Two Chargers Loved By Warriors In Gray

BY R. E. L RUSSELL

WHEN the double equestrian statue, “Parting of Lee and Jackson at Chancellorsville,” is placed on the pedestal that long has stood opposite the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimoreans will get a view of bronze replicas of two of the most famous chargers of history, Traveller and Little Sorrel.

Traveller, the beautiful gray which carried Lee through nearly all of his campaigns and

“never once faltered,” won fame comparable to that of Alexander the Great’s Bucephalus, which died in 326 B.C. and in commemoration of which Alexander built the city of Bucephalia. On the other hand, the horses of such great military figures as Napoleon, Frederick the Great or Prince Eugene never are mentioned on the pages recording their rider’s deeds.

Traveller has become known to millions. His picture hangs in many Southern homes to this day, though he passed to the place where good horses go nearly 75 years ago.

Turned Back From Bullets

He played a leading role in several dramatic incidents during the war. When A. P.

Hill’s lines were broken in the Battle of the Wilderness, Lee spurred him to the front to lead the charge, but his reins were grasped by Texans who turned him back to the rear. Again, at the height of Hancock’s assault on the “Bloody Angle” at Spottsylvania, his bridle was grasped by Gen. John B. Gordon and he and his rider were turned back from the inferno into which his men were advancing. And it was Traveller on whose neck many bitter tears were shed when Lee returned from the McLean house at Appomattox.

The Confederate leader’s failure to retrieve a bad military situation in Western Virginia in the Fall of 1861 had one happy result: it brought him Traveller. He first saw the beautiful horse during that campaign and was immediately attracted to him. Traveller was owned by Major Thomas L. Broun, who offered him as a gift to Lee. The gift was declined but Lee purchased him.

When Traveller, so named by Lee, was a colt he took first premium at the Greenbriar Fair, strangely enough, under his then name of Jeff Davis. He was greatly admired for his rapid, springy walk, high spirit, bold carriage and strength. He followed Lee into retirement after the war and bore him on daily rides over the hills near Lexington, Va.

How He Looked To Master

During this period, in response to a request from some now unknown artist, Lee dictated a description of Traveller.

“If I was an artist like you,” he wrote, “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, cold and the dangers 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 battle through which he passed.

“I am not an artist, and only say he is a Confederate gray. I purchased him in the mountains of Virginia in the Autumn of 1861 and he has been my patient follower ever since-to Georgia, the Carolinas and back to Virginia. He carried me through the Seven Days’ Battles around Richmond, the Second Manassas, to Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, the last day at Chancellorsville, to Pennsylvania, Gettysburg and back to the Rappahannock. From the commencement of the campaign in 1864 at Orange until its close around Petersburg, the saddle was scarcely off his back, as he passed through the fire of The Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and across the James River. He was almost in daily requisition in the Winter of 1864-5 on the long line of defenses from the Chickahominy, north of Richmond, and Hatcher’s Run, south of the Appomattox. In the campaign of 1865 he bore me from Petersburg to the final days at Appomattox Court House.

From Ladies Of Baltimore

“You must know the comfort he is to me in my present retirement. He is well supplied with equipments. Two sets have been sent him from England, one from the ladies of Baltimore, and one was made for him in Richmond; but I think his favorite is the American saddle from St. Louis. Of all his companions in toil, Richmond, Brown Roan, Ajax and quiet Lucy Long, he is the only one that retained his vigor to the last. The first two expired under their onerous bur-dep…. You can, I am sure, from what I have said. paint his portrait.”

Traveller was 16 hands high, dark iron- gray in color and about 5 years old in 1861.

Six years after the war he was almost milk-white, having grown hoary with age. He died soon after his master, his death due to lockjaw caused by his treading on a nail.

He was buried in quick lime. Later his bones were disinterred and mounted. They now stand in a glass case in the museum at Lexington, close to where his illustrious master and friend sleeps.

Little Sorrel is not so well-known, though he bore Stonewall Jackson throughout the campaigns which made him famous. He had been called Fancy and Little Sorrel; Old Sorrel and Old Fancy were the names that he was known by in later years.

In Harpers Ferry Booty

Among the stores captured at Harpers Ferry in April, 1861, was a train of horses destined for Washington and the Union Army. Legitimate prizes, Jackson looked the lot over and selected two, one for himself and one for his wife. He named his horse Fancy, but he became better known to the “Foot Cavalry” as Little Sorrel. He was not at all fancy, so the name was a misnomer. He was well-formed, compactly built, but had a large neck for so small an animal. His powers of endurance were marvelous.

One striking feature was his intelligent and expressive eyes. He had a peculiar habit of lying down like a dog when the command halted for rest. His master made a pet of him and often fed him apples.

“Old Jack” had other horses, one or two of them superb animals which had been presented to him, but he preferred Little Sorrel, finding his gait as easy as the rocking of a cradle. He seldom deviated from his ambling gait except when aroused by the yells of the “Foot Cavalry,” when he would break into a gallop.

At the time Jackson received his fatal wound at Chancellorsville, Little Sorrel wandered away and was lost. Later he was found and was sent by Governor Letcher of Virginia to Lincoln county, North Carolina, where Mrs. Jackson lived after Stonewall’s death.

Here on the farm he became the pet of the family and grazed in the greenest of pastures.

Served Circuit Rider

The venerable Doctor Morrison in whose home Mrs. Jackson lived, used him as a saddle horse to visit the several churches which he served. The horse’s name had then become Old Fancy. He soon gained the reputation of having “more than horse sense and of being a great rascal.”

In 1884 he was exhibited at Hagerstown Fair, where he attracted great attention, losing much hair from his mane and tail to souvenir hunters. When he died in 1886 at the Old Soldiers’ Home in Richmond, when more than 30 years old, his body was sent to a taxidermist and his skeleton was mounted.

Old Sorrel now stands gallantly in a glass case in a Richmond museum. In 1903 the skeleton, also in a glass case, was presented to Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.