In 1796, George Washington endowed the academy with the largest gift ever given to an educational institution at that time: $20,000 in stock. The gift rescued Liberty Hall from near-certain insolvency. In gratitude, the trustees changed the school's name to Washington Academy; in 1813 it was chartered as Washington College. Dividends from Washington's gift continue to help pay part of the cost of each student's education. Robert E. Lee was its president after the Civil War in 1865 until his death in 1870.
Lee died on October 12, 1870, after just five years as Washington College president. The school's name was almost immediately changed to link his with Washington's. His son, George Washington Custis Lee, followed as the school's next president. General Lee and much of his family - including his wife, his seven children, and his father, the Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse Harry" Lee - are buried in the Lee Chapel on campus, which faces the main row of antebellum college buildings. Robert E. Lee's beloved horse, Traveller, is buried outside, near the wall of the Chapel.
[Source: Wikipedia]
