Did Robert E. Lee have a pet chicken?

Answer 1

Before the war in a letter to his wife he described himself as "very solitary" writing that his only true companions were his "dogs and cats". According to the lonely calvary officer, his dog went with him to his office each morning and lay down "from eight to four without moving".

During his U.S. army days Lieutenant Colonel Lee once crossed the "narrows" between Fort Hamilton and Staten Island, New York.Halfway over the body of water he spied a female dog with its head partly above the waves. He rescued her, named her Dart, and took her home with him.

One of her puppies once jumped out high window to join the family at church. Lee was so impressed by the dogs valor that he allowed him to "go into the church afterwards, whenever he wished".

The only animal Lee ever took to war however was a hen named Nellie who followed him on every one of his campaigns. Legend has it that the hen would lay one egg under Lee's cot each morning, providing him breakfast.

Answer 2

Lee was very fond of animals, especially horses. His favorite horse he bought in the very early months of the war, while he was in West Virginia. The horse was then called "Jeff Davis", but Lee changed his name to Traveler. Traveler was like the pet of the entire army. Traveler survived the war, and when Lee was elected by the Trustees of tiny, war-ruined Washington College as its new President, he left Richmond mounted on Traveler and rode to Lexington to take over the College. For the next years the best relaxation Lee got was riding Traveler around the countryside near Lexington, where he was a familiar sight. A photographer came and took a picture of Lee on Traveler, in his back yard at Lexington, and this picture was on the wall in countless southern homes for a few generations after the war. Lee had a new Chapel built on the College campus, and his office was in the basement. When Lee died, they made a tomb for him in the Chapel. Traveler lived on for a few years, and when he died, they buried him behind the Chapel.

One of Lee's officers, Porter Alexander, wrote his memoirs long after the war and after Lee's death. He told of Lee's fondness and compassion for animals. He told how one evening, after a long day's march the army was going into camp. It was getting dark, and a group of officers had gathered around Lee, to get his orders and find out the plan for the next day. One of the army's numerous wagons passed nearby, with the teamster lashing the mule. Lee shouted "Must you beat that mule?". In the twilight the teamster did not know who had yelled at him, and said "Is this any part of YOUR mule?". Alexander said Lee, who was known for rigid self-control, nevertheless could get very angry, and when he did, he turned very red, and gave little shakes of his head, which the younger officers called "snapping at his ear". Lee now turned very red and commenced snapping at his ear, and cut short the officers conference, and headed off in the dark, where Alexander had no doubt that he impressed upon the teamster his title to the mule.

Dogs and cats do not do well with armies, which have to move around. I'm sure when Lee became President of Washington College there were animals in his house. The Trustees built a large home to house Lee's family. He had four daughters and three sons. All his adult life he had been in the army, subject to moving from place to place, so this was the first time he had had a settled existence since he was a teenager.

Answer 3

Yes, it's name was Nellie. He took it everywhere on campaign. It stayed in his tent and laid him an egg everyday.

For months, at the height of the war, Lee had a pet hen which laid an egg under his cot each day -- and he never forgot to leave the tent flap open for her. Lee saw to it that the hen traveled with the army, even on so fateful a campaign as the invasion which ended at Gettysburg. When he began to retreat from that field, and the hen was nowhere to be found, the commanding general joined the search for his pet, and was not content until she was discovered and safely perched in his headquarters wagon.

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Answer 4

Yes, Robert E Lee kept a rattlesnake as a pet.