The University Chapel on the Washington and Lee campus — still widely known as Lee Chapel — is a National Historic Landmark and one of the most significant Civil War memorial sites in Virginia. Built in 1867 under Robert E. Lee's personal supervision, it contains his tomb, the Edward Valentine recumbent marble statue of the general lying in his military uniform, and a small museum about Lee's presidency of the university.
The statue is remarkably affecting: Lee is depicted as if sleeping, which was Valentine's deliberate choice — not the general in triumph but the man at rest. The basement museum includes Lee's office preserved as it was on the day he died, with his coat still hanging on the hook. Outside, the modest grave marker for Traveller, his warhorse, draws its own steady stream of visitors.