University officials remove several more plaques without announcement

[UPDATE: As of Saturday, June 16, university officials have replaced Traveller’s headstone with another mable plaque absent of any reference to Robert E. Lee or the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The university also said it will replace the Lee House garage marker.]

Tourists, visitors, and students will no longer be greeted by a plaque commemorating the last home of Traveller, the horse which served Robert E. Lee during and after the Civil War. The plaque, formerly affixed to the Washington Street wall of the Lee House stable, was removed over the weekend. Pointing out the stable’s significance, it had been an established part of the campus milieu for nearly 100 years.

University officials took down two other plaques across campus over the weekend, with plans to take down another. 

The second and third plaque denoted two rooms in Payne Hall: one where President Robert E. Lee took his oath of office in 1865, and the other where his office was from 1865-68, before moving to the newly-constructed chapel.

The final plaque, placed over Traveller’s gravesite outside Lee Chapel, National Historic Landmark, is expected to be removed soon, according to Drewry Sackett, executive director of communications.

The university did not announce their plans to remove any of the plaques in advance, despite being asked by The Spectator on June 24, 2023, if changes would be made to Traveller’s grave.

In response to The Spectator’s questions, Lynn Rainville, Director of Institutional History and Museums, replied:
“The university continues to update the campus community on ongoing construction projects – including those in University Chapel – through a series of stories posted on The Columns. The two most recent stories are “Early Summer Update On Campus Construction Projects,” published on June 8, and “W&L Announces Upcoming Campus Construction Project,” published on March 16. We’re still finalizing the exhibits that are part of the summer renovation project, and will continue to provide updates as there is new information to share.”

On July 10, a confidential source sent The Spectator a photo of Traveller’s plaque being cut from the brick wall of the Lee House stable, leading The Spectator to email Rainville and W&L administrators about the unexpected removal.

On July 12, Sackett responded that “Four plaques are currently being relocated to a new permanent exhibit that will open this fall in University Chapel[.]”

After listing all four plaques, Sackett continued, “A new grave marker is being installed at Traveller’s gravesite. We are currently working on a story for the Columns featuring upcoming exhibits in University Chapel.”

It is unclear what those new exhibits will include, but an October 25, 2022, Columns post alluded to an exhibit  “planned for the gallery on the upper level of the chapel annex, adjacent to the recumbent Lee statue.” The exhibit will house several of the twenty plaques removed from the chapel sanctuary in 2021, according to the post. 

That announcement, however, was made months before city officials approved a permit for chapel construction, meaning exhibit plans may have changed.

As reported by The Spectator on July 2, the chapel will be closed until late August. Traveller’s grave, however, remains open to the public.

Traveller, along with two other horses, lived in the stables next to the president’s house from the time it was erected in 1869 until the horse’s death in 1871. Lee himself had passed away in the house one year before.

Every president since Robert E. Lee has lived in the house and used its stables as their garage. Campus tradition dictates that the doors to the stable must remain open for the ghost of Traveller to come and go at will.

The stable plaque was erected on October 3, 1930 by the Mary Custis Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).

The local UDC president opened the dedication ceremony, while the plaque itself was revealed by the children of University President Francis P. Gaines and Professor J.S. Moffatt. (Both children attended and graduated from W&L in the 1940s.) The ceremony concluded with an oral account of Traveller’s funeral and a luncheon.

Traveller — whose skeletal remains had for several decades been on display in multiple campus exhibits —  was buried outside Lee Chapel on May 8, 1971. The plaque placed over his grave that day resembles the one erected on the stable in 1930, and it was also placed by the UDC with similar occasion.

The Spectator was unable to determine when the two plaques in Payne Hall were dedicated, though the oath-room plaque appears to be considerably older than the Lee-office plaque.