(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In yet another instance of cancel culture dominating college campuses, Washington and Lee University removed a plaque honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s warhorse, Traveller, the College Fix reported.
The steed, known for its courage and stamina, is buried on campus. Near the site of his burial ground was formerly a plaque honoring the horse, which read: “The last home of Traveller,” who, “through war and peace the faithful, devoted and beloved horse of General Robert E. Lee placed by the Virginia Division United Daughters of the Confederacy.”
Lee’s horse served him after the war as well, when he became the president of then-Washington College, which would later take on his name as well.
According to the university’s board of trustees, the school would be better served by erasing its past in the name of appealing to the woke leftist children coming out of the modern American high school.
“We have reviewed campus symbols, names and practices, and we are making changes to remove doubt about our separation from the Confederacy and the Lost Cause,” the board stated.
But not everyone who is part of the university is interested in canceling its proud Virginian history.
Kamron Spivey, president of Students for Historical Preservation, wrote an email to the College Fix, stating that the students, for their part, regret the removal of the plaque.
“Traveller was a beloved part of the campus story,” Spivey wrote.
“People like to hear tales about animals because they do no wrong. That is how Traveller has been immortalized in campus history,” he continued. “He was a faithful horse whose beauty and loyalty Robert E. Lee said would inspire poets. Until this month, very few people seemed bothered by the horse.”
Other blue-leaning cities and campuses in Lee’s home state have likewise grappled with the state’s role as ground-zero for the Confederacy.
Charlottesville and Richmond both made national news for their removal of prominent statues of the general. A judge recently cleared the far-left Charlottesville government’s long-running effort to melt down the Lee statue that was at the heart of a 2017 clash between right-wing demonstrators and Antifa counter-protesters resulting in the death of a local activist.
Meanwhile, at the University of Richmond, a plan to rename its T.C. Williams law school was met with backlash from the descendants of the slave-owning benefactor, who demanded a $51 million refund on their ancestor’s philanthropic investment.
