"Traveler" is buried immediately outside the Chapel. Local school children place sugar cubes and slices of apple for him when they visit.
Posted on 01/17/2013 2:16:28 AM PST by Kaslin
Beautifully written. Thanks for sharing that.
The Lincoln Coven will show up soon enough, they wish Lee had been tried for treason and hung after the war. They fantasize about it.
According to TR, “(Lee)... was the greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking peoples have brought forth.”
The revisionists have no idea how universally loved and admired, by both Northerners and Southerners, the General was.
“The Lincoln Coven “, hee, hee. Thanks for that remark. Old Abe, he be da debble!
Your writing made me dig deep in my emotional bank to remember goodness after sloshing through the muck of today’s politics.
God bless Robert E. Lee. I wish there were one like him today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvIU6VQAWpo&feature=related
Excellent read - Bravo. I was just there at the Chapel last October, and at Traveler’s grave too. My daughter (23) is a 3L at Washington and Lee in Lexington and we were visiting. What a place!!! I can’t wait for her graduation in May - right near the chapel. As a northerner (conservative though, not liberal), I never expected to “get” what this article is saying, but I do understand (to a certain degree).
Again, Washington and Lee is a very special place.
PS Any FReeper lawyers in NYC hiring 3L’s? Daughter is in top 12% of her class, is on the law review, and has been published - not to mention she is graduating law school at 23 years old. She wants to work in New York. She also has an excellent resume - Freep mail me for her linked in profile.
Oh, there are men like him amongst us, of that I have no doubt.
It’s just that their true character hasn’t been revealed to us through struggle; indeed few knew of either Lee or Grant before the war.
I think that we will come to know them soon enough.
Beautifully written.Thank you for posting this.
Two of my children share General Lee’s birthday. Happy birthday, General! Happy birthday, James (9) and Kathleen (1).
Great article.
The most touching and telling mark of his great character was that after the war, he took care of his invalid wife until her death, and then took care of his mother until she died. What other “great” men in history did that?
Really? While I am not as big a Lee fan as many on FR, I haven't seen any threads suggesting that he should have been executed.
You may be projecting there, a little bit.
And inverting history, also.
Wife’s family can trace her line back to Robert E. Lee.
You are describing actions that are expected of every decent person.
Who would abandon their ailing wife or ailing mother?
Why should Lee receive adulation for observing the absolute minimum level of personal honor?
Lee was a man of great character, with a tragic flaw, and certainly deserves admiration on many fronts - but it is bizarre to say that he should be admired because he did not abandon his wife and mother.
What other “great” men in history did that?
Another great man in history, the heroic William Tecumseh Sherman, also tended to his foster mother and his wife in their dying illnesses as well.
Also, many millions of others who are not "great men in history" have taken care of their families.
Interesting coincidence...
When I was a kid, the first horse I owned, was a Quarterhorse named Traveler, minus one of the “L’s”...hehehe
Almost like a dog, that horse would follow me around, off lead, most of the time coming around to me on the correct side seeming to want me to hop up and go take a ride on my grandparents property...
I always wondered, until I found out later in school, why my great-grandfather (The Colonel) told me back then that the horse’s name was Traveler...
Whenever I do ride, I always remember the story, and tend to ride a little higher in the sadle knowing all that...
I often reflect upon which side of the argument folks had back then, what side I would have stood with...I had many years of conflict where I believe the north was right in doing what they did...But later on in my life, with more knowledge adn experience, I believe I would have sided differently...And not our of some southern romantacist notion either...
What happened yesterday has almost totally solidified my position...
Re: the revisionists. The amazing thing is that in a low and cynical age that breeds revisionists (some needed) at every turn, the debunkers have never laid a finger on Lee. Sure, one can second guess this or that tactical decision, and he made some mistakes, though fewer than his fair share, but I herewith list below every single discreditable thing that historians have discovered about the man’s character and personal behavior:
And if you try really hard to accentuate the negative, there is:
Washington is in this class as well, but Lee earned his pedestal.
Sherman was neither great nor heroic. He was a common butcher killing, burning and raping women and children. He was the lowest form of filth this nation has ever brought forth.
HOW DARE YOU EVEN BRING UP HIS NAME IN THIS THREAD MUCH LESS COMPARE HIM LEE!
Sherman gave out of his own pocket to any destitute ex-soldier who knocked on his door for year following the war.
I understand the love southerners have for Lee, especially now. We see virtuous behavior among leaders almost as alien these days.
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