars. General Lee himself gave the name * Traveller.' When he returned to Richmond in the Spring of 1862, he brought back with him ' The Roan ' and ' Traveller.' Dur- ing the battles around Richmond, that summer, ' The Roan ' who had been gradually going blind, became unserviceable, and General Lee began to ride ' Richmond ' again, and continued to do so until the death of the horse soon after the battle of Malvern Hill. He now began to ride ' Traveller ' regularly. ' Traveller ' had no vices or tricks, but was nervous and spirited. At the second battle of Mannassas, while General Lee was at the front reconnoitreing ; dis- mounted and holding 'Traveller' by the bridle, the horse became frightened at some movement of the enemy and plunging pulled Gen- eral Lee down on a stump, breaking both of his hands. The General went through the remainder of that campaign chiefly in an ambu- lance. When he rode on horseback, a courier rode in front leading his horse. It was soon after this that General J. E. B. Stuart pur- chased for General Lee, from Mr. Stephen Dandridge of ' The Bower,' near Martinsburg, Jefferson county, the mare ' Lucy Long.' She was low, and easy to mount, and her gaits were easy. General Lee rode her quite constantly until toward the close of the war, when she was found to be in foal and was sent to the rear. About this time some gentlemen of South West Virginia presented to General Lee a fine large sorrel horse whom the General named 'Ajax.' This horse had a fine walk but was too tall for the General, who seldom rode him ; riding ' Traveller ' almost constantly until the end of the war, and, indeed, until the time of his death, October i2th, 1870.

" After the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, ' Lucy Long, 2 who was not with the Army of Northern Virginia, was taken by some stragglers and sold to a Virginian surgeon, who took her home with him. After the close of the war, she was found in Eastern Virginia by Captain Robert E. Lee, who repaid what had been paid for her and took her to his father at Lexington, where were also ' Traveller ' and 'Ajax.' When 'The Roan' through blindness became unfit for army service, General Lee gave him to a farmer, who promised to kindly care for him. Several years after the death of General Lee, ' Traveller,' who was turned out for exercise and grazing during the day, accidentally got a nail in one of his fore-feet; this occasioned lock-