Rare picture of Lee and Traveller

I agree with you, @FarawayFriend. the pose and setting seem too casual for a photographic portrait. The great emotion in Lee's and Traveller's faces also suggest that it's a painting. Lee looks exhausted and maybe even defeated, and Traveller looks concerned and sympathetic. It's a wonderful depiction of their close relationship, and I think it wouldn't have been captured by a photograph. Maybe someone here will know who the artist was who painted it.
To me, it looks like Traveller is thinking, really, we need to make tracks. You can sit on your rump on my back. Let's get the heck out of here.
 
What was the name of Lee's pet rattlesnake, the one he used to feed frogs. It died for some reason in Texas, before Lee came back east to take care of Arlington. Lee wrote of it in a letter.

:laugh: Lee's pet rattlesnake. I just can't help thinking...why? WHY? Lee was well known to make a pet out of literally anything that would let him but...a rattler??? Maybe it was some kind of night alarm, or thief deterrent. I know I'd think twice about stealing Lee's watch if I knew he had a rattler in his tent!
 
It's a painting. Occasionally cited as evidence of Lee's use of cellphones in the Gettysburg campaign.

"Where the hell is Stuart? It keeps rolling to his voicemail!"

A cell phone - really?!? They couldn't get a man of his rank and stature a Bluetooth hands-free device? Why you may ask? Because during that era, it is AGAINST THE LAW in Pennsylvania to ride a horse and use a cell phone! Had he been captured, that would be one more thing on a long list he could be charged with...he'll never get bail. Scofflaw...

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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While looking for something else I came across this picture I have not seen before. On the small screen of my phone I cannot even decide if it's a photo or a painting, but I suspect the latter. Lee would not have posed in such a casual manner for a photo, I think.
No matter what, I thought I'd share the picture and the link to the article where it comes from:
https://stargazermercantile.com/general-robert-e-lee-and-traveller/
looks to me like he had to make an important call.... maybe he was with "time" Traveler !
 
View attachment 162433
While looking for something else I came across this picture I have not seen before. On the small screen of my phone I cannot even decide if it's a photo or a painting, but I suspect the latter. Lee would not have posed in such a casual manner for a photo, I think.
No matter what, I thought I'd share the picture and the link to the article where it comes from:
https://stargazermercantile.com/general-robert-e-lee-and-traveller/
Thanks for sharing this.
It appears to me to be a very detailed artwork.
My initial response when first seeing it was, "Wonder who Lee is talking to on his phone?" Bad WJC....
 
Now that is a "what if" that I would love to see play out. :roflmao::lee:
In a similar vein, there was an episode of The Twilight Zone that showed a modern army force swept up in some time warp, ending up at Little Big horn in June 1876. As I recall, the story revolved around the debate they had of whether to intervene....
 
A man's love for his horse.......

Traveller died shortly after Lee in June 1871, at the age of 14 He contracted tetanus after stepping on a nail and was euthanized to end his suffering. He was buried near Lee Chapel in Lexington, and in 1907 his bones were exhumed and displayed in the Washington and Lee Museum and later in the Lee Chapel basement until 1960. They were then reburied and remain in front of the chapel.

Before Lee’s death, the old General dictated a letter to his daughter Agnes, for an artist who wished to depict his horse. You will find no words more reflective of the love between the General and his most trusted friend:

"If I were an artist like you I would draw a true picture of Traveller — representing his fine proportions, muscular figure, deep chest and 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, and cold, and the dangers and sufferings through which he 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 has passed.

But I am no artist; I can only say he is a Confederate grey. 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 battle around Richmond, the Second Manassas, at Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, the last day at Chancellorsville, to Pennsylvania, at Gettysburg, and back to the Rappahannock. From the commencement of the campaign in 1864 at Orange, till its close around Petersburg, the saddle was scarcely off his back, as he passed through the fire of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and across the James River. He was almost in daily requisition in the winter of 1864-65 on the long line of defenses from Chickahominy, north of Richmond, to 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. You must know the comfort he is to me in my present retirement….Of all his companions in toil, ‘Richmond,’ ‘Brown Roan,’ ‘Ajax,’ and quiet ‘Lucy Long,’ he is the only one that retained his vigor. The first two expired under their onerous burden, the last two failed. You can, I am sure, from what I have said, paint his portrait."


-R.E. Lee
Thanks for sharing this touching letter.
Today's students- and many professional writers- would do well to emulate the simple, descriptive prose. It is a joy to read....
 
I think he was just having a chat with his pal Lincoln after Abe sent him a selfie.

image.jpeg
 
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