Virginia town salutes its legends with lemons and horse graffiti

By Harris Blackwood

LEXINGTON , Va. -- The story is one of those legends that gets larger than life. In fact, it sort of takes on a life of its own.

The quaint city of Lexington, Va., is one of those places that is just bursting at the seams with history. While the city is home to just 6,900 residents, it has two very prestigious universities, Washington and Lee, and Virginia Military Institute.

Washington and Lee was named for George Washington and Robert E. Lee. The latter came to what was then just Washington College and became its president after the Civil War.

VMI has a number of distinguished faculty and alumni, among them Gen. George Marshall, who headed the U.S. post war effort in Europe. Another is legendary Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who was a member of the VMI faculty before being called to duty in the Civil War.

Both Jackson and Lee are buried in Lexington. Lee is buried beneath the chapel that bears his name on the Washington and Lee campus. Jackson was laid to rest in the city cemetery, which later was renamed in his honor.

There is a ritual that is carried out with great regularity. It involves lemons.

Lemons?

It seems that Jackson was rather health conscious and made sure his diet included regular helpings of fruit.

On two occasions, Jackson was seen eating a lemon prior to battle. The legend is that Jackson sucked on a lemon before leading the charge into battle. It has sort of a heroic, tough guy twist. Suck a lemon, charge off and and nab a few Yankees.

Not true, according to historians. The lemons were reportedly the only fruit in supply at the time. Jackson preferred peaches.

The idea of eating a peach before grabbing your sword and gun just doesn't have the same dramatic effect.

But don't let that get in the way of a good legend.

If you pay a visit to the Jackson family plot in the middle of the cemetery, you'll likely see a lemon or two.

Nicky Keen has been the manager of the cemetery for a couple of years. He said that on a typical Monday morning, he's likely to find a dozen lemons at the general's grave. The number goes higher on VMI alumni weekends and on special occasions, like Jackson's birthday on Jan. 21.

Keen said that more adventurous souls climb over the 6-foot, wrought-iron fence which encircles the graves of Jackson, his wife, and some of his decendents. The fence-climbers place the lemons directly on the headstone of Jackson.

Keen said that he has been employed with the city of Lexington for about five years. To date, no one has left a peach for the General.

Many of the lemon droppers leave the fruit just inside the fence. Other visitors leave various Confederate flags.

Over at Lee's grave, the site is much more stoic. Buried nearby is Lee's legendary horse, Traveller, who outlived his owner by a year but was kept around for a bizarre kind of good luck.

For years, his mounted skeleton was displayed at the university. It became a custom among the students that if you wanted a little luck in passing a particularly hard final, all you had to do was scrawl your name on Traveller's bones. Over the years, the skeleton became a big blob of graffiti. Eventually, the University took it apart and had it packed away in boxes.

In time, poor old Traveller, or what was left of him, was rescued by the Daughters of the Confederacy and laid to rest close to Lee.

Does it get any weirder than that? On one side of town is a guy thought to be a lemon-sucking tough guy. On the other is a guy with his horse, who became a skeletal good-luck charm.

Ain't history fascinating?

Harris Blackwood is a resident of Gainesville and the Community Editor for the Forsyth County News; e-mail, harrisb@forsythnews.com. His column appears Saturdays.