Major Chatham R. Wheat’s battalion of Louisiana Infantry was organized
in New Orleans in May, 1861. Their first engagement was in the first
battle of Bull Run, where Major Wheat was shot through both lungs. After
his recovery, he re-entered the service and took an active part in
command of the battalion in the defense of Richmond in 1863 against the
advance of the Union forces under McClellan. During this campaign the
battalion became known as “The Louisiana Tigers” on account of their
desperate fighting qualities. At the battle of Gaines Mill, Major Wheat
and several other leading officers of the battalion were killed, and the
loss of the organization was very heavy. It was then broken up and the
survivors distributed among the other Louisiana regiments, of Hays’
brigade of Early’s Division, and Nicholls’ brigade of Johnson’s Division
of Ewell’s Corps. A number of them were in the battle of Gettysburg with
these brigades, but not as the separate organization originally known as
“The Louisiana Tigers.” This designation was given to all the Louisiana
troops after the original battalion was discontinued. The story
sometimes told, that 1,700 Louisiana Tigers attacked East Cemetery Hill
on July 2nd, that all but 300 were killed or captured, and that the
organization was unknown afterward, is not correct.
General Meade’s “Baldy”
In the first great battle of the Civil War, at Bull Run, there was a
bright bay horse with white face and feet. He, as well as his rider, was
seriously wounded and the horse was turned back to the quartermaster to
recover. In September General Meade bought him and named him “Baldy.”
Meade became deeply attached to the horse but his staff officers soon
began to complain of his peculiar racking gait which was hard to follow.
Faster than a walk and slow for a trot, it compelled the staff
alternately to trot and walk.
“Baldy” was wounded twice at the first battle of Bull Run; he was at the
battle of Drainsville; he took part in two of the seven days’ fighting
around Richmond in the summer of 1862; he carried his master at
Groveton, August 29th; at the second battle of Bull Run; at South
Mountain and at Antietam. In the last battle he was left on the field
for dead, but in the next Federal advance he was discovered quietly
grazing on the battleground with a deep wound in his neck. He was
tenderly cared for and soon was fit for duty. He bore the general at the
battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. For two days he was
present at Gettysburg, where he received his most grievous wound from a
bullet entering his body between the ribs and lodging there. Meade would
not part with him and kept him with the army until the following spring.
In the preparations of the Army of the Potomac for the last campaign,
“Baldy” was sent to pasture at Downingtown, Pa. After the surrender of
Lee at Appomattox, Meade hurried to Philadelphia where he again met his
faithful charger, fully recovered. For many years the horse and the
general were inseparable companions, and when Meade died in 1872,
“Baldy” followed the hearse. Ten years later he died, and his head and
two fore-hoofs were mounted and are now cherished relics of the George
G. Meade Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in Philadelphia.
General Lee’s “Traveller”
The most famous of the steeds in the stables of General Lee, was
“Traveller,” an iron-gray horse. He was raised in Greenbriar County,
Virginia, near Blue Sulphur Springs, and as a colt won first prize at a
fair in Lewisburg. When hostilities commenced, Traveller, then called
“Jeff Davis,” was owned by Major Thomas L. Broun, who had paid $175 in
gold for him. In the spring of 1862, Lee bought him for $200 and changed
his name to “Traveller.”
“Traveller” was the especial companion of the general. His fine
proportions attracted immediate attention. He was gray in color, with
black points, a long mane, and flowing tail. He stood sixteen hands
high, and was five years old in the spring of 1862. His figure was
muscular, with deep chest and short back, strong haunches, flat legs,
small head, quick eyes, broad forehead, and small feet. His rapid,
springy step and bold carriage made him conspicuous. On a long and
tedious march he easily carried Lee’s weight at five or six miles an
hour without faltering and at the end of the day’s march seemed to be as
fresh as at the beginning. The other horses broke down under the strain
and each in turn proved unequal to the rigors of war, but “Traveller”
sturdily withstood the hardships of the campaigns in Virginia, Maryland,
and Pennsylvania. When, in April, 1865, the last battle of the Army of
Northern Virginia had been fought and Lee rode to the McLean House at
Appomattox Court House, he was astride “Traveller” who carried him back
to his waiting army, and then to Richmond. When Lee became a private
citizen and retired to Washington and Lee University as its president,
the veteran war-horse was still with him, and as the years passed and
both master and servant neared life’s ending, they became more closely
attached. As the funeral cortege accompanied Lee to his last
resting-place, “Traveller” marched behind the hearse. After
“Traveller’s” death, his skeleton was mounted and is on exhibition in
the museum in the chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University.
[Illustration: A Union Battery, in action on the afternoon of the
second day]