Traveller was used by General Robert E. Lee throughout most of the Civil War. The iron gray horse was born in 1857 in Greenbrier County, which is now in West Virginia. He was first called Jeff Davis by Andrew Johnston, who raised him. He was renamed Greenbrier by his next owner, Captain Joseph M. Broun. Lee bought the horse from Capt. Broun for $200 during his late 1861 stay in South Carolina. Lee renamed his new mount Traveller. Traveller, who weighed about eleven hundred pounds and stood nearly sixteen hands high, served his master well. He outlived General Lee, and upon his death he was buried next to the Lee Chapel. In 1907 his remains were disinterred and displayed at the Chapel for a period of time before reburied on the front campus outside the Lee Chapel.
The best description of Traveller was Lee's own, which he wrote 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 grey.