Sadie's Second History Report

Every three months, I have Sadie write a short history paper about something or someone she wants to learn more about from the era we are studying in our curriculum.  For her November paper, we had just finished the colonial origins of America and the Revolutionary War.  She chose to write a paper on the inventions of Benjamin Franklin.

Since then, we have covered the people and events of the Civil War.  She has had to read Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson (author of the superb Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer; the book Sadie read is the younger reader's version of same).  She has memorized The Gettysburg Address.  And she had to write a paper.  She chose to write about Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveller.  Here is her paper:

Traveller: Robert E. Lee’s Famous Horse

By Sadie

Traveller was Robert E. Lee’s horse during the Civil War. He was a American Saddle Bred, a beautiful iron grey color. He was 16 hands high. He was named Traveller because he always wanted to go, go, go. General Lee spelled his horse’s name with two ‘l’s’ because that is the way the British spell it.

Robert E. Lee rode Traveller almost all the war. General Lee did have other horses, but Traveller was his favorite and is the one best remembered. He must have been a very brave and even-tempered horse to have survived all those battles.

After the war, Traveller went with Lee to Washington College, and the boys there plucked his tail for souvenirs of the famous steed. Robert E. Lee died on Wednesday, October 12, 1870. Traveller was used in the funeral procession. Lee’s beloved horse outlived him for a while. In 1871, Traveller stepped on a nail and developed tetanus. Since there was no cure for this, they shot him to relieve him of his misery. Traveller was initially buried behind the main building of the college. But, his bones were unearthed by people unknown and were bleached and put on exhibition in Rochester, New York in 1875 or 1876.

Sources: Wikipedia's Traveller page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller_(horse)
              Civil War Home's Traveller page: http://www.civilwarhome.com/leeshorses.htm
              Stratford Hall's Website: http://www.stratfordhall.org/learn/lees/leehorses.php
(I know, I hate that it is all from on-line resources, too.  Normally, I would have her check out books from the library; but, a search of our library's catalog revealed no non-fiction accounts of Traveller, and we ran out of time to look for Traveller information tucked into other biographies of Robert E. Lee.  Sadie did a good job of synthesizing the information she found on the Internet, I think.  Of course, I am entirely unbiased.)