UDC Played Major Roles In Area

Aug. 1, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: In 1930 a plaque honoring Traveller, Robert E. Lee’s horse, was placed on the stable attached to the house built for the Lee family-- and Traveller!

The plaque came from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a charity group formed after the Civil War. The organization first raised funds to bring the war dead home from far away battlefields and to make small loans to businesses and farmers to revitalize the economy.

In 1906, the local UDC purchased from Stonewall Jackson’s widow their former home and turned it into the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital and ran the hospital from 1906 until 1954 — a period that included WWI, Spanish influenza, Great Depression, WWII, and Korean War. Families during the Spanish influenza and the Great Depression, as well as families with unexpected medical and other emergencies, were helped by the UDC. Those funds were raised through bake sales, community events, and from their own purses.

The UDC also paid for the addition to Lee Chapel to house the famous Valentine statue of Lee and in 1971, put a plaque on the grave of Traveller that became a popular attraction for visitors.

Today, the local UDC chapter helps maintain the gravesites of the Civil War soldiers in area cemeteries, contributes to local charities, and has sponsored scholarships.

It is time for Washington and Lee University to reconsider destroying anything that honoring Robert E Lee, the man who saved Washington College and during his tenure as president made it a college honored by both North and South.

It would be also well to thank and acknowledge the UDC for their efforts for the college and people of the area. If nothing else, at least put back the attractive and more meaningful UDC plaque on the grave of Traveller instead of the cheap looking pet marker bearing only the name Traveller and his birth and death years. It is really, really tacky! MIKE LOWRY Lexington