Robert E. Lee & His Pets

atuttle32

Corporal
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Location
Charleston, SC
"Everybody and everything — his family, his friends, his horse, and his dog — loves Colonel Lee."

The dog referred to was a black-and-tan terrier named "Spec," very bright and intelligent and really a member of the family, respected and beloved by ourselves and well known to all who knew us. My father picked up its mother in the "Narrows" while crossing from Fort Hamilton to the fortifications opposite on Staten Island. She had doubtless fallen overboard from some passing vessel and had drifted out of sight before her absence had been discovered. He rescued her and took her home, where she was welcomed by his children and made much of. She was a handsome little thing, with cropped ears and a short tail. My father named her "Dart." She was a fine ratter, and with the assistance of a Maltese cat, also a member of the family, the many rats which infested the house and stables were driven away or destroyed. She and the cat were fed out of the same plate, but Dart was not allowed to begin the meal until the cat had finished.

Spec was born at Fort Hamilton, and was the joy of us children, our pet and companion. My father would not allow his tail and ears to be cropped. When he grew up, he accompanied us everywhere and was in the habit of going into church with the family. As some of the little ones allowed their devotions to be disturbed by Spec's presence, my father determined to leave him at home on those occasions. So the next Sunday morning he was sent up to the front room of the second story. After the family had left for church he contented himself for a while looking out of the window, which was open, it being summer time. Presently impatience overcame his judgment and he jumped to the ground, landed safely notwithstanding the distance, joined the family just as they reached the church, and went in with them as usual, much to the joy of the children. After that he was allowed to go to church whenever he wished. My father was very fond of him, and loved to talk to him and about him as if he were really one of us. In a letter to my mother, dated Fort Hamilton, January 18, 1846, when she and her children were on a visit to Arlington, he thus speaks of him:
...I am very solitary, and my only company is my dog and cats. But Spec has become so jealous now that he will hardly let me look at the cats. He seems to be afraid that I am going off from him, and never lets me stir without him. Lies down in the office from eight to four without moving, and turns himself before the fire as the side from it becomes cold. I catch him sometimes sitting up looking at me so intently that I am for a moment startled...
In a letter from Mexico written a year later—December 25, 1846, to my mother, he says:
...Can't you cure poor Spec? Cheer him up—take him to walk with you and tell the children to cheer him up...
In another letter from Mexico to his eldest boy, just after the capture of Vera Cruz, he sends this message to Spec:
...Tell him I wish he was here with me. He would have been of great service in telling me when I was coming upon the Mexicans. When I was reconnoitering around Vera Cruz, their dogs frequently told me by barking when I was approaching them too nearly...
When he returned to Arlington from Mexico, Spec was the first to recognise him, and the extravagance of his demonstrations of delight left no doubt that he knew at once his kind master and loving friend, though he had been absent three years. Sometime during our residence in Baltimore, Spec disappeared, and we never knew his fate.


- Excerpt from Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, by Robert Edward Lee
 
Thanks for post. I knew Robert E. Lee loved animals and had many pets.

Robert E. Lee had a pet chicken named Nellie. She followed him on his campaigns during Civil War and slept under his cot. Every morning she would lay him an egg for breakfast. It is said that when Nellie was lost during the Battle of Gettysburg, Lee and his men were very distressed until she could be found.
 
Lee was able to make a pet of anything! He kept a rattlesnake when he was in Texas - he wrote his daughter that he was concerned about it as it was not taking its frogs. Don't know what happened to it - or why he'd want that type of pet!

I knew he liked cats - somewhere I read that mama cats would manage to find his office and have their kittens there, right under his desk if possible. He didn't move them, either, just sat around them!
 
I just started reading Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee last night ironically. Sounds like he loved cats, dogs and horses.
 
Please let me know how you like that book. I like the writing style in which Robert Edward writes, would be interested in knowing what others think of the book as a whole.
 
Good posts, Amelia, and everybody, lots of good information, thanks. If my dog could read she'd like the thread too. (guess I'll read it to her:smile:)

Lee
 
There's Custis Morgan, the squirrel - although he was Margaret's pet not Lee's. He was a wild squirrel they'd found running around the house - Margaret caught him and named him after her brother. Then, when he proved to be Houdini, she added Morgan because 'he wouldn't stay in his cage'! She had so much trouble with him that she wrote her father for advice. He suggested the next time she bathed him she should hold his head under the water about 10 minutes. She would then find his behavior much improved! He would be delicious in a soup thickened with peanuts. He would then cover himself with glory - and gravy!
 
kids 126.jpg
Bobby Lee was misidentified by me as a Grey Jay,and is actually a Steller Jay according to my niece,"Grey Jays are the ones at camp" in indignant tone. Anyway, correction made. Unable to upload picture of bob eating out of my hand at present,but he's the center of attention around here lately,including the cats.
 
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