Washington and Lee University has removed a plaque honoring General Robert E Lee’s horse, Traveller, as part of the college’s efforts to distance itself from its confederate history and to ensure history is “appropriately interpreted.”
“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,” said the university’s board of trustees in a statement discussing the future of the college.
The college – where Lee spent five years as President between 1865 and 1870 – announced after receiving vociferous backlash against the decision that it would be moving the plaque to a museum located in the University Chapel, claiming to be “an educational institution… neither a museum nor an appropriate repository for Confederate artefacts.”
Traveller was ridden by Lee for three years during the American Civil War and is buried on the college’s campus, where students often leave coins and apples to commemorate the animal.
“Until this month, very few people seemed bothered by the horse,” explained one outspoken student at the college, who added: “People like to hear tales about animals because they do no wrong. That is how Traveller has been immortalized in campus history.”
