This story and photo of the barn is from a book entitled "The Mountains Speak", by Edwin Ott. It was published in 1969 by Fairlea Print Shop, Fairlea, West Virginia. (Photo of Lee and Traveller, source Wikipedia)

Traveller was born near Blue Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, in April, 1857, and as a yearling colt won a blue ribbon at the Greenbrier Fair. His original owner was the father of Captain James W. Johnson, and the younger Johnson sold Traveller to Major Thomas L. Broun at the start of the Civil War.

During the Big Sewell Mountain campaign, 1861, General Lee saw Traveller for the first time. The beautiful animal stood 16 hands high, was Confederate gray, weighed 1,100 pounds, and could travel from four to six miles an hour without tiring. Later, in South Carolina, Major Broun offered the fine animal to General Lee as a gift, but the General persuaded Broun to accept $200 in payment for the horse.

Traveller carried General Lee through many bloody battles during the war, and then when the war was over, outlived his master by two years. The horse was buried on land owned by Washington and Lee University. (Pictured below Traveller's barn (home).