Patton: A Genius for War 0-06-016455-7
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ATTON 'J
Bpston Public Library
PAnON
/ /
ALSO BY CARLO D'ESTE
Decision in Bitter Victory:
World War
Normandy
The Battle for Sicily 1943
II in the
Mediterranean, 1942-1945
Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome
PAnON A GENIUS FOR WAR
Carlo D'Este
HarperPerennial A Division
ofHdiTperCoWinsPuhlishers
MR BR Copyright acknowledgments follow page 977.
E745 .P3
D46 1996 k
A hardcover edition of this book was published in
PATTON. Copyright
©
States of America.
No
1995 by HarperCollins Publishers.
1995 by Carlo D'Este. All rights reserved. Printed part of this
book may be used or reproduced
in
in the
United
any manner what-
soever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in ical articles
and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers,
53rd
New
Street,
York,
HarperCollins books use.
crit-
10 East
10022.
may be purchased
for educational, business, or sales promotional
For information please write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publish-
ers, Inc.,
First
NY
Inc.,
10 East 53rd Street,
New
York,
NY
10022.
HarperPerennial edition published 1996.
Designed by Alma Hochhauser Orenstein
Photo
by Barbara DuPree Knowles
insert designed
Maps by George Ward The Library of Congress has catalogued
the hardcover edition as follows:
D'Este, Carlo, 1936Patton: a genius for p.
war / Carlo D'Este.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-06-016455-7 1.
Patton,
Biography.
George 3.
S.
(George Smith), 1885-1945.
United States
E745.P3D46
—Army—Biography.
2.
Generals— United States-
Title.
1995
95-38433
355'.0092—dc20 [B]
ISBN 0-06-092762-3 96 97 98 99 00
I.
(pbk.)
/RRD
10
987654321
For Shirley Ann, Elizabeth, Liane, Christopher, and Danielle
And in
loving
memory
of
my parents
Eleanor D'Este (1897-1992) Charles D'Este (1896-1958)
Digitized by tlie Internet Arcliive in
2015
littps://arcliive.org/details/pattonOOcarl
CONTENTS
List of
Note
Maps
to the
Prologue:
xi
Reader
xiii
Who Was George I
An Ancestry
1
The Pattons of Virginia
2
Don Benito Wilson II
3
4
11
12 13
A Father's
4
15
(i
750-1 885)
9
Childhood (1885-1903)
of
an Officer
(1
33 51
904-1 909)
Influence
61
"The Military School of America": West "If at First You Don't Succeed ..."
Point,
1904-1905
70 86
Junior Cavalry Officer (1909-1917)
Love and Marriage "... And Baby Makes Three" "A Young Man on the Make" "... A Home Where the Buffalo Roam"
99 1
19
128 143
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition
156
The Bandit
170
Killer
V 1
Heroes
20
The Making
IV
8 9 1 0
of
1
"The Boy": Patton's Childhood in Los Angeles The Belle of Boston: Beatrice Banning Ayer
III
5 6 7
S. Patton?
World War
I
(1917-1918)
"Over There: The Yanks Are Coming": The United Enters World War I
Tank Officer
States
187
199
Contents
viii
1 1
6
7
8 1 9 1
"Great Oaks from Little Acorns
Baptism of
The
Fire:
Valor Before Dishonor: The Meuse-Argonne Bitter
Aftermath
The Interwar Years
VI
20
Grow"
Saint-Mihiel Offensive
(i
9i 9-i 939)
Eisenhower, Patton, and the Demise of the Tank Corps
(1919-1920) 21
"If
You Want
to
Have
a
Good Time,
Jine the Cavalry"
(1920-1922)
22 23
Past and Future Warrior Reincarnate
Student Days, Boston Baked Beans, and Hawaiian Leis
(1923-1928)
24 25
The Washington Years (1928-1934)
War Clouds (1935-1939) VII
26 27 28
Division
Prelude to
War
(i
939-1 942)
Commander
The 1941 Tennessee, Louisiana, and Carolina Maneuvers Countdown to War
VIII
The War
in the
Mediterranean: Casablanca to Messina (1942-1943)
29 30
The "Torch" Landings
31
Allies
32 33 34 35
"A Dog's
A Summons to Battle
"Born
Breakfast"
at Sea,
Baptized in Blood": Seventh
From Triumph
to Disaster:
The Slapping
Army Commander
Incidents
Exile
IX
England
Army Commander
36 37 38
Third
39 40
The "Mighty Endeavor"
Doghouse The Speech In the
X "A Damned
—Again
Normandy
Fine War!"
to the
Rhine
(1
944-1 945)
Contents
ix
41
"For God's Sake, Give Us Gas!"
645
42 43 44
A Sea of Mud and Blood
659
PATTON OF COURSE Pissing in the Rhine
674
45 46 47
Military Governor of Bavaria
An Unsoldierly Death
XI
"All
Good Things Must Come
"A Helluva Way
703
(i
945)
733 to an
End"
760
Die"
783
Epilogue
805
Legacy Patton Family Genealogy
810
Notes
Sources and Select Bibliography
827 935
Acknowledgments
951
Index
957
to
Postscript: Patton's
Illustrations follow
821
pages 370 and 658.
MAPS
1.
Pershing's Punitive Expedition
167
2.
The Saint-Mihiel Offensive
236 251
3.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive
4.
The "Torch" Landings
432
5.
The Tunisian Campaign
473
6.
The
7.
The Normandy Campaign
8.
Eisenhower's Broad Front
677
9.
Armageddon
709
Sicily
Campaign
512 624
NOTE TO THE READER
Patton's dyslexia generated a lifelong writing problem manifested by mis-
spelled words and the frequent omission of punctuation and capitalization.
Throughout Patton there are extracts from Patton's
letters
and from
his
observations about places he visited. In order to allow a fuller understanding of
how
this
condition dominated his
represent his writings, mistakes and
More
life, I
have attempted faithfully
to
all.
often than not, in his early letters and school papers, Patton
tended to omit periods sake of clarity has
it
tions in punctuation
at the
ends of sentences. However, only for the
occasionally been necessary to insert minor correc-
and capitalization and
disquisitions in order to create a
new
artificially to
break off long
paragraph. With this exception, Pat-
ton's writings are cited as he wrote them.
PROLOGUE
Who Was George S. Patton?
Ask virtually any American bom after World War II what immediately comes to mind when the name "Patton" is mentioned, and chances are they image of a
will conjure an
oversize American flag. ter,
a large blue sash
medals on his waist,
left
large,
A tall,
trimmed
empty stage dominated by an enormous,
uniformed figure suddenly in
breast pocket,
two ivory-handled
and a highly polished helmet on
ver stars of a
full
strides to its cen-
yellow draped across his chest, an array of
his
pistols strapped to his
head on which are
set the four sil-
general of the U.S. Army. Standing ramrod straight, the
general begins to address an unseen audience of soldiers in blunt, often col-
On what how
orful language.
expects of them and
is
clearly the eve of a battle, he explains
they will survive
if
they follow his advice.
cludes with the admonition: "The object of war try. It is to
As
make
has just spoken
which
in
George
the other poor
we
the scene fades,
1
is
S.
Patton
He
Jr.
bastard die for his."
begin to lose sight of the fact that the
man who role,
the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Gen.
in the film Patton.
As one
con-
not to die for your coun-
an actor named George C. Scott in his most famous
970 earned him
Patton himself.
dumb
is
what he
We
have come
to think of
him
as
writer has accurately observed, the film "turned Pat-
ton the legend finally into Patton the folk hero. In the shape of Scott, with his dark scowling face
and rasping voice, Patton had now become the
essence of America's World
War
II.
Just like the
cowboy hero of
the
Old
West, he had stepped into American mythology ... the symbol of an older, simplistic America,
untouched by social change,
political doubts, [and] the
uncertainties of the seventies and eighties."'
Although the architects of this powerful film strove diligently to reveal Patton as he really was, there were the inevitable distortions. Nor was it possible fully to portray his
World War
II
exploits.
complex character
in a film
devoted solely to his
Moreover, Patton was based on the bestselling
mem-
Prologue
2 oir of another
famous general, Omar N. Bradley, who served
chief military adviser.-
sum of money,
It
was
as the film's
ironical that Bradley received a considerable
including a percentage of the gross receipts, for his profes-
sional consultation
on a film about a comrade-in-arms he despised and
never understood.^
What
inevitably emerges in the film
the portrayal of a brash, swash-
is
buckling, controversial warrior. Yet, as one critic noted,
anyone,
it
was Omar Bradley, not
Patton."*
if
the film glorified
Thus, for nearly half of the
fifty
years since his death in 1945, the primary sources of our collective knowl-
edge of Patton
are, largely, a
popular film and the opinions of a general
who
him but who owed him a giant debt for his support during the final months of World War II. Add to this the fact that the image the real Patton presented to the world was a many-layered facade, and there exists ample justification for the question. Who was George S. Patton? detested
Although our knowledge of him
is
incomplete and shrouded in myth,
indisputable that, for a variety of reasons, Gen.
George
S.
Patton
Jr.
it is
has
earned a place in the pantheon of authentic American heroes. Throughout
come to men and women who have attained we have developed our own special breed of hero, who founded and tamed this nation. The Vietnam
our relatively brief history as a nation, Americans have not only
admire (and sometimes even venerate) national prominence, but
modeled on the warriors War has spawned a present-day revulsion for war as an instrument of national policy. Nevertheless, most Americans remain captivated by wars and the men who fight them. Our warrior-heroes range across the spectrum of American history: George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee,
Theodore Roosevelt, and John immediately to mind. To
George
J.
Pershing are
this distinguished list
among
who come
those
can be added the name of
S. Patton.
Yet
how
little
we
really
know
of this man.
Was he
the tough, humorless,
was he a romantic who age? The life of Patton is
bloodthirsty warrior depicted by George C. Scott, or
would have been
far miore at
home
in
an earlier
not only that of a uniquely American warrior but, paradoxically, that of a soldier
who was
very
much
out of his element in the twentieth century.
we shall see, whose veneration of He saw himself as the modem embodi-
Patton was an ancestor worshiper, as his forefathers
ment of
verged on obsession.
his heroic Confederate antecedents,
and because of the enormously
successful facade he created, the tender, romantic side of Patton ally
unknown
in his lifetime outside his circle
was
virtu-
of friends and admirers. The
was an emotional and often humble man who could weep one moment, and seconds later put on his public face and curse in the most scatreal Patton
ological of terms. Virtually
unknown,
too,
was Patton's deeply
religious
nature.
He
Who Was George prayed often and almost always Sicily, feeling in dire
S. Patton?
in private.
3
"On one occasion
need to re-establish his
lines of
in
Palermo,
communication with
the Almighty, he went into the great Cathedral. There he knelt in prayer for
a solid hour with hardly a motion of his body.
vinced that
God was on
his side,"
and
that there
George Patton was conwas indeed a god of Bat-
who would protect him.^ On another occasion his wife, Beatrice, found him kneeling in prayer before a polo match. "Afterward she asked what tles
he'd been praying
for.
'For help in the polo game,' he replied. 'Were you
praying for a win?' she inquired. 'Hell no,' he said,
'I
was praying
to
do
my
best.'""
many (among them historian Paul War II's "masters of
Patton's detractors, and there are Fussell,
who
has characterized him as one of World
chickenshit" for his
strict
dress code in the Third Army), believe he
more than a headline grabber, out ing the lives of his
ply loathed
him
men
in
to
enhance
his
own
was
little
reputation by expend-
an obsessive quest for personal glory. Others sim-
for his harsh methods, his unbending personality, his arro-
gance, his profanity, and the sheer wrath of his notoriously volatile temper.
With one major exception near the end of World War
II,
this
perception
myth of Patton as a passionate believer in providence and a man whose ambition was fueled by the convictions that "It is my destiny to lead the biggest army ever assembled under one flag," and "God isn't going to let me be killed before I do."^ The reality is that Patton accepted the inevitability of death in combat but strove mightily to save the lives of his men. While it is true that Patton loved war, it was only in the pragmatic
is
part of the
He
sense that he considered conflict an inevitable part of man's nature. detested the death and devastation to
wrought. However,
if
there
were wars
be fought, he believed they ought to be conducted by the best qualified
men, such to
it
as himself.
What made make crucial
Patton so remarkable
military accomplishments,
live
and you die alone
about Patton,
I
believe this
and
his willingness to take risks
George C. Scott was
what made Patton unique was
"You
was
life-and-death decisions no one else
would
right
dare.
when he
For
all
his
asserted that
his individualism, his understanding that
—he knew
man was
it
and he lived
it.
.
.
.
But foremost
an individual in the deepest sense of
the word."**
life
Patton was an authentic and flamboyant military genius whose entire was spent in preparation for a fleeting opportunity to become one of the
great captains of history.
No
soldier in the annals of the U.S.
Army
ever
worked more diligently to prepare himself for high command than did Patton. However, it was not only his astonishing breadth of professional reading and writing that separated Patton from his peers, but that intangible, instinctive sense of
what must be done in the heat and chaos of battle: in war that has been granted to only a select few.
short, that special genius for
Prologue
4 such as Robert E. Lee and
German
Michelin
map
fight a major
to study the terrain
Rommel. Who but Normandy in 1913 with a
Field Marshal Erwin
Patton would have tramped the back roads of
because he believed he would someday
battle there?
Patton 's great success on the battlefield did not
come about by chance
from a lifetime of study and preparation. He was an authentic
rather
but
intel-
whose study of war, history, and the profession of arms was extraormemory was prodigious, as was his intellect. Patton not only believed in the Scriptures but could quote them at length. For hours on end, he could recite not only verses from the Bible, but from his great love, poetry. His favorites were Homer's Iliad and Kipling's verse. He read voraciously and not only learned from what he read but managed to remember virtually all of it. As a young child, his nephew recalls sitting engrossed while Patton recited from memory lines from such diverse sources as Shakespeare, the Bible, Macaulay, and Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads!^ To his family he was an accomplished and imaginative storyteller, whose tales were usually based on ancient heroes, occasionally embellished lectual
dinary. His
by imaginary characters
who performed
impossible feats of derring-do. Dur-
ing the latter stages of
World War
with his aide acting as referee and
II,
researcher, Patton used his encyclopedic
knowledge
to best a
noted Harvard
professor on historical subjects, and the high prince of the Catholic Church,
New
York's Archbishop (later Cardinal) Francis Joseph Spellman, on the
Bible.'"
To
his detriment,
what
little
the public
knew of Patton was only what he
permitted them to know. Patton's reputation has been perpetually tarnished
by the facade he himself created and the public
was
effortlessly accepted: that
a swashbuckling, brash, profane, impetuous soldier
he
who wore two
much he was nicknamed "Old who slapped two soldiers in Sicily in August home in disgrace, his destiny unfulfilled because
ivory-handled revolvers and loved war so
Blood and Guts"
—
the general
1943 and was almost sent
of momentary, irrational acts of rage. Unfortunately, because he blatantly perpetuated his
own
self-created
image, the legacy of "Old Blood and Guts" has not only become
common-
place but the accepted perception of Patton. In the end his self-invented personality nearly destroyed
A great very
was
little
him and has severely
about his lifetime of preparation for what he passionately believed
his destiny to lead a great
both.
distorted his place in history.
deal has been written about Patton's battles and campaigns and
George
S.
army
Patton had so
into battle. This
many
about himself that a major role of the biographer rate, all
book attempts
faces and created so is
many
to
cover
illusions
to disentangle, to sepa-
and, in the end, to impart, as Gerald Clarke has written, "that rarest of
human
gifts:
understanding."" Ultimately, the saga that was Patton's
life
Who Was George infinitely
is
more
form the theme of
exploits
What
helps to
make
this
rise to
rial
self-created myth.
command and
From
that
his
Whether one World War II
the extraordinary
is
diaries, essays, notes, poetry,
hundreds of intimate and revealing
ample evidence
5
the tapestry of Patton 's life so rich
Beatrice, nothing Patton wrote is
high
Patton?
book.
wealth of material he penned. tures, to his
own
fascinating than his
admires or detests Patton, his
S.
letters to his
was ever thrown away. To
and
lec-
beloved wife,
the contrary, there
he sensed such material would become the raw mate-
of a future biography. Whether one chooses to view this attitude as pre-
scient or merely vain presumption, the vast collection provides a rich foun-
dation for a biographer.
Although the family archive
George
Patton must be built,
S.
is
it is
the
bedrock on which any biography of
by no means the only source of knowl-
edge about him. As a public figure he has inspired biographies (some of
them ity
more than hagiography),
little
articles,
and anecdotes, the vast major-
War
of which deal exclusively with his World
encompass only the
final four years
of his
life.
II
exploits and thus
Until the recent publication
of an intimate and revealing memoir of the Patton family by his grandson,* very
has been written about George S. Patton's childhood and military
little
career prior to 1939,
man and
all
ancestry
the general. is
of which were vital ingredients in the shaping of the
What
little
has previously been written about his
likewise shrouded in myth and misinformation. Fortunately there
exists a wealth of other important references in libraries, archives,
and long-
out-of-print secondary sources that both enrich our understanding and per-
mit a
full
accounting of his extraordinary
Once asked why he made
life.
the film Patton,
which required seventeen
years of effort to accomplish, executive producer Frank that
it
was
"to study this unique
McCarthy
man," not "to lionize him. Only
replied
to study
'My God, what a fascinating character this was!'"'more than two hundred years of U.S. history there has never been (and may never again be) another American quite like George Smith Patton. He was one of a kind. The year 1995 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Patton's death, thus making it an appropriate occasion for a contemporary reexamination of the life of perhaps the most famous and controversial Ameri-
him and
to say:
In the
can soldier of the twentieth century.
*Robert H. Patton, The Pattons: York, 1994).
A Personal
Histoiy of an American Family
(New
PART
An Ancestry
I
of
Heroes
(1750-1885) Americans have an
insatiable craving for lieroes.
-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK
REVIEW, MAY
14,
1989
CHAPTER
The Pattons We
ne'er shall look
upon
of Virginia
his like again.
—TRIBUTE TO COL, GEORGE
The
first
trader
Robert,
who
around 1770. Although
who
S.
PATTON, VMI, GLASS OF 1852
Patton in America was an enormously successful merchant and
named
George
1
S. Patton
Jr.,
he
emigrated from his native Scotland to Virginia
little is
is
known of
this great-great-grandfather
"tied Scotland apparently after opposing the
conflict for Scottish independence'
Virginia, around 1770, via
According
Young
of
thought to have been a rebellious Scottish patriot
'
and
later
Crown
in the interminable
emigrated to Fredericksburg,
Bermuda.
to Patton family lore, he fought for
Bonnie Prince Charlie,
name was not Patton. Robert Patton has been variously described as "a smallish man who was hot-tempered and something of a dandy" and "a mule-headed, fiery little man with a fondness for ruffled shirts."^ He is also believed to have dropped hmts from time to time that he was the son of a landed aristocrat, and that Patton was the name he had adopted and was known by in Virginia. Another story has it that the
Pretender, and his real
before his arrival in Virginia Robert lived in Bermuda, where he got into serious trouble
when he
insulted him.' The only
killed the
governor with a
known pamting of
pistol after the latter
Robert, depicting a clear-eyed,
well-dressed young man, gives no hint of his personality. All this
is
myth. In fact a great deal
is
known
of the
first
Patton. Proba-
bly born Robert Paton in Mauchline, Ayr, Scotland, on September 24, 1750,
well after the Scottish revolution, he emigrated to Culpeper in 1769 or 1770
from Glasgow.^ Apparently indentured
for a period of (probably five) years
to the great Scottish mercantile syndicate of
William Cunninghame,' Robert
An Ancestry
10
was based
for a time at the
of
Heroes
Cunninghame depots
in
Falmouth and Culpeper
move upward Cunninghame syndicate to positions of greater responsibility is well documented.^ In 1773 he was placed in charge of the Cunninghame
before moving permanently to Fredericksburg. Patton's steady within the
operation in Culpeper and appears to have been one of
Robert Patton prospered
in
its
rising stars.
Virginia as a businessman^ and subse-
quently, in October 1792, married well
by gaining the hand of Anne Gordon
Mercer, whose late father was Brig. Gen.
Hugh
Mercer, also a Scottish
and a legendary Revolutionary War
hero.*^
The wedding took place
patriot
on October
and was duly reported
16, 1792,
in the next edition
of the (Fred-
ericksburg) Virginia Herald.'^
That Robert Patton was well established as a merchant
1774
is
clear
from the
in
Fredericksburg by
master of the sloop Speedwell assigned a
fact that the
at the
time) to be repaid to
May
1776.'"
As
merchant and
a
He
is
him
for
reputed to have
—
a huge sum wages advanced between July 1774 and
debt of forty-two pounds (more than sixteen hundred dollars
"made
a competent fortune in business.""
trader, Patton dealt in highly sought-after
goods of the
time, advertising for sale in 1792 in the local paper, the Virginia Herald,
shipments of coal, the time, often claret
salt,
queensware
(a beige-colored earthenware,
made by Wedgwood),
and other wines from London, Antigua rum, Holland
coffee, cotton, pepper,
and muscovado
popular at
eight to ten thousand "good" bricks,
sugar.'- Until 1805,
gin, molasses,
when
the partner-
was dissolved by mutual consent and the business run solely by Patton, he was associated with another local merchant named Williamson.'About 1 800 Robert Patton used his wealth to build a stately mansion he named "White Plains," on five acres overlooking the Rappahannock River and the falls north of the town.'^ In 1802 Robert was elected a vestryman in ship
St,
George's Episcopal Church, but like
many
other citizens of Fredericks-
burg, he and his wife soon grew disenchanted with the church and turned to
Presbyterianism. The Patton family to the organization in
name appears prominently
1808 of Fredericksburg's
which was erected on land donated by Robert's There
is
no evidence
to suggest that
in references
First Presbyterian
Church,
wife.'"^
Robert Patton was anything more
than a conservative, upstanding merchant and benefactor of Fredericksburg,
where he apparently spent in the Revolutionary
his entire adult
to serve in the Continental Army."'^ ily to
life.
There
is
no record of service
War, and according to Robert H. Patton, he "declined
Glasgow, via England,
in the
He is known to have returned temporarsummer of 1777 for his employer.'^ One
him by a Fredericksburg native was that "Mr. Patwas one of the noblest, most upright, most generous men she had ever known," while another noted that "Mercer's daughter was as frail as her husband was majestic."'* surviving description of
ton
The Pattons Robert Patton died
in
of Virginia
Fredericksburg on
11
November
3,
1828,
at the
age
of seventy-eight, and a brief obituary, which appeared in the Virginia
Herald, read:
"On Monday morning
old and worthy citizen, and for
integrity
the
and
many
thrift
last,
ROBERT PATTON,
Sen., Esq.
—an
years a highly respectable merchant of
Fredericksburg epitaph seems to have been that "he
this town."''' Robert's
was one of
many
fine Scotch merchants
added much
lustre to the
who have by
commercial
their splendid
and religious
social
history of old Fredericksburg.'""
The union of Robert Patton and Anne Mercer produced seven
children.-'
Their third child, John Mercer Patton, a physician, lawyer, and politician,
was born in 1797. Like his maternal grandfather, John Mercer Patton studied to become a physician and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1818. However, he never practiced the profession that was apparently forced on him by his father. The two are said to have quarreled repeatedly; nevertheless, John Mercer Patton eventually returned to Fredericksburg to ambition to obtain a law degree. Patton prospered as a lawyer and
fulfill his
served as a Virginia congressman from 1829 to 1838, before settling in
Richmond. He was elected
to four consecutive terms
on the Executive
Council of Virginia, and when Gov. Thomas W. Gilmer resigned in 1841, Patton became acting governor of the
Commonwealth
for a period of thir-
teen days.
John Mercer Patton was an independent-minded Democrat who was never afraid to speak with honesty and candor. In 1832 a major controversy erupted over a recharter the
bill in
Congress, sponsored by President
Bank of
the United States, during
rebuked the governor of Virginia for attempting
Andrew
Jackson, to
which Patton publicly to
intimidate
him
into
changing his vote."
However, John Mercer Patton's greatest achievement was ing
work
resulting
century.
in helping to revise the Virginia civil
his pioneer-
and criminal codes. The
Code of Virginia of 1849 remained in force for the next quarter To the end of his life, Patton spoke out against any interference in
America's religious or
civil affairs
by another
country.-^ Patton
and his wife,
Margaret French Williams, produced twelve children, including nine sons, seven of
whom
were
to serve in
Confederate gray during the Civil War.-^
Four of John Mercer Patton's nine sons attended the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, including the first George Smith Patton, who
was born in 1833 in Fredericksburg and matriculated at VMI at the age of sixteen. George Patton had been carefully groomed by his parents to qualify for admission to VMI, and he became one of a large class of twenty-four.-^ When he graduated in 1852, George Patton was second in his class and was rated
first
chemistry.-*'
in
tactics,
French,
mathematics,
Latin,
and
geology
and
An Ancestry
12
of
Heroes
After graduation Patten seemed destined for a career as a teacher, and in this
he was assisted by the
first
superintendent of
Richmond
Francis H. Smith." Patton taught in
VMI,
for
the legendary Col.
two years while
also
November 1855 he continwhen he wed Susan Thornton
studying for the bar in his father's law office. In
ued the Patton tradition of marrying well Glassell. Their union
produced four children, the eldest of
whom was
Pat-
second George Patton, born on September 30, 1856, and
ton's father, the
christened George William Patton.-^
Susan Thornton Glassell was descended from a distinguished family that
could trace
Edward
I
itself
to
George Washmgton's great-grandfather, King
of England, and France's King Philip
who
recesses of time were sixteen barons
whom the
became
"Even
farther in the
Magna
Carta,
dim
all
of
Pattons believed were their direct ancestors."-'^
The family Virginia,
III.
signed the
settled in Charleston,
Kanawha County,
in
what
is
now West
where Patton practiced law with considerable success. He soon
a well-liked citizen and acquired the
nickname "Frenchy" because
"He was arrogant, a smart dresser, and displayed classic chivalry toward ladies, making him a dashing, romantic figure."^" A photograph of Patton taken around 1860 depicts a dashing young man of aristocratic good looks who conveyed the perfect image of a successful lawyer. He has been described as "graceful and elegant as a speaker Iwho] was the charm of the social circle, where his genial wit, sparkling humor, ready repartee, and ringing laugh made him ever welcome. He seemed never to of his goatee.
forget
what he had once learned and could
ments of the poets for the young and encouraged his
men
at will
gay."^'
produce the choicest
senti-
Devoutly religious, Patton also
and rarely missed an opportunity
to attend chapel
to
pray on his knees before his God. Despite his youth, Patton was a visionary
who saw war
clouds on the
horizon and was determined to prepare for action. Soon after moving to
commanded a company of militia, which Kanawha Riflemen, to which he attracted young aristocrats of
Charleston, he organized and
became
the
high standing in the community, like himself. drill
were well-known throughout the
said to be the best-drilled
company
area.
in the
"Its bright
uniforms and sharp
The Kanawha Riflemen were entire Confederate Army, the
result of Patton's superb military training." Despite their ceremonial status
as a unit that "could dance as well as, fight," their tarian.
commander was
and maybe
nevertheless well
better,
known
as
than they could
stem and authori-
^-
John Brown's insurrection in 1859 was the spark that galvanized Patton and the Kanawha Riflemen was one of the Virginia militia units that converged on Harper's Ferry in the aftermath. By April 1861 Patton's
to action,
unit self
had become Company H of the 22d Virginia Regiment, and Patton himhad become an ardent advocate of secession.'^
The Pattons
of Virginia
13
moved his family from Charleston to the home, Spring Farm, near Culpeper Court House, shortly before Virginia seceded. His six-year-old son remembered "the coach coming to the door and my indignation at the fact that my toy drum, of which I was Anticipating war, Patton
ancestral
very proud, being
was put
left
on the mantelpiece
into the coach."
in the nursery.
At Culpeper the
I
cried bitterly as
entire Patton clan
I
had gathered,
number of cousins.^^
including a
The Patton homestead became a beehive of activity as the family prepared for war en masse. While the women made ponchos and uniforms, the Patton
men went
about the grim business of preparing themselves for war.
"My
grandmother gave each of her sons a T.B. [thoroughbred]) horse for himself [sic] body servant, with a second less well bred horse for the The matriarch of the family and the widow of John Mercer Patton
and a nigrow nigrow."^^
was Margaret French Williams Patton, a strong-willed, resolute Virginia woman. Many tales about her have been passed down through generations of Pattons, one of which is that when she learned of the wounding of the youngest of her eight surviving sons, "she cried for the it
was because she had no more boys
to
first
time, but
added
send to fight the Yankees." Margaret
Patton never accepted the defeat of the Confederacy and Patton's father relates that,
After the war
.
.
.
officer.
say 'Amen'
when
States and
all
was riding back from church on horseback with a As they rode along she asked him, "Colonel, did you
[she]
Confederate
the minister prayed for the 'President of the United
others in authority?"'
When
the colonel said that he had,
Mrs. Patton struck him with her whip.^"
With secession, brother, Robert,
all
who
the Patton brothers
went off
to war,
except the eldest
lived with a bulldog in one of the back
rooms of
the
Patton homestead, and was an alcoholic former naval officer. Rarely mentioned in the family history, Robert
Culpeper
in
was found dead in a farmyard near The next eldest, John
1876, apparently the victim of drink."
Mercer, became a colonel
in
command
served only until mid- August 1862,
of the 21st Virginia Infantry but
when complications from
disorder forced his permanent return to civilian
(1828-90),
command
who had
previously settled in
New
a regiment of Louisiana infantry and
life.
a stomach
Isaac Williams Patton
Orleans, returned there to
was captured
at
Vicksburg.
Waller Tazewell Patton was the sixth son of John Mercer Patton and in 1855
became
the third Patton to graduate from
VMI.
After graduation Tazewell
was known within the family) taught at VMI for two years before becoming a lawyer in Culpeper. Soon after settling in Culpeper he (or "Taz,"as he
An Ancestry
14
was chosen had
first
brothers,
command
to
of
the Culpeper
Heroes
Minutemen, a
militia
been raised in 1776 by one of his ancestors.
Hugh Mercer and James French
both were
still
in
their teens.
Both
Two
that
Patton, enlisted as privates, while
became
later
lieutenants and
Cold Harbor and the other at Bull Run.'** Tazewell was severely wounded at Second Bull Run
wounded, one
company
of his younger
were
at
in late
August
1862. After a long recuperation, he returned to his regiment in the spring of 1863. Elected to
command
the 7th Virginia Infantry, in July 1863 he
met
his
destiny at Gettysburg, in the debacle on the third day of the battle that has
been immortalized as Pickett's Charge.
It
has been aptly described as "a
magnificent mile-wide spectacle, a picture-book view of war that partici-
—
remembered with awe until their dying moment which many came within the next hour.'"'' Of the more than fourteen thousand men who began the attack, less than half would return to the safety of their own lines. Among the first to perish were the officers who led their men into the cauldron of fire. The men of pants on both sides for
Pickett's division suffered the worst losses, nearly two-thirds, including all
three brigade single one
commanders. Of the
was
One of
thirteen regimental
either killed outright or
commanders, every
wounded.
those commanders, lying mortally
wounded near
a stone wall
was twenty-nine-year-old Col. Waller Tazewell Patton, whose 7th Virginia had advanced the farthest before it was repulsed. Terribly wounded in the mouth, he was eventually removed from the battlefield and taken to a nearby Union hospital in Gettysburg. He was treated with kindness by a nurse who ministered to him during the final days of his life. Before the battle he had been troubled by a premonition that he would die
that
afternoon,
that day."*
The incident in which Tazewell was wounded was witnessed by an enemy artillery officer, Lt. Henry T. Lee, whose battery had been positioned just
behind the stone wall. During the attack, he saw the two officers jump on the wall holding hands and instantly fall. The act so impressed him that when the charge was repulsed he went to look for them. One, a boy of nineteen, was dead, the other had his jaw shattered and was dying from a ghastly wound. The wounded officer
motioned to Lee for a pencil and paper and wrote as follows: "As approached the wall forgotten) pressed to
my my
side
and
said: 'Its
grasped hands and jumped on the wall. Send
may know
we
cousin and regimental adjutant. Captain (name
that her son has lived
up
to
our turn next, Tazewell.' this to
my
mother so
and died according
We
that she
to her ideals."""
Fortunately a close relative was present to offer consolation, and he
noted that Tazewell's only method of communication was to write, pain-
The Pattons fully,
on a
slate board.
Foremost
of Virginia
in his
15
mind were
his
God,
his mother,
and
his country. Shortly before his death, in a poignant letter to his beloved
mother, he reaffirmed his devotion to
young colonel ended by scribbling on
am
about to die in a foreign land; but
her as ever."^the
first
When
—but not
God and
asked for her prayers. The
my
his slate board: "Tell I
cherish the
same
mother
that
I
intense affection for
Waller Tazewell Patton died, on July 23, 1863, he was
—member of
the last
his family to perish in the service of
the Confederacy.
George Smith Patton fought
his first battle in
place called Scary Creek, in July 1861.
was thrown from
his horse
nearby western Virginia,
He narrowly escaped
by the impact of a spent minie
ounce of pointed lead one-half inch wide.^' The bone
arm was
shattered,
death
at a
when he
ball containing
an
upper right
in Patton 's
and he was taken prisoner when he could not be moved
left him behind. At a Union hospital the docarm required amputation, but Patton adamantly refused. He had somehow been permitted to retain his pistol and made it uncompromisingly clear that he would shoot anyone who attempted to try. The arm did not heal properly, and Patton never regained full use of it. His young son later remembered watching his father use a knitting needle to remove a piece of bone from the wound.^ Patton was eventually paroled and permit-
and
his
tors told
comrades reluctantly
him
the
ted to return to his family.
When
he returned to the 22d Virginia as
he recovered sufficiently from his its
commander, with
wound
the rank of lieutenant
colonel.'*^
Patton continued to gain experience under his former
Stonewall Jackson, and once again barely escaped death
in
VMI
professor,
May
1862, dur-
ing the battle of Giles Court House. According to his son:
Being struck
in the belly
with a minie ball he thought the
and so dismissed the surgeon, could save. Shordy after
this
wound was
mander] rode by and, having heard of the wound, asked was. Col. Patton replied that the
wound was
fatal
and
.
.
.
[him]
that he
unwashed
finger in
something hard. piece.
The
He
it
if
he could examine the wound.
and exclaimed, "What
is
how he
was writing
a letter to his wife but that he did not feel like a dead man. Gen.
dismounted and asked
fatal
him to spend his time on those he General Wharton [Patton's division comtelling
He
Wharton stuck his
this," as his finger hit
then fished around and pulled out a ten dollar gold
bullet [had struck] this
and driven
it
into his flesh,
and glanced
off.^^
While he had escaped death, Patton nevertheless suffered from blood now in Richmond, to recuperate. Patton's regiment had been operating in western Virginia, and in 1863 he
poisoning and returned to the family home,
An Ancestry
16
Heroes
of
again moved his family, this time from Richmond to Lewisburg, a small town near White Sulphur Springs. Patton's regiment was in the thick of the fighting during the Battle of Droop Mountain, in November 863, where the Confederates were defeated by the Union cavalry of Maj. Gen. William 1
Averell, a onetime friend of Patton. His son vividly recollected the grim
aftermath:
I
remember seeing them
retreating through Lewisburg.
sent an
ambulance with a pair of mules
to take
it
with the
and follow the army.
last
mother a
.
.
.
to the
Late in the night
of the rear guard and stopped to
letter for
General Averill
.
.
Father had
.
house and told
tell
my
my
father
us goodbye and give
asking him to see that
[sic]
mother
came by
my
we were
not bothered.^^
This was not Patton's breakfasting at a house
coming!" Patton and
last
encounter with Averell.
when an
One morning he was
orderly suddenly yelled: "The Yankees are
had time
his staff barely
to
escape Averell's cavalry by
jumping out the back window while the lady of the house rushed
to hide his
saber under a mattress.
Susan Thornton Patton helped
wounded who were brought George followed the smell
The
his
to care for both Confederate
to the hotel in
mother around with a bucket and sponge, and recalled
was so awful
that she fainted
and had
to
New
Market.
When
a
that
be carried from the room.^**
greatest triumph of the Patton family during the Civil
the Battle of
and Union
White Sulphur Springs. Young
War
took place
at
Union force threatened Staunton, Con-
federate units were hastily assembled at
New
Market under
the
command
of
Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge. Vastly outnumbered, the Confederates
were so desperate for reinforcements Corps of Cadets (the eldest of
that the
whom was
247 young men of the
VMI
only seventeen) were rushed from
nearby Lexington. Federal and Confederate forces met on the Valley Turnpike
at
New
that forever
Market on
May
kin participated in the Battle ton's
Col.
15, 1864.
immortalized the
22d Virginia came
Here the South won a famous victory
VMI Corps of Cadets. Four Pattons and their of New Market. During the battle George Pat-
to the rescue of his close friend
George Hugh Smith, whose 62d Virginia was
trapped in a ravine and badly decimated by Union canister. notes, "In retrospect,
New
it
emerges as a Patton military
Market established once and for
outstanding and innovative commander. alry attempted to penetrate the battalion
all
when he was
cousin,
As one
being
historian
picnic."'*^
as an
the battle. Federal cav-
his left flank, Patton quickly
vised a hasty defense that shattered the charge. His brigade often absent, and
first
George Patton's credentials
When, during on
and
in dire straits after
impro-
commander was
present proved an ineffectual leader. Patton
The Pattons filled the
By
of Virginia
17
void so often that most considered him the real brigade commander.
had moved again,
the spring of 1864 the Pattons
Mercer Patton
Meadows,
house, the
Jr.'s
Thornton Patton received a
from her husband
letter
Gen. Jubal Early's army and would soon be on a the railway line at the
bottom of the garden. As
and stayed with us for several hours
.
.
time to John
that he
had joined
train passing
his
then the
.
this
Albemarle County. Susan
in
son
Lt.
through on
"He got off composed of flat
recalls,
last train
I remember seeing a soldier on a him a hand to get aboard and as the train moved out he was leaning against a gun and waved us goodbye. I never saw him again."'" In July 1864 Patton's 22d Virginia was one of the units leading Early's
cars loaded with artillery stopped for him.
car give
Army
fifteen-thousand-man Confederate
Although
of the Valley, which had advanced
Washington, within five miles of the White House.
to the outskirts of
emplaced Union reinforcements prevented Early's
hastily
raiders
from capturing Washington, he had become a very dangerous thorn
Union
was not
Army the
The seriousness of
hide. lost
on Gen. Ulysses
the threat
posed by
who
S. Grant,
this large
in the
Rebel army
sent Gen. Philip Sheridan's
of the Shenandoah to deal with Early "to the death," and to plunder
Shenandoah
Valley.
The two
met on September
sides
19, 1864, in the
Third Battle of Winchester.
Outnumbered by twelve thousand, Early's army could not withstand a left flank. Patton was then in
whirlwind Union attack on the Confederate
command
of his
three earlier
own
wounds,
"Patton's Brigade," and, although he had survived
this
time his luck ran out. The circumstances surround-
memoir says only that was mortally wounded, is known that Patton's brigade was was eventually crushed by Sheri-
ing his death remain vague. Jubal Early's postwar
"Colonel G.W. Patton
and
fell into the
[sic],
commanding
hands of the enemy.""
attempting to defend the
left
It
flank that
a brigade,
dan's cavalry, which captured two thousand Confederate soldiers,
them
the mortally
wounded George Smith
Patton was one of several senior Confederate officers killed chester,
whose
and Early
loss
A VMI
later referred to
"was deeply memorial
him
that of his cousin,
some years
day of
his life he
buoyant, no fears were course.
A
later indicates that Pat-
The house
to
which he
Mary Williams.
hope of recovery was inspired and sustained by the
opinion of his surgeon that his part of the last
Win-
felt.""
tribute published
In this interval the
at
as "a gallant and efficient officer"
ton lingered for several days after being wounded.
had been taken was
among
Patton.
felt that
later visit to his
his friends that death
wound though
serious,
was not
mortal.
A
was alone in his chamber. Cheerful, even a few brief hours would close his earthly
chamber disclosed
had sealed him for
his
a great change,
own.
A few
and warned
words, unintelli-
An Ancestry
who
gible to the kind ones
of
Heroes
ministered to him, escaped his hps, and his
voice was hushed forever.^^
Colonel Patton's death, on September 25, 1864, was apparently from a combination of fever and gangrene.
When days
He was
barely thirty-one years
distraught
later, his
widow
the
at
when George
VMI, George and Waller Tazewell
same grave
He [George a
gun limber were
.
.
.
draped
in black.
cortege
moved
to the railroad station.
body of Tazewell the two
was made and
noise
flag.
.
.
When
were placed on
coffins .
Many
old sol-
including a band with their instruments
station,
No
was a
to his son's recollection:
and covered with a Confederate
at the
S. Patton II
Patton were interred together in
was dug up and taken
Patton]
the train arrived with the
diers
According
in Winchester.
some four
traveled to Winchester but arrived too late
to attend his burial service. In the 1870s,
cadet
old."^^
she learned of Patton's death from a Union newspaper
to the cemetery.
Papa
all
in utter silence
by moonlight the
VMI cadet]
uniform, walking
in [his
behind the limber.^'
Those who had come uniform and
at great risk
guard around the grave
honor the Patton brothers did so
to
in
Confederate
of aiTest and incarceration. They formed an honor
and as the coffins were lowered into the twin
site,
graves, they struck one another, causing the corpse of Waller Tazewell to
break
free.
Patton later recounted that his uncle looked
death than he had in It
was
later said
little
different in
life.
of the second Patton to die on the field of battle
that,
preferring the profession of law to any other business and the sanctities of the
home and
family to
all
other pleasures, he had nevertheless, pecuhar
aptitude for a soldier's duty and a soldier's
without exciting dislike, and self-respect.
.
.
.
commanded
Colonel Patton appreciated the soldiers of our army as
volunteers fighting in a sacred cause, and
while he
Few
won
He enforced discipUne men without diminishing
life.
his
their love
.
.
.
"we
commanded
ne'er shall look
upon
Virginia families could claim to have contributed
their admiration
his like again."
more
to their
cause or
shed more of their blood than the Pattons and the Mercers. All were of honor and principle
of
life
and for
long as
and
it
was
their
who
did their duty as they
beloved Virginia. The
distinguished. In
their kin fought for the
all,
some
list
saw
it
in
defense of their
sixteen
*
men way
of their accomplishments was as
members of the Patton family
Confederacy, and three of them died in *
"^'^
*
its
service.
I
The Pattons
19
of Virginia
j
After the death of George Patton, his family suffered destitution from the
war
that had finally overwhelmed the Confederacy and devaswhose economy was in ruins, its currency worthless and its people desperate for the bare necessities of existence. The Pattons spent the winter of 1864-65 at Goochland, near Richmond, like so many others, "in great want of food and clothing." The widow Patton's hardship included responsibility for her blind father, the care of her four young children, and
effects of a
tated Virginia,
soon
after Lee's surrender, the additional
burden of caring for her brother,
the gallant Capt. William T. Glassell, a former Confederate naval officer
who had ment
arrived suffering from tuberculosis contracted during his imprison-
Union POW camp. If Uncle John Mercer Patton had not sent them young George Patton believed that they would have starved." Small
in a
a steer,
wonder that, as a Northerner observed not long Appomattox, across the land there was
after
"no sign of human industry, save here and there a corn
field.
abandoned
The country
lots
at
sickly, half-cultivated
most part consisted of fenceless
for the
weeds, stump
to
Lee surrendered
and undergrowth.".
fields
Some 20,000
.
.
to
30,000 Virginia soldiers were dead. Thousands of others hobbled along city streets
and country roads with an arm or leg missing
tions of Virginians
no
were maimed beyond description.
.
.
.
.
.
two genera-
.
The
future held
promise.'^'*
showed
Shortly afterward young William Patton
up, driving an old
Confederate ambulance pulled by two horses. With his help the Pattons
packed
their
ginia, that
members of
to a colonial
mansion near Orange, Vir-
to the brother of President
the Patton family also
moved
in,
Madison. Other
including the family matri-
French Williams Patton, Uncle Hugh Mercer Patton, and a
arch, Margaret
brother,
moved
belongings and
had once belonged
George
The family farmed
Glassell.
a small patch of land in the
nearby river bottom. The task of Colonel Patton's young son was to walk
behind the plough, dropping corn seed into the furrows and covering with his bare
Finally, in the
ton's elder brother
the Civil War.
up
It
autumn of 1866, a letter arrived from Susan Glassell PatAndrew, who had settled in Southern California before
contained six hundred dollars and a request that she bring
her family west. Although
enough
it
feet.
for eight people.
it
To
was a princely sum
raise the extra
money
coming journey, Susan Patton sold everything
for the time,
it
was not
required for their forth-
the family
owned "except
her
husband's sword, saddle, gold watch and his Bible. Willie sold what he had,
and old Mr. Glassell had already given cause. There tics
and
was nothing
their plantations
left for
—and
them
their
his worldly
goods
to the
[in Virginia] in the ruins
way of life."^^
Confederate of their poli-
-
'
CHAPTER
2
Don Benito Wilson Ma I
has determined
only
hope
I
to let
me
may be worthy
take
of
my
father's
—GEORGE
In
November 1866
the impoverished family of Col.
on the SS Arizona
to
name.
SMITH PATTON
George
S. Patton left its
difficult
journey to California. The Pattons
Panama and
then traveled overland across the
beloved Virginia for the long and sailed
full
it.
Isthmus to the Pacific coast, where another ship took them to San Francisco.
At San Francisco the Pattons boarded yet another vessel for the their
final leg
of
journey to Los Angeles.
was an ordeal, and Susan Patton nearly died of a fever en also marked by a confrontation between Mrs. Patton and several other Southern passengers and two former Union generals. The wife of one attempted to kiss ten-year-old George Patton, who disgustedly refused, saying "he would never kiss a Yankee."^ The Pattons arrived in San Fran-
The
route.' It
trip
was
December 19, 1866, to a warm reception from the family of Uncle En route to Los Angeles there were such rough seas that their vessel was eleven hours overdue and feared lost. At San Pedro the twenty-six-year-old widow was reunited with her brother Andrew, whom she had not seen in nearly fourteen years. They were made welcome in Glassell's large home in Los Angeles.' A lawyer with seven children, Glassell was considered well-to-do but had lost heavily in financial speculations during the war. Now, with so many extra mouths to feed, he was having trouble making ends meet.^
cisco on
Isaac Williams.
Although relieved
war
Virginia,
to be freed of the oppressive burden of life in postSusan Glassell Patton nevertheless found Southern California,
^
Don Benito Wilson with
bare
its
hills,
21
wide-open spaces, strange customs, and mostly Spanish
and Indian population
green
in stark contrast to the lush
her native Virginia. "I can never feel so
much
hills
and valleys of
home anywhere
at
as
I
did in
old Virginia," she nostalgically wrote her sister in 1867. "The great need of a proper society, and if a number of Virginians would come to would be a most desirable location. The State of the South gloomy beyond degree. May God soon make his face to shine on our
the country
is
give
it
is
it
tone
.
.
.
.
.
.
beloved land."^
She also
felt
her family's presence to be an intolerable imposition on
her brother, and before long was able to
own
support her family by opening her
schoolroom nearby. Her
first
move
to a small
adobe house and
private school for girls in a rented
class consisted of only eleven students,
who
each paid $3.00 per month, but eventually Susan Patton gained a reputation
who
no-nonsense teacher
as a superb,
behaved
could handle even the most
was evident
Nevertheless, her loneliness without her dashing husband in
ill-
pupil.
those
years in California. In 1867, on the third anniversary of his
first
death, she wrote to her sister:
This
is
the saddest time of
down woman when
I
all
the year. ...
remember
the fell
I
feel like a stricken,
blow
that
broken
came upon me just
three years ago, blotting out the light of life for me, and sending
mine
me
forth in the world
homeless wanderers.
in fighting life's battles
.
.
.
May
me
and
[God] strengthen
with an unfaltering heart.^
Despite Susan's growing school
(it
now had
nearly fifty pupils), the Pat-
tons continued to live on the thin edge of privation, and she begged her sister to
persuade John Mercer Patton to
sell
her late husband's law books for
whatever cash they would bring. However,
when
it
was not
homestead
in
Kanawha,
December 1868,
continued to
to stop teaching for a time,
the Glassell clan he had
young boy,
from
that eventually forced her,
and
in the
1870s her health
decline.*^
For young George Patton
Among a
March 1868,
were eased somewhat.
that the financial constraints
However, Susan suffered from a throat infection in
until
she received five hundred dollars from the sale of the former Patton
II,
the
move
newfound
to California
get into mischief, play ball, and hunt.
his ordeal in Virginia,
typhoid, which ravaged
and
this
may have
him with fever
was
a blessing.
friends and the opportunity to be
He was
painfully thin
contributed to his contacting
for a month.
However,
in
an envi-
which food and milk were plentiful, the young man throve and soon recovered.'^ His mother was a strict disciplinarian, and as the eldest child, George was expected to help support their fatherless family, which he
ronment
in
did by scrubbing and cleaning a public school on weekdays and a church on
An Ancestry
22 Sunday.
He
later told his
of
Heroes
son that the experience
sion to poverty and a fixed purpose in
life to
him with a deep
left
aver-
better himself so that his wife
and family would never experience the same hardships he had endured.'" "He swore that if he ever became affluent, he would always keep a Virginiabaked ham on the family sideboard as a symbol of overcoming those years.
And
Nevertheless, he deeply missed Virginia and lamented not
'he would ever return.
back
bitter
he did.""
hope
"I
that
some day
it
will please
God
knowing to bring
if
me
1868, with the encouragement and approval of his
to Virginia." In
mother, George William Patton, changed his middle
name from William
to
Smith, thus becoming the second George Smith Patton. To his cousin Mer-
"Ma
cer he wrote,
only hope
I
may
has determined to
be worthy of
George
In January 1869 Col.
let
me
take
my
father's full
name.
I
it."''
S.
Patton 's friend and
CSA,
VMI
classmate Col.
George Hugh Smith,
late
of the
war Odyssey
first
taken him to Mexico. Smith soon relocated to Los
had
that
Angeles, where he joined
Andrew
ence of George Smith brought the
settled in
San Francisco
The comforting
Glassell's law firm. first
after a post-
happiness Susan Patton had
pres-
known
since her husband's death.
George Hugh Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1834, the son of an Episcopalian minister. Although his family later settled in Virginia, Smith's place of birth always rankled him because, "My playmates took advantage of
to call
it
me
[a]
'Yankee.'""
A man
of brilliant intellect,
was his beloved Virginia and the Confederacy. Smith's warrior nature emerged whenever either was slighted. He matric-
foremost in his ulated at
VMI
in
life
1850
at
age sixteen and graduated in 1853, sixth in a
class of twenty-five. Like his Patton kin.
Smith taught for four years,
earned a law degree, and settled in western Virginia to practice law.
However, Smith was far too adventuresome to settle down at such a young age and soon left for what is now Washington State. After only a few weeks practicing law, he seized the opportunity to participate in a government expedition to survey for the construction of a road from the Oregon Territory to Fort Benton on the Missouri River. When the news of John Brown's raid finally filtered to the West, Smith immediately returned east and on Virgmia's secession was commissioned a tenant in the Provisional well,
Army
and Smith soon rose
command
of a
Like his
rifle
first
of Virginia. His
to the
VMI
first lieu-
training served
him
rank of captain and was elected to the
company.
cousin George Patton, Smith was captured early in 1861
and was promptly paroled to return to his home. In the spring of 1862 he was freed from his pledge and ordered back to active duty. Smith's outstanding leadership qualities while serving with Stonewall Jackson in the
Don Benito Wilson
23
Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862 soon propelled him to the rank of command of two regiments, first the 62d Virginia and later the 25th Virginia. He was badly wounded twice and by war's end had
colonel and the
earned a deserved reputation for bravery.'^ Lee's surrender
and
to the
end of
as required of
all
Appomattox was a
at
his life
former Confederate
Smith experienced visions
tons,
ballroom
filled
aware
that
had died
in
Smith and
silently
he knew each man, for
shook
his hand.
his
command and
all
in the Civil War.'^
in
grow
1868 Smith emigrated again,
was no coincidence,
Glassell Patton for for her.
Suddenly Smith became
had served under
all
San Francisco, Smith was drawn
there
could not be dis-
with officers attired in the gray uniforms of the Confederacy.
to
In 1866 Smith fled Virginia for Mexico,
and
that they
occasion Smith found himself in a large
ing and a second year attempting to ter,
Like other generations of Pat-
officers.
were so clear
that
On one
missed as mere fantasy.
Each came up
particularly bitter pill for Smith,
he refused to swear allegiance to the United States,
many
for
to
where he spent a year survey-
cotton.
this
The venture was
a disas-
time to California. After a year
Los Angeles. His decision
George Smith had been
in love
to settle
with Susan
years and had never married because of his love
Most
nights Smith could be found courting the
1870
his
widow
Patton in her
parlor.
In
hopes were realized with
their marriage.
Smith adopted
Susan Glassell Patton's children, who adored him, particularly young
George Patton.
A
family of his late
known.
two
kind and gentle man. Smith was very protective of the
first
cousin and became the father George had never really
In addition to raising Susan's four children, their union produced
children,
who
Eltinge,
Annie Ophelia, who was
later to
marry Hancock Banning, and
died of tetanus in childhood. To the Pattons Smith was a
" 'Knight in Shining
The marriage
Armor'
... to all
who
ever
knew
lasted only thirteen years. In 1883
Smith died of the cancer
that for
him."'^
Susan Glassell Patton
some time had been consuming her body.
His granddaughter writes that Smith brought up the Patton children as his
own. "He was a noble and generous man, and he raised George Smith Patton II (and later his son, George Smith Patton, Jr.) on stories of the heroism of George Patton, the
real father
and grandfather
whom
they never
knew."'^
George Smith Patton the
II
grammar school of
was an
Dr. T. H.
twelve and determined to do ing ...
I
hope next term
to
excellent student and a budding orator.
Rose he was
better. "I
do
better.
do not
third
on the honor
feel very
You know
Ma
is
proud of
roll at
my
At age
stand-
one who never
feels
satisfied unless her children stand highest."'^
After the Civil
War
the
Commonwealth of
Virginia reserved several
An Ancestry
24
appointments each year to the sons ot
mined to follow in 1871 and returned
attend
that his
VMI
During became,
left
California about
Meadows, the home of his uncle, John paid off, and he was admitted to VMI in 1874. tailor to
have
uniform
his
later,
Patton
his three years at
VMI,
his
1903, the third George S. Patton to
in
repeated the same scene with the same
tailor.'"
Patton was an exceptional student.
in succession, third corporal, cadet sergeant
commander of A Company,
year in 1876-77, the
fitted,
measurements were precisely the same as those of
Twenty-seven years
father.
graduates killed in action. Deter-
George Patton
to Virginia to the
he reported to the Institute
was informed
Heroes
VMI
his father's footsteps,
Mercer Patton. His tutoring
When
of
major and
He
in his final
a position which
left
him
the first-ranking cadet officer in his class. In a photograph of Patton in his
cadet uniform, taken in
1
876, he bears an uncanny resemblance to his father.
Once, while he was out riding stopped and asked him
if
in his
cadet uniform, a Confederate general
he was not Col. George S.
Patton.''^
Young
Patton's
good looks were a near-carbon copy of his esteemed father's. Years one of his VMI classmates wrote that he was the "handsomest man that
striking later
Gawd ever made."^' Patton was haunted by his poverty, and on one occasion, while escorting a
young lady
to
an outdoor band concert, he gallantly spread his hand-
kerchief on the ground for her to
sit
on.
It
was
full
of holes, and although
nothing was said, the next day cadet Patton received a
from the
new handkerchief
lady.'-
Patton's greatest triumph at
VMI came
he led the corps of cadets in parade
in 1876,
at the national
Philadelphia, an event notable for the fact that
it
when,
as first captain,
centennial celebrations in
was
the first time a military
formation from a Southern state had ever been permitted to appear in a
Northern city since the end of the Civil War."
After graduation in
1
877 Patton remained
at
VMI
for a year as an assistant
professor of French and tactics. Patton was a Virginian at heart, but he found
himself drawn back to Los Angeles and his family. His mother was
ill
with
would have preferred to practice law in New York in order to be near a cousin, Maggie French, with whom he had fallen in love, Patton knew his duty and his future were in California. He returned to Los Angeles in 1878 to study law under the tutelage of his uncle and stepfa-
cancer, and although he
and passed the California bar exam in 1880. Los Angeles was a rapidly growing region, and it was there that Patton one of the most eligible young bachelors in the city laid the groundwork for his future in both the law and politics. There is evidence, however,
ther,
—
—
he would have preferred a more adventuresome life: He signed up for a commission in the mercenary army of the Egyptian pasha, commanded by a that
British officer
named
Hicks.
When
his
mother's cancer worsened, Patton
Don Benito Wilson
was forced to decline, which ultimately saved force was later killed.
25 his life
Patton's considerable oratorical skills had
age of thirteen and
in the intervening years
which the Los Angeles Star took note of
commerce and
explosion of
with
it
scale.
railroads had not only
at the
to the point at
his "great talent for oratory."-^
The
frontier of California brought
the evils of monopoly, corruption, and
The
Hicks's
become evident
first
had been honed
on the new
trade
when most of
power
opened the West
politics
to the rest
on a grand
of the country
but elevated the owners of the Southern Pacific Railroad to unprecedented heights of
power
as the greatest landowners of the West.
George Smith Patton. In 1884 he brought
Into this minefield stepped oratorical skills to the
podium
campaign
to
for
Grover Cleveland, the
his
first
Democrat to win the presidency since secession. The experience brought Patton prominence in Los Angeles. The year 1884 was also memorable for the end of his bachelor days. On December 1 he married Miss Ruth Wilson, the daughter of Benjamin Wilson, one of southern California's found1
ing fathers.
The Los Angeles Herald proclaimed
that the
wedding "marks an
era in the social history of our county.""
Patton's
new
father-in-law,
Benjamin Davis Wilson, was a pioneer, beaver
trapper and trader, grizzly bear hunter, Indian fighter, justice of the peace, farmer, rancher, politician, horticulturalist, vintner, real estate entrepreneur,
and one of the great landholders Revolutionary
War
as a major,
Bom
in Nashville,
who had
fought in the
Southern California.
in
Tennessee, in 1811, the son of a Tennessee pioneer
Wilson was orphaned
at
age eight, and by the
time he was fifteen had become a fur trapper and trader sissippi.
He
at Yazoo City, MisChoctaw and Chickasaw Indians
traded mainly with local
before bad health led him to seek his fortune in the West. In 1833 he joined the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company in Missouri and crossed the plains to New Mexico Territory. From the autumn of 1833 to the
Santa Fe, in the
spring of 1835, Wilson participated in an expedition that trapped beaver in
Apache country near the Gila River. Wilson was much too independent and
in the spring
trapping enterprise.
He
spent
much
got along especially well with the ever, intrigue
Apache
by
to
remain
rival
Mexican
of his
life in
Apache and
the
retribution against the Americans.
when
the
who pursued him
until
others,
own
fur-
company of Indians and Juan Jose.
How-
murder of Juan Jose and
Wilson and two others were cap-
new
chief connived to let Wilson
escape. Nearly naked and without food, Wilson warriors,
employ of
their chief,
trappers led to the
tured and were to be put to death
Apache
in the
of 1835 he returned to Santa Fe to form his
managed
to elude
angry
he reached the sanctuary of Santa
Fe, nearly one hundred miles away.-^ In this lawless place there
were seemingly endless problems with Mexi-
An Ancestry
26
of
Heroes
can intriguers and Indian wars. After his wilderness ordeal, Wilson operated his
own
trading company, and in
1
when Santa Fe was ravaged by
837,
riots
and the governor and other Americans were butchered, he was again saved from death by an Indian chief. Wilson remained in Santa Fe as a successful 1841,
trader until
unwise
when
to remain. In
a resurgence of hatred against gringos
September 1841 Wilson helped
train of restless settlers like
becoming one of
thus
made it wagon
to organize a
himself and headed for Southern California,
American
the first pioneers ever to have crossed the
continent."
Wilson was one of the unique breed of hardy trappers and traders
known
as
Mountain Men, who were among the
mountains and cross the desert
—previously
first to
barriers
break through the exploration of
to
the Far West. California historian Robert Glass Cleland has observed that the
Mountain
Men
were "the pioneers of
all
Far Western frontiersmen, the
blazers for subsequent explorers, the pathfinders of the course of
trail
empire to the western
sea."-**
They counted among
their
number
Kit Carson,
Jedediah Smith, and Benjamin D. Wilson.
Southern California was to have been merely a stopover en route to his intended destination of China, but after failing several times to locate a
China-bound
ship,
Wilson elected
to
remain
1843, within two years of his arrival,
Rancho Jurupa, a three-thousand-acre
lars the
in
Southern
California.-'* In
he purchased for one thousand doltract
of land on the
site
present-day city of Riverside, and the following year married
of the
Ramona
Yorba, the winsome sixteen-year-old daughter of one of the great Mexican
Don Bernardo Yorba owned the Rancho Santa Ana, most now Orange County, and a number of other haciendas, one
landowners.
which
which
is
later
became
the
town of Yorba Linda,
ident of the United States, Richard cally short after only five years
daughter of
As
this
marriage
later
of of
the birthplace of a future pres-
M. Nixon. Their marriage was cut tragiwhen Ramona died in 1849. The only
married her father's secretary,
J.
De
Barth
wedding present Wilson deeded to the newlyweds several thousand acres of land, part of which is now the city of San Marino.^° Shorb.
a
Wilson was a tenacious warrior who feared neither man nor
beast. In
1844
he was seriously mauled while tracking a ferocious grizzly bear that had slain
one of
his
cows. After recovering from his wounds, he resumed the
hunt and cornered the bear, managing only to
wound
finally killed the following day, after the unrelenting
it.
The
grizzly
was
Wilson once again
barely escaped death during another savage encounter between himself and
one of the most dangerous animals on earth."
On named
another occasion he killed a notorious Indian bandit and murderer Joaquin. During the fight Wilson
was struck by a poisoned arrow and venom from his
only survived because his Indian servant sucked the
Don Benito Wilson
27
wound." Once he headed an expedition to track down and punish two renewho had slaughtered some settlers. In his typically direct manner, Wilson captured and held the Indian chief hostage and in return for his release demanded the heads of the two renegades. True to his word, Wilson brought the bloody heads in wicker baskets as affirmation to gade mission Indians
the provincial governor that he had satisfactorily carried out his assign-
ment." In 1845 an expedition headed by Wilson discovered a large colony of bears in the San Bernadino Mountains, and he after
named
the place Big
he and his companions had lassoed and killed twenty-two
A man
of frightful temper
who
did not suffer fools at
Bear
grizzlies.^^
Wilson
all,
disci-
plined himself in his later years never to carry a gun in case he might do
something rash. To
went
Don
from a member of the Spreckels
family (later famed as a sugar dynasty in California), the receipt for the
money. Wilson returned home
fronted the foolish
young man, calmly inquiring Told no,
Don Benito
man
insisted
if
on a
and con-
to fetch his pistol
death
at firsthand.
when he
Benito a man's word was his bond. Once,
to collect a five-thousand-dollar loan
he had ever observed
rejoined menacingly, "Well, just
wait about one minute!" Fortunately this practical lesson in integrity prevailed over death
when
the debt
was
hastily repaid in cash
—without need of
a receipt.^In 1853
Hereford, a
Wilson married a second time
widow who had been
his
—Alabama-born Margaret Short
housekeeper before her husband's
The marriage produced two daughters, Ruth and Annie. Ruth Herewas the mother of George S. Patton Jr. Annie, a lifelong spinbecame Patton's beloved aunt Nannie.
death.
ford Wilson ster,
The pre-gold-rush 1840s was
a period of
immense turbulence
nia Territory during the fight for statehood.
be known, found himself caught
American mont,
P.
status as
to
Stockton and John C. Fre-
one of the major landholders
California inevitably embroiled Wilson in the
Threatened with arrest
if
he failed to support the
a captain by
Battle of Chino.'^ In the aftermath of the revolution, it
was
Stockton, and barely
man
good feeling between During the years
Americans and natives.""
the
in
1846
which led
said of Wilson's role that he
haps more than any other
a temporary
was given
Commodore Robert
escaped a Mexican firing squad before being briefly jailed
for California in 1850,
Southern
in
Mexican War of 1846-48. native Californians, Wilson
nevertheless endorsed the rebel American cause, as
came
attempting to wrest California from the control of Mexico
and the Californians. His
commission
in the Califor-
Benito, as Wilson
middle of the struggle between the
by Commodore Robert
settlers, led
who were
in the
Don
had "aided, per-
in southern California, in restoring
after California acquired statehood,
after the
to statehood
peace and
Wilson increased
both his landholdings and his influence. In 1850 he was elected chief clerk
An Ancestry
28
Heroes
of
first elected mayor of the city of was appointed an Indian agent by President Millard
of Los Angeles County, and a year later the
Los Angeles.
In 1852 he
Fillmore, a position that included the duties
of the peace. Beginning
in
now accomplished by a justice in the new Cali-
1855 Wilson served two terms
Wilson helped
fornia Senate. During his later years,
to
found the
city of
Pasadena, became a city councilman, and later gained fame as one of the
best-known
His landholdings, totaling more
horticulturists in California.
than fourteen thousand acres, were situated including four thousand acres on what
of California ranch. But
it
is
all
now
over Los Angeles County,
the
campus of
the University
Los Angeles (UCLA), which became a sheep and
at
was
the southwestern corner of
became Wilson's
what
is
cattle
and vineyards, called Lake Vineyard,
his farm, orchards,
now
in
Pasadena, the "City of Roses," that
pride and joy.
Wilson had turned land once described as "where a respectable jackrabbit
wouldn't be seen" into a veritable Garden of Eden. In 1874 the Wilson
Lake Vineyard consisted of
estate at
102,000 vines, 1,600 orange
trees,
thirteen
hundred acres containing
1,200 lemon trees, 250 lime trees, and
several hundred olive and walnut trees.
The adjoining Shorb some 2,500
of five hundred acres and 129,000 vines and
combined wine harvest brandy. In
1
for 1873
was 75,000
estate consisted
was The San Gabriel Wine and was the largest
874 the orangeries produced nearly 600,000 oranges, and
estimated that nearly this
lemon crop amounted
Company was
number remained unharvested on
to nearly 75,000.^''
capable of turning out
in the world, eclipsing
Visitors to the
1
.5
By 1883
his
million gallons
it
the trees.
even the great wineries of France.^"
Wilson homestead were treated
B. D. Wilson's
The
fruit trees.
and 5,000 gallons of
gallons,
Lake Vineyard was,
like royalty:
in the early days, a
combination of
the Hacienda days in California and the traditions of the South with the
wide
was
acres, the lavish hospitality
the center of social life for
most prominent
One
and the devotion
Americans
visitors to the area
in the
to the old standards.
Los Angeles
area,
It
and
were entertained by the Wilsons.^'
of Wilson's business associates was another pioneer, Phineas Ban-
ning (1831-1885),
Delaware,
in 1850.
who had emigrated to California from Wilmington, Banning was a colorful character, a onetime state sena-
a general in the California National Guard, and a great showman who had developed the harbor of nearby Wilmington (which he named for his tor,
hometown) and
thus put Los Angeles on the
merce and trade and an
map
as a port of call for
alternative to the great port of
com-
San Francisco. Dub-
bing himself "Admiral of the Port," Phineas Banning
would meet
all
the boats that arrived at Wilmington, and
when
there
were
passengers of distinction, he would send a vaquero on a horse to notify
Don Benito Wilson
Don
Benito Wilson of their
arrival.
29
A coach would be
standing
at the
door
of the Banning house in Wilmington, with a vaquero hanging onto the bridle of each blindfolded bronco in harness. in the
would leap ken country
Don
When
the passengers
coach, the blindfolds would be whipped off by the vaqueros, aside, to
and the horses would be off
at
were
who
a run across the unbro-
Lake Vineyard, often with Phineas Banning
as whip."-
March 1878 and never lived to celebrate the birth of Lake Vineyard. Perhaps it was prophetic that the child was born on the evening of November 11, 1885, a day that in the coming century would be remembered each year as a memorial to the First World War. The newborn child was a son, and in honor of his father and grandfather he was christened George Smith Patton Jr. His elated father instantly nicknamed him "the Boy.'"' Benito died
in
his daughter Ruth's first child, at his beloved
I
PART
II
Childhood (1885-1903) He
is
a well bred and a well brought up fellow
.
[who] has developed a great taste and aptitude
study of military history and sciences. ...
counts
for anything,
he certainly comes
If
.
.
for the
blood
of fighting
stock.
—JUDGE HENRY T. LEE (FORMER UNION
OFFICER)
.
CHAPTER it
3
The Boy"
Patlon's Childhood in Los Angeies
I
must be the happiest boy
in
the world.
—GEORGE
The newborn devout
Irish
Ration's
first
months of Hfe were
Cathohc named Mary
SMITH PATTON
and
difficult,
JR.
his nurse, a
was so deeply concerned
Scally,
that the
unhealthy child might even die of the croup that she secredy had him baptized to prevent his immortal soul
from entering heaven unchristened.' For-
tunately he recovered, and the threat soon passed. His younger in
1887 and christened Anne, was always known
Nita.
Her brother was
his family ever
George rably
dared
affectionately
call
S. Patton's
him
remembrances were of his
I
had a rubber
putting
me on
bom
dubbed Georgie, a name no one except
as an adult.
youth and that of his younger
happy ones. He called
sister,
and friends as
to family
his parents
Mama
sister
were
and Papa, and
memohis first
father and of horses:
doll called Billy
and
the saddle. Later at
...
I
recall his riding
Lake Vineyard Papa
.
up .
.
to the
and
I
house and
went up
to
some Shetland ponies one of which I chose and called Peach Blossom. ... I remember very vividly playing with Nita and seeing Papa come up on a chestnut mare belonging to Aunt Nannie. I wanted to go with him but he told me to play. As he rode on up the the corral ... to look at
.
canyon Mary
Scally, our nurse, said
"you ought
of such a handsome western millionaire." lionaire
was she
said a farmer.
to
When
I
be proud
to
.
be the son
asked her what a mil-
Childhood
34
Young Georgie's memories were
largely of life at
though the family had moved to Los Angeles better tend to his business affairs. After
Don
in
Lake Vineyard, even
1886 so
that his father
could
Benito's death his vast business
empire was taken over by his son-in-law, De Barth Shorb. Unfortunately, under
the
misdirection
Shorb's
Wilson
narrowly
enterprises
averted
bankruptcy. Shortly after his marriage in 1884, Patton was elected district attorney of Los Angeles, but his periodic
ill
health forced his resignation
after barely a year in office. Patton later served
and
attorney,
two more terms
as district
1894 he ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate
in
from California's Sixth Congressional
District.
up not only a promising
In 1885 Mr. Patton gave
legal career but his
was
post as district attorney to run the affairs of the Wilson estate, which failing badly
due
to a
combination of Shorb's mismanagement and the
deadly effects of disease and drought on the vineyards and
fruit trees.
De
Barth Shorb had become a multimillionaire from his Wilson inheritance and
enjoyed a
lifestyle that
would have been the envy of a potentate. But his talseems far to have exceeded his business acumen,
ent for profligate spending
and
left his
it
family destitute after his death. Patton's father took over the
ailing business,
and although he fought
and Merchants Bank
Wilson fortune, which
to sustain the
Shorb had foolishly mortgaged, by 1899 the finally foreclosed
battle
was
lost
and the Farmers
on the mortgage of the San Gabriel
when the bank sold Henry Huntington, who used the land to build what became his famous library and gallery. He and Huntington were friends, and Patton now managed the Huntington Land and Improvement Company.- Although Winery. Patton was retained as the manager until 1903, the property to
the years at the winery
recalled
were
them with fondness
difficult
ones for George
as a time
when he and
S.
Patton
ride in their father's single-seat
his son
ride
when
they
wagon, which was drawn by a
fine
carefree on horseback across the vast estate, and other occasions
would
II,
would
his sister
horse.
Patton's reminiscences of his childhood were written
nearly forty-two, but the happy
When
I
went
times and to tell
me
house.
I
from
to tell
Mama that
told
Papa and
Mama
goodnight
I
when he was time.
used to kiss Papa
many
only once; this was childish and thoughtless. Papa used
he was worried
to death trying to
keep out of the poor
was worried too and when he asked why I said it was he would sell Broken, a Standard Bred stallion he had.
him
fear that
memories were undimmed by
I
Despite his ups and downs in both politics and business, Mr. Patton kept his
vow
to
escape poverty, and during his lifetime accumulated sufficient
wealth that his family would never want for anything.
The Pattons
lived for the
most part
at
Lake Vineyard,
in the original
"The Boy"
home
Spanish-style
35
by Don Benito
built
in the
1850s.
Its
walls were of
The front was dominated by a large porch and steep stairs leading to the driveway. Numerous skunks lived under the house and used a hole next to the water pipes in an inside bathroom so regularly that the Pattons conveniently provided holes in the bathroom door to give the kittens easy access to the rest adobe brick, and
of the house. tons', she
observe
On
it
had one of the
the
first visit
was cautioned not
first slate
of Georgie's future wife, Beatrice, to the Patto pet
any black-and-white
she might
kitties
in the halls.-
1902 Patton wrote a school essay
In
roofs in California.
in
which he described the splendor
Lake Vineyard and the two wings that were later added from wood cut from a forest that had once covered the hillside behind. In front was a wide green lawn, and to its sides were an apple of the original house
orchard and a garden
Almost half the kitchen
at
filled
with roses and vegetables:
the first floor of the
main building
is
kitchen, and almost half
fireplace. After looking at the fireplace
is
you would not won-
der that the forests of the country are being exhausted. is
one of the wings,
is
large
hiding a fine floor of oak. There are
brilliant in color,
on the walls. ...
house and
parlor, is
which
thick and
many huge
pictures
In the attic are canes, swords, trunks, saddles, guns,
beds, chairs, clothes, papers, books and
If the
The
and now seldom used. The carpet
its
rats."*
kitchen were exceptionally large,
it
was
for
good
At one time or another Lake Vineyard was home to a vast number of Pattons and their kin. In addition to the family of George S. Patton II, Lake
reason.
Vineyard domiciled
Don
Benito's widow, Margaret, until her death in 1898;
Patton's spinster aunt Nannie; Miss Susan Patton, his father's unmarried sister;
Mary
children.
and nanny extraordinaire; and, for a numwidowed sister, Nellie Patton Brown, and her six great many guests, and whenever there was a new
Scally, the Patton nurse
ber of years, his father's
They
also had a
minister he would stay at Lake Vineyard until he got settled.
When Ruth
Wilson married George Patton
II,
her
sister,
devastated. She had fallen deeply in love with the dashing
even before he had attended VMI, yet she had
When
lost the
Annie, was
young Patton
love of her
life to
her
Boy" was born in 1885, he became the focus of her life. As a child George was adored by his loving parents and thoroughly spoiled by his aunt Nannie (the name by which she was known in the family), with sister.
whom
"the
he established a lifelong bond that he seemed loath ever to admit
publicly.
Young George and Nita enjoyed a comfortable youth that seemed The picture that emerges is of a close-knit family, except
free of pressures.
for the bizarre presence of Nannie,
who
completely dominated the Patton
household. Her nephew could do no wrong, and in her quiet but controlling
Childhood
36
way she forbade any sort of criticism of Georgie. Nita she all but ignored. Of the two sisters, Nannie was prettier and thought to be more intelligent, and she became a surrogate mother
beloved Georgie and a surrogate
to her
whose obsessive love and idealization of the man whose hand she had lost verged on the maniacal. The fact that her sister was the real wife and mother was of absolutely no consequence. Nannie tenaciously shared everything in their marriage except George Patton's bed. The day they were about to board a train for their honeymoon in New Orleans, Nannie arrived unexwife,
pectedly
the train
at
accompanying
the
baggage
station,
newlyweds.
It is
hand, with every intention of
in
not recorded
how
out of becoming their chaperone, but she eventually
become one of
the infrequent times
the Pattons talked her
them
left
when they were
to
what would
free of her presence.
That night the diary Nannie had kept virtually her entire
life
was
left
blank
and never resumed.^
As Ruth
Ellen Totten writes:
[Georgie] was the be-all and end-all of her had. girls
Aunt Nannie's .
.
.
fell in
Wilson. ... To all
love with
make
it
lived together in old
their all
story
own home
her
life
.
.
the child she never
life,
a sad one ... in the 1870s, both the Wilson
is .
young George Patton
.
.
.
[who] chose Ruth
sadder, as a matter of course for those days, they
Lake Vineyard.
in 1900,
she lived in the
and she lived vicariously
.
.
.
When
the Pattons finally built
moved right in with them. So, house with the only man she had ever loved,
Aunt Nannie in his
.
.
.
son Georgie. ...
I
have often wondered
how Georgie Patton grew up to be the man he was with two strongminded women (his mother and his aunt) baby-sitting him until he married Ma. Fortunately, Ma, a member of a large family, loved them all and took their constant presence for granted."
The strong-willed Nannie Wilson
sorely tried the patience of Georgie's
him to be punished, but on the rare when she did not get her way and perceived that her sister or brother-in-law was thwarting her resolve to pamper her beloved "son," by intimidation. Then Nannie would suddenly become "ill" or "faint," take to her bed, and demand a doctor. When Georgie turned sixteen she gave him a gold ring shaped like a coiled snake, with eyes made from ruby chips, and, parents, not only
by her refusal
to permit
occasions
according to his nephew, he wore the ring on the third finger of his
left
hand
for the remainder of his Hfe.^
Nannie's rule of the Patton household verged on the tyrannical, and although she gave the false impression of being fragile and shy, her wiles served her well. Whatever their private feelings about Nannie
may have
been, the Pattons tolerated her as one of their own, even though she sufficient financial
means
to afford her
own
full-time driver
was of
and carriage.
It
"The Boy"
was she who made their effects
were
to
the real decisions regarding the raising of Georgie, and
prove profound and far reaching.**
Aunt Nannie stubbornly refused ever she
to travel alone. Consequently,
Southern California, her
left
37
another family
sister or
obliged to accompany her. During the years Georgie was
Nannie spent considerable time
in
the gates, in order to be near him.
was necessary
for his
mother
Highland
at
when-
member was West
Point,
Falls, the small village outside
Even Patton eventually wondered why
it
undertake the long and arduous transconti-
to
nental train journey merely to escort Nannie to or from California.'^ In this, as in so
many
other situations, Nannie nearly always got her way.
Georgie's mischievous childhood pranks were rarely punished, merely
smiled
at
there
was
a farm
hell to
wagon
which Patton
experiment
first
in
armored warfare,
pay from his mother. He and several cousins ran amok with
they had converted into a make-believe armored vehicle,
later said
was
one employed by John the Blind, the king
like
of Bohemia.* In any event, the wagon, with battle
when he
indulgently and forgotten. However, on one occasion,
practiced what must have been his
its
youthful warriors ready to do
from behind the security of the tops of old wine
down
barrels,
careened out
toll upon "enemy" which turned out to be the Pattons' flock of turkeys, many of which were killed or maimed in what was Patton's first recorded combat
of control
the hill behind the house, and
wreaked a dreadful
—
the
action.
Ruth Wilson Patton was not amused; and would have
to
be punished
this
time Georgie had gone too far
— Aunt Nannie
be damned. Papa waffled,
saying boys will be boys, and Nannie predictably insisted that her beloved
Georgie be spared the rod. Undeterred, Ruth Patton spanked her son, but before doing so she
"summoned
the doctor and turned
down Nannie's bed
anticipation of the physical collapse her sister invariably suffered
Georgie was punished.""'
It
was one of
the
in
whenever
few occasions when Ruth Patton
got the better of her feisty sister in matters of Georgie's upbringing.
Both during
his childhood
and
later,
when he was an
adult,
mealtimes
in the
Patton household were not merely repasts but memorable events, particularly dinner.
and years
Georgie and Nita loathed mush, which was a breakfast
later Patton wrote: "I
*John, king of
Bohemia (1296-1346),
heroic warrior-kings of chivalry. John's
of glory on the field of
battle.
He
staple,
can hear [my father] say every morning:
fought
life
is
regarded as one of history's archetypal
was spent
many
in a crusading,
battles and, in a
obsessive pursuit
campaign
in
Lithuania in
1337, was blinded. Nevertheless, even blindness did not deter him from fighting (on the side of the French) during the Battle of
dally charging British archers,
ton would pick for a model a youth.
who
Crecy
in 1346.
John died a heroic death
suici-
him down in a hail of arrows. It is fitting that Patwarrior whose life and death personified the heroes of his cut
Childhood
38 'Georgie, eat your mush.'
He used
salt
same which was probably the reason
As Patton
We
instead of sugar on his and
did not like
I
later recalled:
always had white wine for midday dinner on Sunday and Nita and
were always given a
little.
When As
ting in the office with Papa.
I
was between
whenever you want one."
a drink
then.
I
I
is
was
to
Also he used
it.
in decanters.
never took one without him and
think he did this because the
make me
I
sit-
He sel-
two Wilson boys who had been
came of
age. Papa's
common place and so set upon me that an ambitious man
think drinking
to impress
was
not locked and you can get
very strictly raised both became drunkards after they idea
I
usual before dinner he poured himself a
then poured m.e a drink and said, "Son, this
dom
eight and ten,
whiskey from a cupboard where he kept liquor
glass of
by
did the
I
it."
less store
could not
afford to drink.
Both Nannie and Patton's father would probably inition of
ally resulted in the spilling
spinster embittered
the
modem-day
def-
of the embarrassing and often harsh words of a
by the denial of her
exception of the 1920s and 1930s, sis
fit
an alcoholic. Papa's consumption was quiet excess; Nannie's usu-
when he
life's
dream. However, with the
suffered from severe midlife cri-
and black depression, spawned by the belief that he would die with his
destiny unfulfilled, and drank with almost suicidal excess, Patton's con-
sumption of alcohol was generally judicious and heedful of Papa's advice." Like Patton's surrogate mother. Papa was a tolerant parent, who, perhaps
remembering
his
own wretched
childhood, was remarkably easygoing on
both of his children. In return, they adored their father. Georgie remembered: "In 1892
Mama had
to take
Aunt Nannie
east for an operation.
While
they were gone Papa read Nita and myself the Iliad and then the Odyssey aloud."
The exposure
to
Homer
"led
gles against the implacable destiny
out their fates in heroic or
mean
young Patton
to perceive
human
strug-
imposed by the gods, men who worked
fashion and received their just and deserved
rewards."'"
Papa Patton's granddaughter wrote many years
later that the
man
they
loved as "Bamps" had longed for a military career after graduating from
VMI,
a place obsessed with chivalrous
memories of the
Civil
War and
haunted by the dead graduates, cadets, professors, officers young and old.
his
Bamps was wounds
living ones, and his
Smith
.
.
.
remembered his own father who died of Dead heroes are so much more memorable than stepfather, that Prince of men. Colonel George Hugh
a romantic, and
as a hero.
never ceased his tales of the promise and the prowess of the
"The Boy"
39
dead George Patton. But Bamps could not follow
He had
his family to help,
and his younger brother and
sisters,
[and] did the right thing as he
saw
and the sword were handed on vicariously through the
his star into the service.
and a sense of responsibility toward
his
mother
so he went back to California
the right. So, all his
and he lived
to Georgie,
young man he
.
.
.
dreams of glory his
either referred to as the
dream
life
boy or
my
hero son.
Aunt Nannie decided that young Georgie was "delicate," and she, too, to read aloud to him from classics that included Pilgrim's Progress,
began
March of Xenophon, Alexander the Great, and "anyit was Nannie who deeply
Plutarch's Lives, The
thing and everything about Napoleon." In fact
influenced his early education, and in Georgie she had a willing participant
who
and absorbed deeply.
listened raptly
"He had
Siegfried and
Beowulf
for his heroes;
Stonewall Jackson. The stories of the Civil
who had
fought
it
.
.
Georgie lived and played
.
above
dead and alive." But one
text
young Patton's education:
the Bible.
most he
classic text of all like a cudgel,
sat
War he
all
and Robert E. Lee and
heard right from the
in the
company of
men
heroes,
others towered above the rest in
And
it was Nannie who wielded this hammering its themes into his head as
next to her for three or four hours, day in and day out. Patton's grand-
son would
later
observe that Nannie taught Georgie that the Bible was the
most noble
tale
of man's survival in the face of the oppression of both gods
and
evil
men, and
quintessential
New
emerged from the
that Jesus
Testament as the
example of human courage: "Nannie's religious reading made
her nephew's head swirl with alluring myths and legends that coalesced like a planet
from a gaseous cloud
into a
Nannie was never certain
if
worldview
all
his
beloved nephew, and even came to the sad conclusion
be dim-witted.'^ Until he started school to write,
and
own."
her efforts were having any effect upon her
at the
his constant twirling of his long
that
he might actually
age of eleven, he was unable
golden ringlets of hair as he
was unnerving. Aunt Nannie probably never knew just how well her Georgie had absorbed her teachings. As an adult, and throughout his army career, the Bible would become his most fundamental sat quietly next to her
guide, and
God
thing he did.
a source of solace, as well as the basis of practically every-
The invocation of "God" dominated
And
his speeches and, either
many
times of trouble he
directly or
by implication, his writings.
would
God, not as a religious fanatic would, but in the almost serene a higher power would help him to endure. Church, prayer, God,
in his
turn to
belief that
the Bible: All
became foundations on which
quote the Bible
at
his life
was buih. His
ability to
length for almost any occasion was the fruit of Aunt Nan-
nie's labors of love.
As
a child
who
got on his knees (another lifelong habit)
to recite his nightly prayers for his mother, Patton thought
two small por-
— Childhood
40
on the nearby wall were of Jesus and God. Only later did he learn that two bearded men were Stonewall Jackson and the man who was revered the "God" of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee.'^ Patton's nephew would
traits
the as
"The Bible was
later write,
As
companion and
came
the church his refuge."'"
know
to
a frequent guest of the Pat-
infamous Col. John Singleton Mosby, the Confederate guerrilla
tons, the leader.
his
for living heroes, Georgie
A
prewar lawyer who had learned the law
in prison after
being
expelled from the University of Virginia and imprisoned for killing another
Mosby had migrated to Mosby delighted the
student,
Railroad.'^ tales
of the Civil War,
all
California to
work
for the Southern Pacific
impressionable young Georgie Patton with
of which the boy absorbed like a sponge.
Thus, by the time he entered his teens, Patton had not only learned firsthand of the heroics of the
men
of the Confederacy but had been indoc-
Homer,
trinated in the classics: Shakespeare,
books about heroes, kings, conquerors, adventurers and, above ius,
all,
Sir Walter Scott,
gods,
villains,
in
Patton a sense that he was in this
diers of the past, that he
famous
Joachim Murat. All
had served
in
a reincarnation of sol-
life
bygone armies and fought
in the
battles of history.
Where Nannie and, in
and
to the great soldiers of history: Caesar, Belisar-
Scipio, Hannibal, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, and
engendered
and Kipling;
explorers,
all
Papa would take over with vivid and lavish
left off.
probability, exaggerated
—
tales, in
which exemplars of the Civil
VMI, who died a Hugh Mercer, the Revolutionary War icon, also received his due. And finally, there was a living exemplar, his beloved step-grandfather. Col. George Hugh Smith, Vv'hose quiet counsel and tales of the Civil War and its battles
War
like
Stonewall Jackson and the Patton colonels of
warrior-hero's death,
instilled a
became symbols
to cherish
profound sense of destiny
during Patton's youth his decision to
may
become
in the
and
to emulate.
young man. Smith's presence
well have been the most important influence on
a soldier and to serve the Patton name.
Patton would accumulate an
immense
library of books,
As an
adult,
and his professional
reading became one of the cornerstones of his later success in the U.S.
Army, and on foreign battlefields. With Georgie cuddling most nights
in the
warm
sanctuary of Papa's
arms, soaking up the Patton family legends that were dispensed with almost evangelistic fervor,
it is
hardly surprising that by the age of perhaps seven
he was hopelessly seduced into the conviction that his perpetuating the Patton family
name and
ments. Old Virginia and the glory of
its
its
life
and destiny lay
cause; great battles such as Bull
and Gettysburg; the beauty and majesty of cavalrymen clothed ate gray,
who charged courageously
ing; the belief that
in
even more valorous achieve-
into a hail of
enemy
dying for such a cause was honorable
fire,
—
all
in
Run
Confeder-
sabers flashthese images
and more were indelibly carved into the psyche of the young man nightly
in
"The Boy"
room of
the living
the Patton
41
home. Patton was
too impressionable an age
at
not to be deeply affected by the kaleidoscope that swirled through his
mind's eye, of highly romanticized warriors of old, of Pattons battle, It
of
Hugh Mercer
was not
heroically dying for a
until Saint-Mihiel, the
new
Meuse-Argonne, and North Africa
Patton began to understand that real war
is hell.
But as a youth,
could he have thought war and warriors anything but romantic
were recounted before a roaring
fire
in glorious
country. that
how could when they
where there was no death or carnage,
only dreams? Part and parcel of Patton's immersion in ancestor worship was the notion
—which grew
able death
meant a
through fulfillment
into an absolute article of faith
—
that a dishonor-
wasted. Death was something that had to be earned
life
in life.
Anything
less
was not
to
have lived
at all.
honorable death was disgraceful. The brave and noble characters pled Patton's mind
—both
which he would seek It
real
and mythological
—were
A
dis-
who
peo-
models on
the
to pattern his life.
never occurred to him, either as a youth or as an adult, that the Pat-
monopoly on courage
tons did not hold a
George Patton completely rejected
or chivalry. Throughout his
life
Wilson heritage, even though he not
his
only more closely resembled the Wilson side of the family but, as his daughter
has pointed out,
owed
much
his traits as a warrior as
(or
more)
to his
grandfather Wilson as he did to his Patton forefathers." Biographer Martin
Blumenson has
He
written:
denied his debt to Benjamin Davis Wilson
transmitted to
him
his physical hardihood,
.
.
.
who seemed
to
have
mental perseverance, personal
charisma, and driving willpower. Patton never wished to hear of his
resemblance
to
Wilson, for Wilson was a self-made
man and
quite unlike
the Patton aristocrats.''^
He seemed
to
go out of
his
way to heap scorn on anyone connected with memoir he idolized his Patton ancestors to
Wilsons. In his 1927 family total
as
"my is
the
exclusion of those on his mother's side. Wilson rated but a single line
mother's father."
formed "by men of it
the
my
my
When
he wrote that their valorous deeds were per-
blood and ...
sincere desire that any of
[it is]
my
who inspired me who read these lines
they
blood
.
.
.
[and]
will be
similarly inspired and ever be true to the heroic traditions of their race," he
meant the Pattons, not esty,
the Wilsons.
and steely resolution were
acknowledged
Don
traits
Benito's strength of character, hon-
passed to the grandson
who
never
his debt.
out, young Georgie (indeed, the entire Patwas so imbued with the deeds of his forefathers that to accept his Wilson heritage would have been synonymous with treason and a rejection
And, as Robert Patton points
ton clan)
of their "desperate faith in their former glories [which] fostered a sense of
42
Childhood
themselves as natural-born noblemen. The more uncertain their circum-
more the Pattons waved their tattered flag of precious bloodAunt Nannie apparently made no effort to champion her own father, result was that young George S. Patton was blinded to any heritage of his Virginia forefathers and their now-idolized, almost mytholog-
stances, the lines."-'^
and the but that
name and
birthright.
Papa was as
relentlessly effective in fueling the flames of the Pattons as
Aunt Nannie
in defense of their
achievements
ical
was with
the Bible. Georgie
out the remainder of his
life
seems
have absorbed every
to
detail.
Through-
he would repeatedly demonstrate that the thou-
sands of hours of learning and brainwashing had not been in vain. In the process he conveniently
managed
to overlook,
and indeed even scorn, Don
Benito's great wealth, which kept the Pattons solvent and ensured that he
would never want living
for anything.
was something
When Don
The
spoon of Wilson wealth and good
silver
that blessed Patton his entire
Benito died, in March 1878,
life.-'
age of sixty-six, his
at the
cortege consisted of seventy-five carriages and the attendees were described
by the Los Angeles Star as "the
largest
assemblage of people ever congre-
gated on a like occasion in Southern California."--
stemmed
Patton's near paranoia about the Wilsons racial prejudice that
had somehow
can be traced to his childhood.
sullied the Patton
ing to Catholicism.
The notion
name by marrying
in toto.
He a
from a streak of
felt that
However, Patton's chief
it
and the focus of
was
write: "he
either a fool or a crook
Mama
agement
father took over
and
save the
management of
the
Wilson
who had proclaimed widow and orphan."
was predictable
—and .
.
.
which
that
soldiers.
other by playing buttons.
in a little
and
while more of his man-
and Aunt Nannie would have been beggars."
friend of his father,
vate,
his anti-
his wealth
family impoverished after his death. Patton would later scornfully
left his
swords
Benito
was unacceptable and hence
villain
Wilson antipathy was De Barth Shorb, who had squandered
It
Don
Mexican and convert-
Catholic-Mexican Wilsori blood ran
that
through his veins was not only appalling,
disowned
in part
young Patton's
estate, Patton
that
"God
interests
sent that
soldier.
"Nita and
thought was superior.
morning he would
his
young man
to
would be horses, guns, and
At an early age George and Nita would amuse each I
had two blue coats with brass
Nita used to say she was a major while I
When
proudly quoted a
salute us
I
claimed to be a
When Papa would
drive
away
pri-
in the
and ask how the private and major were."
From time to time "Nita and I would wear each other's clothes to dinner. One night when I was wearing her clothes Papa began talking about Lee and I got all excited and when he told me that since I was dressed as a girl I should not get so bloodthirsty.
I
cried." Patton got the message:
It
was fun
"The Boy" but
43
was not manly. Papa bought Georgie
it
a .22-caliber rifle,
and he soon
pleased everyone with his marksmanship by knocking an orange off a fence. It
was
the start of a life-long love affair with guns.
One Christmas
I
got a steam train and another time a stationary engine,
both of which ran for
me
until
was old enough
I
with belt and a
empty
ritle
with a bolt action ...
.22 shells with
robbers.
which
Sometimes he would take
his father's
down and we would
he would kneel
fight.
We
.
it
myself.
it
.
.
used to
I
rehgiously loaded
I
do
to
pompom
a soldier suit with a black woolly hat and
.
also
I
had
was a sword [carry] it and two
there
.
.
to shoot at lions
sword and
I
my
and
toy one;
used to do the same thing
with some boxing gloves he gave me.
His grandson notes
may have
ciful
how
between the tangible and the fan-
this interplay
helped symbolically to form a link between Georgie and his
who was
Confederate grandfather,
wounded wielding
mortally
Winchester and on whose saddle Patton learned
his saber at
to ride.-^
Riding and swordsmanship thus became second nature to Patton
at
an
early age. After several years of playing with make-believe swords, one of
which bore the inscription sword and scabbard
"Lt.
that his
brought him some minor
Gen. G.
"A
grief.
store in
1870 French sword bayonets and grass
when we
got
S. Patton," his father
son proudly wore. Patton's
I
home admiring
sword also
Los Angeles was having a
asked for one. it.
fashioned a
first
Later
I
I
remember
sale of
lying on the
attacked the cactus with
it
and
got well stuck."
Later Patton would
Papa accoutured with
make
my
his
own
swords, and "once while riding with
sword and mounted on Peach Blossom
I
decided
was not really hurt. The saddle I then rode was the McClellan saddle on which my grandfather had been killed. On the pommel was a stain which I thought was his and the saddle turned
to charge
blood."
This was the
first
enced, taking a fearsome
of
toll
[over]. ...
many
on
I
had a bad
from a horse
falls
he was about
ten, after years of
ton household, his father gave
but
that Patton experi-
his body.
Horses and horsemanship became second nature
When
fall
to the
young
pretend riding on a saddle
Patton.
in the Pat-
him an English saddle and a double
bridle,
along with two horses of his own, Galahad and Marmion. "I always saddled
my own about
horse and groomed
this
it
to
some
I had a dog named Polvo remember once going to the sta-
extent. ...
time and he slept by Marmion.
I
when I was supposed to be studying and lying by Polvo, looking Marmion, and thinking that I must be the happiest boy in the world. I was
ble at night at
probably right."
Mr. Patton never economized as far as his family was concerned. Whatever the time or cost, nothing was too good that Papa did not find some
44
Childhood
means of lavishing
on Georgie:
it
three hundred dollars a
get." Mr. Patton introduced his son to hunting
He was
later his father
had
to
[for] a thing
and fishing
hammer shotgun
presented with a sixleen-gauge
and two years
we hved on about we did not
time
"I think at this
month but we never wanted
at
an early age.
at the
borrow from the bank
m
age of
ten,
order to pur-
chase an expensive twelve-gauge Le Favre that his father told him would last
him
the rest of his
life.
would
In 1927 he
good
write: "It is as
much
Nevertheless, Mr. Patton would struggle throughout
as ever."
of his
maintain a grand lifestyle for his family. His poor health often
life
left
to
him
unable to practice law, and despite their large landholdings, the Pattons were
more frequently than not cash poor. From time to time Mr. Patton would sell small parcels of land to raise money, usually at bargain-basement prices. The Patton family owned a cottage on fashionable Catalina Island, a playground for the affluent of Southern California, and it was there that Georgie learned to hunt, sail, and swim. Patton later remembered with considerable warmth that "these various hunting and fishing trips which he accompanied
me on were
a great proof of his affection for me, as he hated
both hunting and sea fishing, but he went even
when
I
was a grown man."
Despite his success as a fisherman, Patton had a long-standing distaste for fish. His first catch
was
a catfish,
lowing morning, and "even then
I
which became
his breakfast the fol-
disliked fish." Off Catalina he once
caught a forty-five-pound yellowtail that was nearly as captor.
As
tall
as
its
Aunt Nannie's camera, so that it would seem even
the proud Patton posed for
adolescent his father
him to move behind the fish larger. He became an avid hunter, and after one of his first hunting trips, in which everyone but him had killed a single goat, Patton boasted to an assembled crowd that he had killed five. Afterward his father gently reminded him: "Son, it would have been more like a sportsman not to have instructed
mentioned the extra goats."
The sions
relationship
between father and son was such
were willingly admitted and
father.
On
his son
one occasion when Papa
he got back so
pleased.
left
minor transgres-
by
his indulgent
Catalina for the mainland, he
made
promise not to swim beyond the end of the nearby wharf. "Once
dived and went so deep that until
that
just as readily forgiven
He was
I
I
came up
could confess to him.
very proud of
small he observed
outside the limit.
Of
to uproot a
I
could not
rest
was not
dis-
course, he
my swimming." When
some men attempting
I
Patton was quite
dead orange
tree that
refused to budge, and suggested they employ a horse to pull the tackle. His
proud father noted could not have
to the family at dinner: "If the
moved
the tree."
The same day
throwing potato bugs into a brush never forgot the admonition.
fire
and
told
boy had not been there we had caught him
his father
him not
to
be cruel. Patton
— "The Boy"
45
His parents were not the only adults to spoil young Georgie. For his six-
Hancock Banning provided
teenth birthday his wealthy cousin
a dazzling
entertainment in Georgie's honor. Banning had a fireworks-laden ancient
steamer towed into the channel between the mainland and Catalina Island,
where
it
was
The
set afire.
result
was one of
the
most spectacular fireworks
displays ever seen in Southern Cahfornia.'^
From
the time of Robert Patton,
George's Episcopal Church
who had
served as a vestryman in
in Fredericksburg, the Pattons
St.
had been staunch
Episcopalian churchmen.
They went first
to
church every Sunday; paid their
The
or were on the building committees.
and out of retired
Mexican
Johnson
One saw
their
... the
fine
and either
tithe;
Protestant churches in that part of California
—
men
Don
as
built the
Benito did
of the church were in
houses along with the Confederate veterans and the
bandits.
One of
was darhng Bishop
their dearest friends
Bishop of California.
night not long after they were married, Lt. George S. Patton's bride
the bishop and her
husband
walking up and down the lawn
who was
five feet
tall,
had
his
in
deep conversation. Bishop Johnson,
arm draped around Georgie's
waist,
and
Georgie had his arm draped across the Bishop's shoulders. They were so rapt in conversation that
Ma
sneaked up to
Johnson say; "Yes, indeed, Georgie, have made a wonderful Bishop
if
I
listen,
little
You would
you had had the Call." One of Georgie's
childhood dreads was that he would "get the Call"
he was a
and she heard Bishop
quite agree with you.
.
.
.
every night
boy, saying his prayers on his knees, he
when
would pray
that
Jesus would not call him, because he wanted to be a soldier.
Patton had no formal schooling outside the family
was tutored
home
until
he was
Lake Vineyard, both to inculcate the youngster with a classical education and to spare him the scorn the family beheved would have been heaped on him by his classmates. The exact date
eleven. Until then he
has never been recorded, but
at
at
an early age his parents realized that their
son had a learning disability that prevented him from reading. Although they
were unable
to give the
problem a name, young George
S.
Patton unques-
tionably suffered from dyslexia.
Dyslexia, a disorder that
is
currently believed to affect as
many
as forty mil-
Americans and 20 percent of the world's population,-" afflicted many prominent people, ranging from Leonardo da Vinci to Albert Einstein, lion
46
Childhood
Thomas A.
Tom
made
in
in
dyslexia ers
Woodrow
Wilson, Nelson Rockefeller, actors Cher and
Andy Van
Slyke. First diag-
896 by two British physicians, dyslexia was virtually unknown in United States until the 192()s, and although great strides have since been
nosed the
Edison,
Cruise, and major-league baseball star 1
what has become an enormous and important still
field
remains a complex and frustrating problem for both
who
and those
treat
it.
As one noted
of study,
clinical psychiatrist has written:
"Dyslexia has remained a scientific enigma, defying most attempts cal understanding, diagnosis, prediction, treatment
The usual
suffer-
its
at
medi-
and prevention."-^
definition of dyslexia as "a learning disorder characterized
reading, writing and spelling reversals"
is
complex disorder
tion barely scratches the surface of a
by
highly misleading.^^ This descripthat, in
addition to
creating difficulties with reading and writing, includes an inability to concentrate, sharp
mood
swings, hyperactivity, obsessiveness, impulsiveness,
compulsiveness, and feelings of inferiority and boast
is
also very
common among
affects spelling, grammatical,
and mathematical
overcome
dyslexics are eventually able to the disorder
who
and lead productive
stupidity.--
it
has on
lives.
dyslexia never
seem
merely the
of the iceberg.
tip
to
Like Patton,
abilities.
What
is
have grasped
many
often overlooked by those is
the lifelong traumatic
victims. Until recently those
its
tendency to
the reading and writing aspects of
perceive dyslexia as merely a reading problem
emotional effect
A
dyslexics. Moreover, dyslexia often
fully that
Renowned
its
who
studied
reading aspects were
dyslexia expert Dr. Harold C.
Levinson writes:
Most dyslexics
feel
dumb, despite being smart.
dyslexic's compulsion to succeed to
is
.
.
.
Most often a
motivated by an overwhelming desire
prove to himself and others that he
is
not really as stupid as he feels.
Accordingly, the dyslexic disorder frequently serves as a potent stimulus to achieve, reflecting a desperate attempt to reverse the humiliating feel-
ings of inferiority that are invariably present.
However,
as
Levinson notes:
Unfortunately, tangible success and peer recognition, even adulation, do
not neutralize or eliminate a dyslexic's feeling dumb. All too often,
accomplished, even famous, dyslexics merely feel that they have suc-
ceeded
in fooling
everyone around them, and that others are not truly
aware of how inept they
really are.
They
attribute their successes to
chance, a lucky break, a fluke of nature.'"
These words are as much a description of George average dyslexic. As will be seen as the story of his
S.
life
Patton as of the unfolds, virtually
'
"The Boy"
symptom of
every
his life Patton
dyslexia described above applied to Patton. Throughout
would deprecatingly
his plebe year at
write to his future wife, Beatrice Banning Ayer: "I
very stupid or both for result
I
is
it
been slow, West Point he would
refer to himself as having
and stupid as a student. During
lazy,
47
beastly hard for
me
am
either very lazy or
to learn
and as a natural
hate to study."-
Dyslexics experience a need to justify to themselves and those
have no grasp of the nature of
their
than ordinary people. In many,
it
problem
often
that they are as
becomes
good or
who
better
a near-obsessive driving
force in which the dyslexic seems to be saying to him- or herself, but secretly
hoping that others will notice: "I'm smart too! I'm just as good as
you!" This feeling of
inferiority, the
need for the dyslexic
to
prove not only
a person of intelligence and ability
to
himself but to others that he or she
is
the key not only to understanding the source of Patton 's drive to succeed,
is
but of the authoritarian, macho, warrior personality he deliberately created for himself.
As Patton grew
to
manhood
it
was
the dyslexia that fueled the
of the ancestor-hero worship lighted by Papa and Aunt Nannie. To
fires
prove himself worthy of his Patton heritage would not only drive Patton,
it
would obsess him so powerfully, so single-mindedly, so outlandishly, that few could comprehend how anyone's life could be dominated by such demons.
As an his
would lampoon
adult, Patton
nephew: "Any
idiot
imagination and
calls for
several different
ways
his inability to spell,
once advising
can spell a word the same way time after time. But
as
much more
is
distinguished to be able to spell
it it
do."^-
I
Patton was eleven before he began learning to read and write. In September 1897,
when he was
nearly twelve, Patton's father "finally rebelled against
him to the local grammar school," the Classical School for Boys, located on South Euclid Avenue in nearby Pasadena. Nannie's usual neurotic ploy of feigning illness failed this time. His first day was a poignant one in Patton's life: "We drove the 'hands that rock the cradle' ruling the boy, and sent
up
in the old surrey
and
.
.
.
Papa turned
henceforth our paths diverge forever.'
we
more and more
lived
The
I
to
me
and said very sadly: 'Son,
have never forgotten that but though
apart our hearts and
minds never separated." Boys was Dr. Stephen Cutter
principal of the Classical School for
Clark, a noted Latin scholar and historian
who was
assisted
by
his brother,
Mr. G. M. Clark. At what was essentially a small high school, Patton joined twenty-five other children of Southern California gentry and spent the next six years
undergoing his
first
formal schooling.
A
diligent student, Patton
nevertheless faltered because of his dyslexia. Algebra, geometry, and arith-
metic were
among
the subjects taught and virtually
all
proved a struggle. In
1902, for example, Patton's report cards reflect examination and recitation
Childhood
48 grades in the
fifties
and
and occasionally
sixties
deportment was exemplary, as were his marks
which consistently were
tory,
low seventies. His
in the
in ancient
and modern
his-
high nineties. Other subjects included
in the
French, English, Latin, German, geography, reading, spelling, drawing, and declamation.'
^
from mistakes
As
had feared,
his parents
his greatest
in reading, writing, punctuation,
and
problems stemmed
was
spelling. Patton
occasionally taunted by his fellow students for his spelling
and his glaring mistakes when called upon to read orally
at the
blackboard
Where
to the class.
Patton excelled was in his amazing capacity to memorize and quote verba-
tim and
at
book he had been exposed to during was not born with it, Pat-
length from the Bible or any
many
those
years of
home
schooling. Although he
mind
ton developed a photographic
compensated dramatically for
that
his
dyslexia.
Young Patton benefited from ers and, although unable to
By
vered.
the curriculum offered by the Clark broth-
overcome
the time he entered
VMI
in
his dyslexia,
he nevertheless perse-
1903, he had acquired the rudiments
of a first-class education. Hidden behind the negative image created by the dyslexia lay an incredibly vast storehouse of knowledge of biblical and military subjects. Later, as an adult, Patton
would make
my
ordeal by joking, "I had trouble with
a's
and b's
of his academic
light
—and what
the hell
is
that other letter?"^^
Not only were logic and patriotism
essential, but history
piece that helped young Patton beyond measure.
with the ancient warriors about aunt to
at
Lake Vineyard.
expose him
was
to the
there that Patton
was able
for
it
men whom he would spend It
was one thing
sical tradition
their
that
that the decision
to express his thoughts
his life studying
and ideas about
and emulating. channel that
evil,
of ancient
men who
inter-
in the clas-
fought for their
purposes but occasionally for the same base
beings have
waged war from
emphasis on patriotism and
—having been exposed
from
seems equally clear
to listen to tales, but quite another to
of good versus
human
center-
he had been tutored by his father and
and concepts. History, as taught by the Clarks, was
civilizations, usually for noble
reasons that
it
was a
of bis essays dealt
Clarks was one of the foundations of his future success,
the
est into ideas
whom
In retrospect
Many
self-sacrifice,
to the classics
the it
dawn of
and the Bible
their tutelage fully indoctrinated in the
history.
was hardly
With
surprising
—Patton emerged
fundamental belief that a per-
son's character invariably determined whether his or her
life
would be
a suc-
cess or a failure.^^ Little of Patton's early schoolwork seems to have survived, but there are numerous examples of his essays from the period. Among the places he wrote about was the island of Sicily, which he would one day come to know only too well. In a 1902 essay he excoriated one of the Athenian comman-
ders of the Sicilian expedition as "unfitted" for his post.
"The Boy"
Among
49
was
the lessons learned at the Clarks' school
that the character
He
of those he studied had a great deal to do with their achievements.
described Themistocles as "eggotistical and had a right to be," and, "Cleon
was
man
un
like Periclese,
Of
the ancients, Patton took as his hero not
a
of violent passions.
own
drunkeness [he] took his
life
A
great baster [bastard]."
Alexander the Great
and his empire
("in a
fell to pieces"),
fit
of
Hannibal,
Caesar, or Constantine, but Epaminondas, a notable fourth-century B.C. The-
ban general: "Epaminondas was with out a doubt the best and one of the greatest
Greeks
who
ever lived, with out ambition, with great genius, great
goodness, and great patriotism; he was for the age in which he lived almost a perfect man."
An
extract
from a December 1901 essay on siege warfare, depicted
below exactly as
written,
the extent of Patton 's
illustrates
battle
with
dyslexia:
The atack on
the castle
was begun by
a
heavy discharge of arrows: which
kept the defendors under cuver, but from loop holes the
answered the
fire
with their crosboes and killed
many
outlaws.
Normans Then the
out laws lead by the black knight attacked and took Barbacon after a fierce fight in
which the black knight and Fron de Berf met
hand combat; the Normon being mortaly wounded. atack was renued
.
.
and most of
.
the Tempeler and a fiew of his the hands of the out-laws.
men
their
.
.
.
in a
hand
to
After a brief rest the
number slain or taken prisoner, way out, leaving the castle in
cut their
'"
Patton's powers of imagination and attention to detail are evident,
although his written work would have earned failing marks from any but the
most indulgent
teachers.
The Clarks seem
only to encourage the young
man
to
have gone out of
their
way
not
but to avoid the criticism and ridicule that
other less tolerant or wise teachers might have expressed.
A brief letter Patton how
wrote to the San Francisco Call in 1902
his dyslexia affected
even the simplest
with your paper, during the
many
of the
tinue sending
to
"Not being
and being very much discussed with
I
At one point the Pattons considered sending ing school, but decided against
it,
ready to live away from
The
them.-**
undoubtedly
their
Academy
son to a private board-
he was not yet Boys was Patton's
in the belief
Classical School for
only formal preparation for the difficult college years States Military
illustrates
at all satisfied
would be very much obriged if you would disconme. Very truly yours, George S. Patton, Jr.""
articles, it
last year,
task:
at
VMI
and the United
that lay ahead.
During the summer of 1902 Patton was a tall, gangling youth with a shock of corn-blond hair. His feet had grown so fast that earlier that year they had
Childhood
50 literally split
open
his shoes,
He
"and they have given no signs of stopping."
had also revealed a sense of humor. To a distant
relative
named Katherine
Ayer, he had written that, "All the horses, dogs, pigs, cats, chickens, children, and relatives are well and growing bigger every day. Write again soon, the dogs
and children want
When
mind was an ents
to hear
from
you."-"^
Patton was not quite seventeen years of age, the last thing on his attraction to
had talked about
members of
little
the opposite sex. For
weeks
his par-
else than the forthcoming visit of their distant
from Boston, Massachusetts, the Ayers.* Georgie gave hardly a
relatives
passing thought to their mention of the young
woman who would
be accom-
panying them.
As
befitted the wealthy of that era, the
comfort of their
own
railroad cars.
Boston family traveled
At the station
to greet
them were
in the
the Pat-
who was present because he was woman and "everyone thought it would be young man to introduce her to his friends (not that
ton and Banning clans, including Georgie
about the same age as the young nice for her to have a
anyone with such a huge family
The
visitors
exchange of hugs and such a long braid that sixteen, she
really
needed
friends, of course)."
were greeted effusively by kisses. it
hung nearly
to the
hem
of her
girl
and the doll were dressed alike
linen, suitable to the California climate.
much the
skirt.
worn
hair
in
Although only
had already entertained three proposals of marriage. Cradled
her arm was her constant companion, a doll she had
The
with a great
hosts,
their
The young woman had auburn
smart
suit dresses
of crash
But Georgie took one look
touted "Belle of Boston" and backed
"Young Ladies" of
in
away
in
named Marguerite:
at the
in disgust. In California
sixteen had their hair up and
most certainly did not
play with dolls. If anyone thought he was going to escort this
little
around, they were making a big mistake. His friends would laugh
him
kid off
the face of the earth!
The young woman's name was Beatrice Banning Ayer, and she would forever alter the
life
of George S. Patton
Jr.
*Frederick Ayer's wife, Ellen Banning Ayer, was a distant relative of the husband of
Papa Patton's
half-sister,
Anne Ophelia Smith. (See RHP)
CHAPTER
The Belle
of
4
Boston
Beatrice Banning Ayer By the end
of
.
.
.
the summer,
Ma and
Georgie were
in
love for the rest of their lives.
—RUTH ELLEN PATTON TOTTEN
The Ayers were
a
wealthy Massachusetts family whose patriarch was
eighty-year-old Frederick Ayer, a multimillionaire businessman. Born in
1822, Frederick Ayer, like Benjamin Davis Wilson, had started out dirt poor
and had acquired a massive fortune, and
later
from banking,
flourished in nelia, died
New
first
from the
real estate, printing,
England
sale of patent medicines
and the
textile industry,
which
in the nineteenth century.' Ayer's first wife,
of cancer in 1878, and he remained a widower until 1883
he met a vivacious actress named Ellen Barrows Banning
who
Cor-
when
earned her
living in St. Paul, Minnesota, giving readings of Shakespeare, mostly at teas
She had been invited to a dinner party to meet an older widower and considered a great catch. Instead she chose to attend a performance of Hamlet by Edwin Booth. As she left the theater,
and
ladies' socials.
man who was
a
"the handsomest man that I had ever seen walked up to me and said, 'Are you Miss Ellen Banning?'" Complimenting her on her good sense for skip-
ping a dinner party in favor of a performance by America's greatest living actor, "I
my
decided that [you] should have both
carriage with a chaperone to take
treats,
and
I
have come for you
you to the party." Thirty-year-old Ellen Banows Banning was swept off her feet by the gallant and handsome Ayer. As she later told her daughter, "Once I looked in
"
52
Childhood
into those piercing blue eyes, if he
me
to the world's end?'
He was
like a knight in
I
right with
him
made Frederick Ayer
forget
wife. Outgoing, dramatic, and bubbling with
first
will
you follow
just as
I
was.
all
that
he lived so long as he did was because she
much." Thus,
at the
.
.
about his she was, as
life,
her granddaughter Ruth Ellen Totten writes, "the dessert course of his
and
.
armor."
Ellen Barrows Banning
beloved
had said 'Ellen Banning,
would have gone
life
made him laugh
so
age of sixty-two Frederick Ayer took as his bride (who
always addressed him as "Sir Frederick") a descendant of Danish stock whose ancestors had emigrated first to Holland and then to England before the first Banning came to America in the early 1700s. One of the Dutch Bannings appears in Rembrandt's The Night Watch (whose actual title is The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq), and John, the son of the first Banning, settled in Delaware and earned his fortune. A staunch patriot, John Banning cast Delaware's vote for George Washington for president, and
when
veterans of the Revolutionary
War were
paid off in
near-worthless scrip. Banning personally indemnified the Delaware veter-
ans with hard currency from his personal fortune.
A branch
of the Banning
family eventually ended up in California, in the person of Phineas Banning,
who had
the
good sense
become
to
a business partner of Benjamin Davis
Wilson.
The Ayer family was of English descent and traced their lineage to Wiltshire, from which Ayer's grandfather, also named Frederick, emigrated first to Salisbury,
and
Ayers settled
in Connecticut.
"Ma was tales
later to Haverhill,
As
Massachusetts, in 1635. Eventually the
Beatrice Ayer's daughter would later write,
very proud of the Ayers, and after listening to the interminable
of the ancestor-worshipping Pattons, would strike forth with, 'But
don't forget
—every man
in
my
family could write Esquire after his name!'
Frederick Ayer's rise from rags to riches was a saga worthy of Horatio
Alger and the Great American Dream. slept
under the counter of the store
thirty-five
went
he owned the
store. In
in
An
orphan,
at the
age of eleven he
which he was employed as a
clerk.
At
1855 he and his brother, James Cook Ayer,
into the patent medicine business,
Ayer's Hair Vigor, Ayer's Vegetable
Pills,
producing Ayer's Sarsaparilla,
and Ayer's Cherry Pectoral which
were marketed and became popular all over the United States. The Ayers were unique in that they published on each bottle its ingredients, which in the case of the Cherry Pectoral included 1/16 of a grain of heroin.
death, Ayer proudly insisted he never
made
a dollar of
To
his
which he was
ashamed.
A man
of innate
common
sense and compassion, Ayer was years ahead
of his time. Told he was insane by his competitors, he was the
England
to provide the
women who worked
for
him one day
first in
off a
New
month
The
Belle of Boston
with pay. "He was told the same thing
Graham
Bell and the
New
when he helped
finance Alexander
York subway system. "-
Ayer once proudly told his
53
his children of a visit to
Washington, D.C., and
spur-of-the-moment decision to "drop in" on President Abraham Lincoln
in the
White House.
(In the eras before the risk of assassination
ican presidents virtually inaccessible,
appear
at the
White House and be received by
Lincoln "hard sleeves,
at
I
dent, but this,
work
bored and
lifeless
said, 'Mr. President,
I
none of us has a favor at
until,
after introducing
have called
men
that
have seen since
I
to
to ask, not
me
and
in his shirt
I
pay
my
myself and our
respects to our Presi-
even a country post
office.'
At
with both hands, took both of mine, and
shaking them vigorously said, 'Gentlemen,
thing.'
Ayer found
the president.)
in his office, tieless, vest unbuttoned,
he woke up, and rushed
first
made Amer-
for strangers to
wet with perspiration. Mr. Lincoln received us standing and looking
terribly tired,
friends,
was not unusual
it
I
am
glad to see you.
have been here
that didn't
You
are the
want some-
"
Ayer's second marriage, to Ellen Barrows Banning in 1884, produced three children, the eldest of
tened Beatrice.
lowed
in
Two
whom was
born on January
12, 1886,
years later her brother, Frederick junior,
1890 by a younger
sister,
Mary Katharine
and chris-
was born,
fol-
Kay by
her
(called
friends and siblings). Despite a thirty-one-year age difference, "theirs true love story that lasted until the
end of their
was
a
lives."'
The Ayers had first visited California in 892, and after ten years FredAyer was eager for a return visit to, among other things, try his hand at tandem driving, a sport excelled in by Ellen's brother, William Banning. The Ayers were staunch Republicans and the Pattons even more ardent Democrats, which made for interesting dinner table conversation at Lake Vineyard. When the Bannings, Ayers, and Pattons got together, there would 1
erick
often be as
many
as thirty
around the dinner
table.
Rare was the evening when there was not a heated occasion
made
a powerful impression on Beatrice.
for the ladies to
withdraw
after dinner so the
men
political debate.
One
The usual protocol was
could continue their ora-
tory over coffee, port, and cigars. This night the Pattons and
Bannings
couldn't wait for the usual feminine departure and, perhaps because an
excess of
Don
Benito's finest port had been consumed, the debate got rather
heated and tempers began to tling the matter at
dawn with
were made, and rumblings of setand seconds. There were lots of "By
flare, threats
bare
fists
to young Beatrice until, at the Dick Whittington clock over Mr. Patton's fireplace, there was a sudden scramble to grab coats and "raised fists were lowered to arms that clasped shoulders; voices were suddenly calm; and
God,
sirs,"
and the situation looked ominous
stroke of 9:00 P.M. from the
arrangements were made for the same party ... to meet the following Tuesday,
where they would,
as
at
one of the homes
George Patton senior
said,
Childhood
54
damned argument to The Pattons never knew what
'continue the
its
natural conclusion, as gentlemen.'"'*
to
make of
always known to her family and friends as
who was
Ellen Banning Ayer,
Ellie.
The
actress in her delighted
making a grand entrance after the other guests were seated. During one of Ayer visits to Southern California, everyone was already at the dinner the Patton clan lived table waiting for Ellie. They were all talking politics in
the
—
and breathed
many
politics, as did so
of the families
who had been
uprooted
by the Civil War. That they were raving, tearing Democrats and the Ayers rock-ribbed Republicans just
made
Nita Patton, then a young
it
more
exciting.
had never seen anything quite
girl,
like Ellie
before and couldn't take her eyes from her. She said that Ellie looked in a rather calculating way, and when she had decided who was the furthest person seated from her, she rose most gracefully, and walked around the table to her intended victim, who happened to be Annie
around the table
Banning. Ellie paused, and so did the conversation.
She took Annie's chin
one be-ringed and dimpled hand, and turning up
in
her face, said to her in tones of thrilling and low register, "Annie, dear,
what do you think of our
do
No one
life?"
in the family ever got
over
this.
All
when things in the family come to an impasse, all anyone has to make the remark, "What do you think of life?" and we all break
lives, is
—
down and
return to normal
loving heart, and
it
.
.
.
For
showed up
all Ellie's
at all
times
drama, she had a genuinely
—sometimes
to the intense
embarrassment of the object.
Ellie
Ayer was plump, her hands covered with jewels, and on her
arm she wore
reached thirty-five and turned her into a walking jewelry
store.
Her grand-
daughter recalls that whenever she moved, "these slipped up and tinkled.
left
a gold bangle for each year of her marriage. Eventually these
She wore a fresh rose
in her hair at all times
.
.
.
down and
smelled deliciously
and was great on hugging and kissing."
Her two granddaughters
also
remembered how
in
1918
and Ruth Ellen Patton were given a small white kid goat by goat grew up
it
little
Ellie.
got into the habit of butting people from behind.
dren were afraid of the animal until one day
knocked her down. "After
that
we admired
when
it
Beatrice
When The
the
chil-
butted Bee's tutor and
always kept our
his gall but
faces toward him."
In 1896 Frederick
Ayer was advised
he was a mere seventy-four and acceded, and Paris,
at his wife's
to retire
in the
by
his doctors. Protesting that
prime of his
life,
Ayer nevertheless
suggestion the family spent the next two years in
where Beatrice learned
classical
and conversational French. Her doll
Marguerite was a present for not having spoken a word of English for three
The
Belle of Boston
55
months. One winter was spent
in Egypt, on a houseboat on the Nile River was pulled by mules and horses on a towpath on the embankment. The experience proved a wrenching eye-opener for young Beatrice. For a time, her half-brother. Dr. James Ayer, accompanied them. After he removed a palm thorn from the foot of an Egyptian laborer, word spread like wildfire
that
that there
was a physician
in the area.
Soon
the houseboat
was swarming
with lepers, sick babies, gangrene cases, and wailing adults and children afflicted with
every
known
disease and deformity.
Overwhelmed and
with-
out the equipment or means to treat them. Dr. Ayer did what he could. Bea-
and the other Ayer children were sent belowdecks whenever the boat
trice
landed, but once there they fought for places where they could peek through the curtained
During
windows.
their Nile adventure, Beatrice
the back of their
boatman and, with a
brother, Chilly (Charles
became enamored of
ten-dollar birthday gift
the tattoo
from her
Fanning Ayer), decided she too would
on
half-
visit the tat-
too parlor and have a full-rigged ship tattooed across her chest.
Her gov-
erness discovered the missing Beatrice in the nick of time.
Beatrice
became
a talented musician, and, according to her daughter, "her
gifts in that direction
were closer
to genius than to just talent." In addition to
playing the piano, mandolin, steel guitar, and musical saw, she also wrote
number of songs in a small book members of her family. One of them was a moving tribute to her mother, Ellie. The Ayer children enthusiastically participated in theatricals "in a big way" and Beatrice often played piano in many "betterthan-amateur" concerts. She was accorded all the trappings of the upper class, one of which was attendance at a fancy Boston dancing school.* music, and
in
her middle age published a
which was given
to
Beatrice and her siblings were capable of good-natured mischief.
years earher Frederick Ayer and his sister-in-law
Some
became embroiled
in a
woman's daughter married a man named Pearson and settled in Boston, her son was instructed under no circumstances ever to speak to an Ayer, and if they spoke to him, he was to go straight home. The Ayer children delighted in baiting the young man at the dancing school and used to draw lots to determine which one would either
family feud over money, and
when
the
speak to him or ask him for a dance. As soon as one did, the poor child
would In built
flee.
1899 the Ayers moved from Lowell
an enormous mansion on fashionable
to Boston,
where Frederick Ayer
Commonwealth Avenue
that con-
*Another attendee was a very unpopular young man named Ernest Simpson, all
whom
the girls assiduously avoided because his hands always sweated through his kid
gloves. Later
Simpson became
the second husband of a Baltimore socialite by the
of Wallis Warfield, the future duchess of Windsor.
name
Childhood
56
tained an elevator, a dumbwaiter, electric lights, a telephone, and consider-
able amounts of Tiffany glass, marble inlay, parquet flooring, and heavy vel-
was
vet drapes. In the rear of the house
maintained
in the
when he was
to see
Ayer and
his wife
and
Commonwealth Avenue. Ayer rode thought nothing of chopping wood girls ride in
mews where
were
the stables
who
said
hired that he did not particularly care about having a regular
day off as long as he had permission
common
a
capable hands of the Ayer coachman, Henny,
divided skirts
—very
to attend all public hangings. girls riding
until
along the center
It
was
strip
of
he was well into his nineties and
for exercise.
daring, indeed
"He was
—
insistent that his
as he felt that side-saddle
was bad for their backs." As a descendant has written of the Ayer "They lacked nothing that money could buy, but they learned, by God, to do exactly as they were told."' The Ayers also maintained a fine country home, called the Farm, containing extensive gardens and greenhouses, in nearby Newton. It had been an engagement present for Ellie, who was passionate about roses. However, after Beatrice caught malaria, Frederick Ayer sold it, and in 1905 built a new summer retreat called Avalon-by-the-Sea in the fashionable seaside town of riding
children,
Pride's Crossing, near Beverly, Massachusetts.
Although some of the "old money" Boston Brahmins turned up patrician noses at the brash, their great wealth. Pride's
New
Crossing was an equally clannish
England
town, populated by the descendants of whaling and seafaring families
were
new
land and replaced
it
ilk.
When Ayer
Beatrice Ayer
tore
down
the old
home on
with a large mansion in the Italian ducal
dominated by a fireplace large enough Crossing were
who
by the presence of the vulgar "new money" repre-
less than elated
sented by Frederick Ayer and his his
their
nouveau riche Ayers, they could hardly ignore
to "roast
style,
an ox," the gentry of Pride's
appalled.*^
made
her social debut in Boston at the age of eighteen. "She
had a marvelous time. Ellie's calling cards."
It
made her
upper crust of Boston came to
"at
grownup to have her name on home" day for the Ayers, when the
and
to take afternoon tea in the salon.
feel very
Thursday was call
With her brothers and sisters away at school, Beatrice became the center of attention in the Ayer household. According to her daughter, Beatrice Ayer was "a real 'Pocket Venus.' She had very beautiful blue eyes and exquisitely
marked brows, a was in addition
softly
rounded chin and long, rich dark auburn
to being talented,
hair.
All this
witty and, of course, a considerable
heiress."
Beatrice also
became
a skilled racing sailor,
in the Atlantic for her cousin, a noted skipper
and crewed
in the
who owned two
summer
racing yawls.
also owned their own schooner, the Tempest, and were members of the two choicest yacht clubs in Marblehead. Autumn was reserved for fox
The Ayers
The
Belle of Boston
57
hunting, polo, skeet shooting, tennis, horse shows, and hunt breakfasts at the
nearby Myopia Hunt Club. In the winter there was skiing, tobogganing, and
Ayer developed
skating. Beatrice
into a first-class rider
and a sought-after
guest at the house parties held in the opulent salons of the rich the
most exclusive equestrian club
New
in
members of
England. Although badly near-
sighted and unwilling to wear glasses to correct the problem, she neverthe-
rode to hounds and jumped fences and ditches throughout her
less
with
life
reckless disregard for her safety.^
work to assist immiwas considered it Ellen Banning Ayer would
Beatrice and her sisters also performed volunteer children
grant
Boston
a
in
settlement
extremely daring by other Boston mothers that
even consider
letting her daughters
and
house,
work "where they might
'catch a dis-
ease.'"
This combination of beauty, brains, and great wealth attracted a number
made
of suitors well before Beatrice
her formal debut.
count, and one day she teasingly observed that Tartar
would emerge. "Immediately,
his long shiny fingernails
down
welts and cried, 'Scratch me,
if
One was
a Russian
one scratched a Russian, a
the count rolled up his sleeve and ran
his
arm
Meees
until the
blood flowed from the
Ayer, scratch me!'" However, for
all
her privileged upbringing, Beatrice Banning Ayer had matured into a confident, independent, strong-willed
would soon
ton and her father
Beatrice
was
closest to her
she loved dearly and Patton.
who would
The devotion of
knowledge
in
woman,
younger brother, Frederick Ayer later
the entire
Boston, and
young Georgie
a fact that both
Pat-
discern.
when
become
Jr.,
whom
a lifelong friend of George S.
Ayer family
to
common
one another was
they got together they were "like birds on a
telephone wire." The Ayer children kept
in
touch with one another through-
out their lives. "Ma's brothers and sisters were truly her best friends, not just relatives.
I
know
that to
Ma
they were always, next to Georgie, 'the closest
kin there is.'"
Beatrice and Georgie Patton had nearly met in 1892 during the Ayers'
first
Wilmington.
One
visit to California,
day her parents
who
often
read a
which they spent with
left for
became
new book.
ill
the
Bannings
in
a day trip to Los Angeles, but six-year-old Beatrice,
riding in a carriage, declined and remained behind to
Later the Ayers mentioned they had seen Colonel Smith •
and the Patton family, including
the dearest
little
months older
boy,
whose name was
[than Beatrice]. ...
"Georgia,'' and
He had
who was just
a
few
big blue eyes and beautiful
and was such a good little boy that he would have never let and mother and brother and sister to go off alone just so he could read a book he would have come with them. Ma decided right
golden
curls,
his father
—
Childhood
58 there Georgie Patton
must be a
little
hoped she would never meet him and
prig and she told her parents she if
she did, she would not play with
him.
As was moved from
custom
their
in
summer,
the
the Patton
the mainland to Catalina Island.
and Banning clans
The sons of Phineas Banning
had continued the entrepreneurial genius of
father
their
by purchasing
Catalina Island and establishing a ferry service to transport the upper crust
of Southern California
who
could afford
1902 the
the Ayers arrived in
trip
summer homes
from San Pedro
By
there.
to Catalina
the time
had been
reduced to only an hour and a half via steamboat. The three families had a
memorable summer of fun and
frolic,
culminating
in early
September
in a
fantasy play called Ondine, staged by the Banning, Patton, and Ayer children. Beatrice
was given
A
the water sprites.
the lead role of Ondine, and Georgie
dominated by the white-bearded figure of Frederick Ayer the right
is
was one of
photograph of the three families taken that summer
a relaxed, boyish
George Patton
while on the opposite side next to Nita Patton
in a is
a
summer
in the center.
suit
and
demure Beatrice
bow
is
At tie,
Patton, a
half smile on her face. it was the most important summer of his The two young people were drawn together for the first time and "by the end of the rehearsals, the play and the summer, Ma and Georgie were in love for the rest of their lives." Two more unlikely opposites could not have been imagined: the wealthy, well-educated. New England Yankee young woman and the rather unsophisticated, dyslexic, rough-hewn son of Virginia-born lawyers and Confederate warriors, who had grown up in the still untamed environment of frontier Southern California.
For young Georgie Patton
life.
After the magical
summer of
1902, the two went their separate ways,
Georgie back for what would be his Boys, and Beatrice
wind
social
life.
to Boston,
final
year
at the
Classical School for
where she continued her studies and a whirl-
The two began
a sporadic long-distance correspondence,
A
"Aunt Ruth" in November 1902 comes sometime this month, but not the exact date. When it comes, please spank him seventeen times for me and give him my very best birthday compliments." She also revealed she would
often through one of the adults. noted, "I
like
know
letter to
that Georgie's birthday
nothing better than another
trip to
California in 1903.** For Christmas
Beatrice sent Georgie a tiepin that brought a thank-you note that this "the very thing
Kuhlborn
I
most wanted." Signing himself, "Your
[the character
he portrayed
in the
summer
play] or
was
faithful friend,
George
S. Pat-
ton."^
Until their deaths neither
of the other.
would ever again long be out of
the thoughts
PART
The Making
of
III
an Officer
(1904-1909) and given the chance will carve my God willing name on some thing bigger than a section room bench. .
.
.
I
—CADET GEORGE SMITH PATTON
JR.
(MARCH
1905)
CHAPTER
A
Father's Influence
The name of your son is will be invited to compete .
.
.
upon my list of those who my recommendation.
for
—SEN. THOMAS
By
5
the end of the
summer of
R.
BARD TO GEORGE
S.
PATTON
II
1902. George S. Patton had not only fallen in
become an army officer. His decision and was clearly prompted by his unwavering belief that it was his obligation as the heir to the Patton name to carry on the family tradition by becoming a great soldier. Given young George's many years of indoctrination in the Patton heritage, it would have love but had decided that he would
hardly
came
as a surprise to his parents
been a shock
to his father
had
son chosen any other profession. Clearly,
his
Papa was pleased by "the Boy's" decision and seek admission to West Point rather than Patton
men had
VMI
trained to
remained an
commission
in the
become
it
was agreed
VMI, where
that
he would
three gererations of
soldiers.
alternative, although graduation did not guarantee a
Regular Army. Other options were the nearby University
III, was a profesmodern languages. Given the Patton presence at VMI since its founding, admission was a virtual certainty; acceptance at West Point, however, could only occur by means of a presidential or Congressional appointment. His son's academic record was mediocre, and Mr. Patton realized it would be a long and difficult process to obtain an appointment for Georgie. Even
of Arizona, where Papa's cousin. Col. John Mercer Patton sor of
in his final year at Dr. Clark's school, Patton continued to struggle, his
unknown
dyslexic condition an unending source of frustration. In January
1903 Patton had written study
is
making me
fat
in
one of
his earliest letters to Beatrice,
and stupid so
that
I
have come
"My
hard
to the conclusion that
The Making
62 the onl[y]
way
to pass
an Officer
an Ex.[amination]
is
to try not to.
.
.
.
Please excuse
long yet truthful excuse."'
this
Appointments
were as and
of
to the U.S. Military
Academy
difficult to obtain as they are today.
territory in the
of the century
at the turn
Congressmen from each
district
United States were entitled to appoint one cadet, while the
two senators from each
had only two appointments between them.
state
A
category of appointment pemiitted the selection of thirty
third, "at laige,"
cadets from anywhere in the United States by the president. For each candidate
nominated there could be two is that
the
alternates.
The
difference between then and
now
appointments could only be made when a cadet previously appointed by
same
individual either graduated or dropped out of West Point.
All candidates had to pass a strenuous mental and physical examination
before a board of army officers, and the standards for admission required a
candidate to be "well versed" in reading, writing, spelling, English grammar, English composition, arithmetic, algebra, plane geometry, geography, history, the principles of physiology,
and hygiene.' Virtually
all
posed a
seri-
ous problem for young Patton.
Papa wasted no time putting from years of experience
in the
to practical use the
savvy he had gained
rough-and-tumble of Southern California
politics.
Mr. Patton decided that the best source of an appointment was Sen.
Thomas
R. Bard,
^
whose next vacancy would occur in June 1904. Bard was hardly the ideal choice for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that he and Patton were of entirely different political persuasions. Even more ominous was the fact that during the Civil War, Bard had become "a good hater of Rebels."" However, with virtually no other recourse on the political front, Mr. Patton began an all-out effort to
lobby Senator Bard on behalf of his son that was to consume him for the next eighteen months.
The
first
big political gun unlimbered by Mr. Patton
was Judge Henry
T.
Lee, a former Union officer and a well-connected Los Angeles Republican
who was asked
to
recommend Georgie, and who obliged by
writing a
num-
who took George Hugh Smith.
ber of letters of recommendation. Other prominent Californians
up
their
A bank
pens on his behalf included the venerable Col.
Supreme Court, the number of well-known
president, an associate justice of the California
president of an oil company, several other judges, a
lawyers, the postmaster of Los Angeles, and the naval aide to the governor
of California
all
sent glowing letters of recommendation, predicting a distin-
guished military career.^
The
blitz
of letters continued into
Bard's private secretary,
who was
March 1903 and
nearly
overwhelmed
obliged to reply to each writer. Neverthe-
Bard remained determinedly noncommittal to Patton's patrons, and would only concede that he would offer young Patton "the opportunity of
less,
competing with other applicants.""
A
63
Father's Influence
Mr. Patton's problem was complicated by the fact that while his son would turn seventeen in November 1902 and thus be eligible for admission to West Point in the autumn of 1903, Bard's first available appointment would not be until 1904. No one believed that Patton could have passed a competitive examination in 1903. However, an additional year might just be
him
sufficient time to prepare
for
West
Point.
In February 1903 Mr. Patton contacted Francis C.
master of the Morristown
(New
Woodman,
the head-
was noted for preparing students for entrance examinations. Woodman's reply was hardly encouraging ("your son's case is one of those from which we distinctly shrink"), but he did agree to enroll Patton as a special student to prepare him for West Point. Although Mr. Patton hedged his bets by reserving a place for his son at the Morristown School in the autumn of 1903, he considered it a last resort and stepped up his campaign to convince Senator Bard to appoint Georgie to West Point. At Woodman's suggestion Dr. Clark had Jersey) School, which
^
administered the Princeton University entrance examination to Georgie, and in
June 1903 came some encouraging
results.
Although he had failed plane
geometry, he had passed algebra and U.S. history and was granted admission to the Princeton class of 1907.**
Patton never entered Princeton. Instead in September 1903 he enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute, after
logical place to prepare
commission from
him
VMI
for
West
Papa had concluded
that
VMI
was
the
Point. If he failed to gain admission, a
might yet lead
an appointment in the Regular
to
Army.'^
Unlike the carefree summer of 1902, when he had
1903 was a time of intense, last-minute study
As
at
met Beatrice Ayer, Lake Vineyard and on
first
when he would embark on the first dream of becoming an officer in the U.S. Army, Patton began to question whether he was good enough to live up to the family name doubts that would continue to plague him until the end of his hfe: Catalina Island.
the day approached
leg of attaining his
—
Just before
I
went away
Glassell and told
him
VMI
to the
that
I
I
was walking with Uncle Andrew
feared that
might be cowardly.
I
He
told
me
no Patton could be a coward. He was a most recklessly brave man. I told this to Papa and he said that while ages of gentility might make a that
man of my breeding made him perfectly think that this
He
also
engage
in a fist fight, the
same breeding
from weapons with a smile.
I
is true.'"
conveyed
his doubts
and fears
to
George Hugh Smith, who
him that he would be able to do his duty. Smith also told Patton great war would soon engulf the world and that he must prepare him-
reassured that a
reluctant to
willing to face death
The Making
64 self
of
an Officer
through dihgent study to play an important role in
it."
Lake Vineyard and traveled by train across the United States, via San Francisco and Salt Lake City, to Lexington, Virginia. Patton was accompanied not only by his parents and Nita, In
September 1903 George
S. Patton left
Aunt Nannie, who remained nearby of Nannie following her "son" from become one of the more bizarre aspects of Patton fam-
but also by the obsessively adoring
throughout most of the year. The place to place
was
to
ritual
ily life.'-
The question of whether or not Georgie would gain admission
to
West
Point was unresolved. Senator Bard continued to play a closed hand and had yet to reveal the
names of those he would even consider
to
fill
1904
his
vacancy. Mr. Patton could only renew his campaign to convince Bard that
But for young Patton
his son should receive the coveted appointment. his final
chance
to prepare
himself to
fulfill his
the academic achievements of his family,
all
of
it
was
ambition and to live up to
whom
had excelled
at
VML
After Papa bade his son farewell, Patton would always remember, 'T never felt
lower
in
my
life."'^
In the years since the Civil War, the institute
had been
rebuilt after being
nearly destroyed in a June 1864 punitive raid in retribution for a
month
VMI
earlier.
The
New
Market,
exploits of Stonewall Jackson and the heroics of the
at New Market had become the foundation on which VMI had been built in the thirty-eight years since the An amazing 92 percent of VMI alumni had fought in the Civil
Corps of Cadets
the rich tradition of Civil War.
War, including eighteen for the Union. Nineteen became generals (one of
them a Union general) and 261 of them cadets had not only fought at
New
died, including three generals.
Market but also "augmented
VMI
the thin line
of Confederates manning the trenches between Petersburg and
Richmond
during the terrible winter of 1864-65."'^
The new cadet was delighted when
the school tailor recognized
him
as a
Patton and noted that his uniform measurements were identical to those of his father
and grandfather. Despite
comfortable
at
VMI — where
Southern gentlemen
—and
his status as a
he was
his grades
among
lowly
"rat," Patton felt
other sons of graduates and
immediately began to
reflect consider-
able improvement over those of his final year at Dr. Clark's school.
February 1904, of the approximately ninety students
in his
VMI
By
class, Pat-
ton stood sixth in drawing, ninth in mathematics, tenth in Latin, and twenty-
eighth in both history and English. His deportment
was
perfect:
and a well-earned "Excellent" was handwritten on his report Patton arrived at
VMI
no demerits,
card.'-
determined to make good. His father had pre-
pared him extraordinarily well, and also provided simple but useful advice
be a good soldier, a good scholar, and on the nights before he was to march on guard duty, to clean and shine his gun and brass until they were
to
A was time
spotless. If there
left
all
He heeded
over he was to study.
words, and "the result was that guard, on
65
Father's Influence
I
his father's
never walked but one tour of Quarters
other occasions getting [selected as] Orderly."'*
Patton understood exactly what was expected of him, and thus escaped the pitfalls that befell
and never
—ever—
most
keeping his mouth shut
"rats." This included
talking back to upperclassmen or instructors.
The
spit-
and-polish Patton was head and shoulders above his classmates. His carriage
was ramrod
little nattier;
and his uniform impeccable; he was "always a
straight
he executed the
equipment always seemed lows."'^
Now
six feet tall
drill
to
movements with
a bit
more
snap, and his
have a higher polish than that of his
fel-
and weighing approximately 150 pounds, Patton
became an exemplary soldier at VMI and set a standard for himself (and was to carry the rest of his life. A VMI historian later remembered Patton as "tall, blond, a fine looking young man well liked Patton was a good soldier."'** by his fellow cadets Nevertheless his lowly status left him yearning for something better. Some years later, when Beatrice was visiting nearby Natural Bridge, he would write to her:
others) that he
.
.
It
was when
one Sunday.
.
.
.
.
I
.
.
.
was
a rat and Col.
There were some
cadet in the carriage they
became
of disgust one of them said "Oh,
Marr took
girls
Mama and me over there
on the porch and when they saw a
interested until
its
got out and with a look
I
only a rat" and then
I
saw
the first
necessity of chevrons.''^
The
routine of
life
at
VMI
began early with
and breakfast.
reveille
Classes were from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., followed by an hour of closeorder
drill
on the parade ground. Patton learned how
to "brace" (a position
of rigid attention, with the chin firmly tucked into the chest, the face turning red from the exertion), and to
mation required of
ton
the various items of useless infor-
Patton's first term was abruptly cut short in late October when Lexingwas swept by an epidemic of deadly typhoid fever. As a precaution the
VMI
authorities decided to furlough the entire corps until the threat passed,
and for a month the to California six
memorize
all "rats."
institute
and spent half
remained eerily devoid of his
life.
unexpected vacation on
Patton returned
trains,
which took
days each way.-" Patton played
teammates
later
left
tackle for the
described him as "a
1903^ tall,
scrub football team.
thin,
hot-tempered
One
'rat'
of his
from Los
Angeles." In 1945 Patton would recall that he was "probably the world's worst football player, but
I
did begin to inherit there
—
or one might say
'inhale' the fighting spirit of that great institution."-'
Patton
managed
to stay out of trouble
even when some of
his classmates
The Making
66
As
did not.
commandant wrote
the
an Officer
of
January
to his father in
1
some mem-
904,
bers of the fourth class "distinguished themselves the other night, but
George had the good sense not
be
to
in
good luck not
or the
it,
be
to
caught.""
Although Patton's academic marks were generally high, there were already indications of trouble ahead.
He had
slipped in Latin and worried
my
about the erratic nature of his performance. "Last week
was
a
little
over 60 while
my
Latin average
other studies were between 92 and 95. At
would think this pretty fair but here I am utterly heart-broken." Feardream could slip away if his grades faltered, Patton buckled down and studied harder than ever, particularly to bring up his marks in Latin. The effort paid off, as his grades steadily improved. He remained single-minded about West Point: "I must get that appointment. The only reason I am so ancious to get in [to West Point] next year
home
I
ful that his
.
is
.
.
that the joys of cadet life are not so grate as to
make me wish
to
spend
six
years in the enjoyment of them. Five years will be bad enough but six o lord."^^
For the benefit of Georgie's morale, Mr. Patton continued to provide optimistic assurances regarding
West
which misled
Point,
his son to write in
January 1904,
I
suppose
wont have if I
would not
am
to
appointment
like to
all
go
man
be a military
In spite of
way
my
is
pretty sure
to study Latin here next year. in the it
.
.
Army from
would be much
Mr. Patton's
.
and
I
am
glad of
here
I
would
better for
because
like to but since
me
Bard repeatedly
efforts,
it
I
Mama asked in her last letter to
go
I
to W.P.'^
resisted taking the
more ado and thus saving himself considerable further pressure from the small army of influential men who were bombarding him with letters. Bard soon confirmed that he was
easy
out by appointing Georgie without
appointing several referees to administer informal competitive examinations,
and also telegraphed the
inquire if Patton nation.
VMI
superintendent, Gen. Scott Shipp, to
would be released from
Assured by Shipp
that
must attend the forthcoming examination Papa wrote
to his
son that
VMI
to take the
West Point exami-
he would. Bard cabled Mr. Patton that his son
it
was
to
be held
his decision
in
Los Angeles.
whether to remain
at
VMI
or stake his future on West Point, but before he could even mail
it,
gram
would be
aiTived from Bard announcing that the dreaded examination
held in mid-February in Los Angeles. Mr. Patton wrote settles the matter.
...
I
do not think you should fear
the required test ... In the
meantime make no change
at
once
that:
a tele-
'This
to subject yourself to in
your present course
of hard work, and do not allow yourself to be upset or disconcerted by this matter."-^ Privately
Papa was uncertain
if
his son
was
"sufficiently set in his
A
67
Father's Influence
determination to go into the army as a permanent career," but nevertheless beUeved he must take his chances on West Point in Heu of the certainty of
completing VMI, to avoid a lifetime of regret such as he himself had endured.'^
Patton sent Bard's secretary the required letter containing his personal
and a
data,
certificate
from the
VMI
surgeon that he was "entirely sound
was
physically and of excellent physical development," height,
weighed 167 pounds
(
one inch
six feet
a gain of nearly seventeen
pounds since
admission the previous autumn), and had a chest measurement of
He
eight inches.
Among
incorrectly listed his birthdate as
the required certificate and
November
documents was one from
in
his
thirty-
1886.-^
11,
Dr. Stephen
Cutter Clark, advising that George S. Patton had passed examinations in an array of subjects and had dent.
He was always
"showed himself an earnest and conscientious
very gentlemanly in his behavior to
all
to his fellow students; a thoroughly clean, pure, conscientious
deservedly a favorite with
young man,
all."-'^
George Patton returned
February 1904.
to California in early
studied diligently during the lengthy train journey and the
stu-
the teachers and
most important day of the young man's
son grew increasingly anxious. After
life
He had
Lake Vineyard. As
at
approached, both father and
George S. Patton's future would be determined by how well he did during one fateful day. On Februall
the effort,
ary 15 Patton dutifully completed Senator Bard's competitive examination
without incident. The next day he was on a train for the six-day journey
back
to
VMI.
The uneasy wait ended on March 4, when Mr. Patton received a brief telegram from Bard (dated the previous day), announcing: HAVE TODAY NOMINATED YOUR SON AS PRINCIPAL TO WEST POINT. The preparation had paid I
off:
Patton had scored
first in
the competitive examination. In 1947 Bard's
son wrote to Beatrice Ayer Patton that he had just come across his father's records of Patton's appointment, and although "I did not find the report of the committee,
is
it
clear
enough
judged the future General
that they
to
be
definitely the best of the lot."-'
Papa's
letter
of congratulations to his son hinted
at the
extent of the gru-
eling two-year ordeal:
It
that
has been a long and tiresome quest, but
you
will
be more than compensated.
taken, thus fixing your future career for
so with a desires
full
appreciation of
most strongly
consideration,
is
to
do
what he
is
all that it
It is
life
and
means
in this world, if
your success
in
a serious step
.
.
I
.
am that
sure
I
am
sure
you have
you have done
which a man
he has really given
generally most fitted to do.
it
careful
The Making
68
of
an Officer
After the enormity of Bard's announcement had fully sunk ton sent a second, heartfelt letter to George on
how proud we
feel
.
.
.
you may look forward
March
in,
Mr. Pat-
"You cannot know
4:
—
an honorable career
to
soldier of your country." Prophetically he wrote that
all
as a
signs pointed to a
period of war in which he believed the United States would play a leading role. is
"You have
one
you
will reap
you good soldier blood
in
to inspire
your darndest
your merited reward. ...
—and
you
the opportunity before
Be honorable
effort.
—brave—clean—and
A thousand blessings.
.
.
Patton wrote to Bard expressing his "deep sense of gratitude for the
honor you have done me. in
which
believe that
I
West Point and afterwards Bard died
me
appointment places
this
army
in the
realize the gravity of the position
my
do
will try to
I
to the best of
in 1915, his political career a
momentous
I
and
my
duty both
ability."-'
at
Senator
mere footnote of history but
for his
decision to appoint young George Smith Patton to West Point.
Patton permitted himself a rare
moment of pleasure.
Dear Papa: Well
As
I
for Mr.
guess
Bard
hollyness. ... teled.
I
At
have just
have got
I
And I am
it.
last after all at this
these
moment
many
received
years this thing
my
certificate,
remains for the government inspectors to examin
if
they consider that
at the
point
.
.
worrying. ...
.
1
tonight
am
ing to that paper
account for
I
sufficiently
I
is
on
will
sound
you
are.
I
1
finally set-
is
and now
it
only
my
imortal soul)
to be killed,
I
suppose
be admitted to the mental fatning pen
the first time that
sorry that
signed
I
I
.
.
.
can
at last
stop
have been such a nusance ... but accord-
guess you will be freed from care on
at least eight years.
literary effort
a dictator
am
I
Christmas turkey
that like the
sure
hundred and sev-
this
enty pounds of meat (which forms the earthly cage of
and
am
beastly glad and
rank him and the pope on an equal plane of
I
my
Please thank the California Club for the
my behalf and tell them that when I become my picture and autograph to be hung up along
their part in
will send
them
with the moose head, fish and the bear. a vigorous use of your influence
1
.
.
.
And
with the help of
God and
have the appointment.
Your loving and
George
greatful son,
S. Patton,
Jr.^-
Patton also wrote to share his triumph with Beatrice Ayer, but his elation
was
short-lived during his final three
months
forcefully reminded by upperclassmen that for
lowly
"rat."
He was
hazed,
at
all
times unmercifully:
at
VMI, when he was
his success,
he was
still
a
A
69
Father's Influence
They made him memorize magazine and newspaper articles about West Point and recite them on call, tore his bed apart, and ran him ragged on countless fool's errands. He took it all in stride and worked harder than ever
—so hard
that
Major Strother
twenty-day leave to
weeks tramping over
[the
commandant]
.
Patton's notion of a vacation
rest.
the Civil
War
battlefields in the
.
.
made him
was
to
take a
spend three
Shenandoah
Valley,
studying the terrain so that he could visualize more clearly every engage-
ment had
In
in that
phase of the war and see for himself where his grandfather
died.^^
May
1904 Patton passed the required physical examination with
ing colors and three weeks later received a letter from the
fly-
War Department
announcing: "I have the honor to inform you that you have met the require-
ments for admission, and
upon reporting
in
you
that
will
be regularly admitted as a Cadet
person to the Superintendent of the
Academy on
the 16th
day of June, 1904."^^
On
June
1
VMI
was accepted with reluctance to have him return. In fact, VMI, he would have been appointed
Patton's resignation from
by General Shipp, who would have been pleased Patton learned that had he remained
at
corporal the following year, an honor accorded to the outstanding
first
plebe.^^
George reality.
S. Patton's
dream of entering West Point was about
Had he known what
cause for exhilaration risen
at his
at
included not a single demerit.
and he had met
it
become a more
appointment. In a scant nine months he had
above a passable but hardly notable academic record
school to an impressive one
to
dyslexia was, he might have had even
VMI, and It
was
at Dr.
Clark's
a perfect record of deportment that
the first real challenge of Patton's
successfully by a combination of hard
determination. However, the road to an
army commission
life,
work and sheer still
had
to pass
through West Point, which would be a new and even more daunting chal-
and pampered childhood, and his fanbecoming a great and famous general, Patton understood full well West Point would be "the Hell to come."^^
lenge. Despite his youth, his sheltered tasy of that
CHAPTER
6
"The Military Scliool of
West
America"
Point,
1904-1905
The Corps! The Corps! The Corps! The long gray line of us stretches Thro' the years of a century told.
.
.
.
.
.
.
—HERBERTS. SHIPMAN
West Point began ates in
its
existence as a school for engineers, and
1802 consisted of exactly two
the Corps of Engineers.' officers, but
both
rate high." In
its
(1817-33)
is
By 1818 West
S.
all
mined
in
ates
graduin
Point had graduated a total of 202
Grant.
still
a
mere 38 graduates
in the class that
Sylvanus Thayer, the third superintendent
credited with establishing West Point as a first-class institution
and for originating class rankings, daily classroom ment,
its first
who were commissioned
input and class size remained small and the attrition
1843 there were
included Ulysses
officers,
of which
made up
recitations,
and deport-
a cadet's final standings and ultimately deter-
which branch of the army he was commissioned. The top gradu-
became engineer and
artillery officers,
while the middle and bottom
ranks of each class found themselves commissioned in the infantry. Thus,
when Robert
E.
Lee finished second
neer, while Grant,
the infantry.^
who
in the class
of 1829 he became an engi-
finished in the middle of his class,
was relegated
to
"The
By
Military
the time of the Civil War,
School
of
America"
71
West Point had come of age. The armies its graduates, who, in
of the Union and the Confederacy were dominated by
addition to Grant and Lee, included George B. McClellan, day,
George Gordon Meade,
J.
E.
Abner Double-
B. Stuart, Philip Sheridan, William
Tecumseh Sherman, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Joseph G. Johnston, Ambrose E. Burnside, Jefferson Davis, and the "goat" (lowest-ranking graduate) of the class of 1861, an intensely ambitious young officer named George Armstrong Custer. "Of the sixty major battles of the war, fifty-five of them were commanded on both sides by West Point graduates, and the other five battles had a West Point commander on at least one side."^ Although the Civil War pitted West Point classmates against one another, it failed either to seriously disrupt
for the Confederacy
its
mission or to prevent those
from eventually sending
their sons to the
who
fought
academy.
And
while the postwar classes were dominated by Northerners, by the time of the
Spanish-American War
in
1898, several former West Point graduates
had served the Confederacy as generals had been recommissioned
who
in the
U.S. Army, thus finally signaling an end to the cleavage the war had wrought.-
After the Civil War, the practice of hazing the daily at
life
of a plebe
at
West
meals, on the parade ground,
became
a part of
West Point
became an
integral part of
Point. Bracing, as well as petty harassment in
quarters,
tradition.
and
in the
quadrangle soon
The excesses included strenuous
physical and often harmful exercise, liberal doses of Tabasco sauce in a plebe's food, and elaborate funeral ceremonies for dead rats. Hazing pro-
duced
a
code of silence on the part of the hapless plebes, and
matter of dishonor to expose the upperclassmen chief.
was
Among
those
who was hazed
unmercifully
the valedictorian of the class of 1903,
son of a noted army
who
at the turn
Douglas
it
became
a
perpetrated such mis-
of the century
Mac Arthur,
himself the
officer.'^
At the turn of the century the U.S. Military Academy was considerably smaller than today's imposing facility, but in June 1904, when George Smith
VMI gray for that of a West Point plebe, it was little changed from the remote outpost of the nineteenth century. The first thing
Patton exchanged
he noticed about West Point was that the third classmen assigned to greet
and
train the
newcomers included many whose
tions differed only semantically
for the past year.
Newly
shouting, abuse, and instruc-
from those who had tormented him
liberated
from
their
own
at
VMI
year of hell as plebes,
many were on hand to greet the incoming members of the class of 1908, for the commencement of what is still nicknamed "Beast Barracks" (also known as "Plebe Camp" in Patton's time). After being measured for and receiving uniforms and the other impedi-
menta of a
cadet, the plebes
were assigned
to
companies
A through
F on
the
The Making
72
As one of
basis of their height.
of
an Officer
the tallest, Patton ended up in
A Company.
Plebes were assigned to four-man squads, which were harassed
every formation, usually by two third classmen. For the
were taught the rudiments of military
drill
first
and ceremonies
city adjacent to the Plain (the plateau area
each and
at
month, plebes
in a
nearby tent
of West Point, overlooking the
Hudson). Demerits were assigned for infractions of discipline and regulations
and punishment tours walked with
new
In mid-July the
with upperclassmen, to
come with
harassment
and pack.
summer camp
cadets were integrated into the annual
who
eagerly awaited their arrival and warned of things
"We have been
waiting for you," and endless
form of chores for them,
that included "folding bedding;
shouts of:
in the
rifle
cleaning spurs, sabers, guns, breastplates, and shoes; sweeping the streets; and,
and making out the upper classman's hop cards.
cuffs,
pomp and
In spite of the harassment, Patton relished the
aspects of military
VMI. During
the
which spawned
life
and thought West Point was
summer of 1904 two
in
him romantic
was very impressive and
It
think
worth going
it is
my
the ranks of
my
defeated
am
me. But
I
George
S.
afraid that
army
social ilk as those at inferior social
who
enemy
status,
great. ...
I
my body
my own
certainly I
at
would
born between
regiment and have
what people thought of .
.
West Point exceedingly conscious of
most of
his fellow cadets lost his
}
his
were not of the same
aversion to those of alleged
a snobbish trait his grandson ascribes to Patton's
"considered himself to be of better stock, therefore of better
bom In
this feeling is
Most were "nice fellows but very few
gentlemen ... the only ones of that type are Southerners."
room with two former
August he announced:
men have begun
to respect
me,
if
VMI
"I believe that
not to like
me
men; "both are gen-
some of
and
I
am
the upper class
glad to say that
among the gentlemen for the rest I dont care At supper one night Patton was harassed by a yearling
only apparent
and they know
who began
and then have
escorted by
VMI. He never
Patton eventually elected to tlemen.""'
drums were
have not got enough sence or persistance.
character than most other men.'"'
indeed are
academy,
at the
just to get a military funeral.
revil [revel] in hearing
Patton arrived
social status, believing that
father,
I
generals were buried
the muffeled
in the
come down and
spirit
ceremonial
less oppressive than
visions of great warriors and death:
like to get killed in a great victory
I
company
on hop nights, arranging clothing, putting on clean collars and
it."
yelling at him:
payed no attention
Harris from Texas
infact
who
is
all at once a man named "A" Co. spoke up and said.
was impudent, when
second corp[oral]
in
.
"The
Military
School
America"
of
"Henry havent you enough brains
to see that
do any thing
He
(who looks room mates
him."
yell at
like a pes-ant) hell.
you cant make a gentleman
then proceeded to give Mr. Henry
be the three plebes
to
heaven
from
is
removed from these
hell.
I
know
my
that
one which may never have
case
I
tiny."
may be
I
do
will
a dreamer but
my
lazy, patriotic, or
ambition
a selfishnes for instead of sparing me,
course
choice of
at his table."
of 1904 Patton confided to his father that "I belong to a
different class a class perhaps almost extinct or
existed yet as far
my
speaks pretty well for
It
chosen us
that Harris has
summer
In the
you
if
73
it
makes me
best to attain what
consider
I
my
exert
have a firm conviction
I
peace soldiers as
and cold yet
selfish
is
I
am
not
it is
Of
self. ...
not and in any
—wrongly perhaps—my
des-
what would become a
life-
'-
His
first
days
at
West Point
also precipitated
He wrote of "catching a unguarded moment I said that we
time penchant for saying the wrong thing in public.
good deal of
because
hell lately
an
in
VMI than here." Ever since, "All the corps have been tryshow me my error and they have succeeded."'^ Like all cadets, he
braced harder ing to
at
complained endlessly of the grind of cadet Hfe, of the lousy food (meat so tough "the more you chewed
the bigger
it
got"), too
it
little
sleep,
and the
quaint customs. "If General Sherman's definition of war be right west point is
war."'^ Patton
began marking off on a calendar the number of days
left in
his plebe year, writing hopefully to Beatrice: "I will only be a plebe for
two
hundred and nienty seven day's more."
From
the beginning he
Unable
detractors.
was
few friends and a great many
a loner with
to hide his disdain,
he was deemed arrogant and remote.
Whether because of a vendetta or mere hazing, in mid-August Patton, on guard duty, was attacked by three cadets. When one lunged and attempted to seize his
rifle,
Patton threatened to bayonet the
person to attack him.
first
Fortunately the catch on his bayonet slipped and retracted into
he might have killed the cadet. The muzzle of his
away, and thereafter Patton was wistfully recalled that, "I
have gotten so
I
am
left alone.''
I
amount
sheath, or
his attacker
Patton was also homesick, and
rather sorry in a
dont care whether
its
knocked
rifle
way
ing to over-come this somnistic condition and
that
I
went
to
VMI.
any thing or not but
to
work
.
.
.
two
I
...
am
I
try-
years in suc-
rat
cession are very depressing."
Although military
life at
West Point was
less
demanding than he had
antic-
ipated,
he found the frequent twenty-four-hour guard duty "very hard
though
we
as a glove I
will
be
are allowed to
and of course
in
it
go is
to
bed
at night
not very
much
.
fun sleeping in
full
uniform.
.
confinement next week for not knowing an order on guard. ...
hate to get reported especially as
I
knew
.
none of us can take off so much .
.
I
the order but did not understand the
O.D. [Officer of the Day] when he asked me."'"
On
at least
one occasion
The Making
74
summer
that
his dyslexia left
of
an Officer
him unable
an order posted on the bul-
to read
letin board.
The only welcome diversion from
the harassment and military routine
were mandatory daily hour-long dancing
enhance
classes, designed to
their
education as future officers and gentlemen. Dancing instructors were brought to
West Point
to
conduct classes, which usually featured roommates as part-
from time
ners, although
some young
to time
ing the entire 'Plebe
dancing and
in
Camp'
one of
we had any
that
his first letters
Ayer wrote of being "simply perfect"
The summer of 1904 was
mood
George
fun."'^
from West Point
also participate.
a series of highs and lows.
Patton enjoyed
S.
Banning
to Beatrice
female
in the role of the
partner.'**
He experienced
severe
swings, oftentimes in the course of a single letter home. Even an
innocuous present from Beatrice was enough fragile that
he could write: "Beatrice sent
watch
I
mean
would
ladies
cadet in the class of 1891 has written: "It was here and only here dur-
As one
fob. I
a
silver soldier for
little
hope there was no hidden sarcasm
was a
doubts in a persona so
to raise
me
in
my
and that she did not
it
tin soldier."'"
his third class year was still nearly eleven months off, Patton was already worrying about promotion and his future standing in the Corps
Although
of Cadets. first
".
men
ten
.
.
be the one and get
some
to get a high corp [promotion] here a
or else be the sun of an officer and since
am
office for
officer than
not the other I
know
I
am
man has to be in the am afraid that I cant
I
bad way.
in rather a
with out a doubt that
I
Still
make
will
a
I
hope
much
that
I
better
any of the present third class do."
Patton was not particularly tolerant of the West Point system:
Our whole
class will
have more demerits than any preceding class for
since the upper class-men are not allowed to speak to us or correct us,
they naturally bone us [with demerits] and they are quite right. Indeed
I
think that the system which they have adopted here of absolute for-
barance toward plebes, will ruin the academy in a very few years. not one fifth the respect for an upper class tute,
and with out respect
it is
man
here that
I
had
I
have
at the insti-
impossible to have good discipline.^"
His constant complaining notwithstanding, Patton soon realized that
West Point was indeed
special:
"The absolute honor of
yet so ever present that after a time
it
but truth here and even the worst of the rabble to is
most
fitly
his
first
whom
applied soon learn this and conform to
There were early indications
that Patton
military exercise in the hills
attempted to
infiltrate
amazing
this place is
ceases to be noticible. There the
name
is
nothing
'plebean'
it."-'
might be exceptional. During
above West Point, the "enemy"
through a long skirmish
line.
Patton was one of the
"The
Military Scliool of
guards and instead of concealing himself
America"
75
an obvious place, hid in foot-
at
high grass and after patiently waiting in the torrid heat for several hours,
was rewarded when he
was highly praised
"killed" an infiltrator. "I
hiding capacity." Yet, by his
own
my
for
admission, he would often get into trouble
others easily avoided. "I try not to get boned," he told his father, "but cant
seem ranks
to .
.
manige still I
.
it.
I
some
get skined for
think that
am
I
foolish offense such as
yawning
in
better off than the majority."--
Despite the severe restrictions, Patton and Beatrice began a courtship that
was
to
encompass
academy. In his
his years at the
know
certainly glad to
that
I
am
missed and
first letter
that
am
he wrote: "I
you would
like to see
me."" Although plebes had scant time for the luxury of daydreaming, Beabegan
trice
to intrude
more and more
ingly important part of his
The
what
my chances
"We
begin studying on the
when we do
of being able to stick
this
and
at last
I
came
the hazing abated.
the day
The final was when they were marching back
of
first
find out just
are."-^
when the training ended and day of summer camp Patton proudly reported
Finally
the hazing often
what bothered Patton most during the summer of 1904 was
shall be rather glad
I
is
it
increas-
life.
uncertain academic prospects.
September.
become an
was physically exhausting and
intense training
infuriating, but
his
even though
into his thoughts,
doubtful that he was yet prepared to admit that she had
to his father that
it
to their barracks that "I realised that all
was part of the corps I at me and that The only draw back being that I was only part of the corps not whole thing. Of a truth, I am too ambitious, too much of a dweller in of those people were looking
I
fine.
felt
the the
future."
The academic ordeal Patton had long dreaded was about drew our books
to day,"
he wrote
very hard but of course they are." As his
he attempted
first
semester
Papa the tempest
to express to
ness, his compelling need to excel,
to begin.
"We
end of August, "and they dont look
at the
and
his
that
at
West Point neared,
raged within, the loneli-
remoteness from others.
It
was
just over a year, he noted,
since this
I
started to learn the profession of killing
instead of increasing. For even it,
my
year of contact with the world
those
who
I
fame or
had expected
tion [of] a soldier or a I
have
man
.
in
self
set for
man.
my
.
.
.
And
if
And
.
rather a
my
in
I
take
not the
is
feel
and
languid lacitude,
[a]
denying selfishness which
others but
.
has dwindeled
the best, and the best are,
car[e]less indifference or hazy uncertainty not
task
brothers.
devote them selves to the service of Mars, there
self sacrificing love of
which
among
my
respect for
becoming
in
I
my
estima-
nature prove incapable of the
self or if the opportunity
never comes
I
can
at
The Making
76 least die
alone
I
happy
my own
in
an Officer
of
knowing
vanity
that
I
stood alone and that
fell.''
George Patton began
how
to discover just
out to be in September 1904
when
the
difficult
West Point would turn
Corps of Cadets
settled into a routine
that hardly ever varied:
Cadets marched to every event: classes,
athletics, meals,
and parades. Plebes were even marched
house across the area from their barracks.
from
after another,
chapel services,
to bath formations in the bath.
.
Life
.
was one formation Only on
reveille at 5:30 a.m. to taps at 10:00 p.m..
Sundays did the plebe have much
if
any free
time.-"
The cadet rooms were Spartan, devoid of any
creature comforts, and
equipped only with iron bedsteads, hair mattresses, a single blanket and
low per cadet, a chair and
pil-
metal washbasins, soap, towels,
table, individual
and a crude clothespress. With regularity Patton and his fellow cadets would
complain of the numbing cold they were compelled
to endure.-'
Not only were the living conditions wretched but plebe year academics were especially difficult for Cadet George S. Patton, who lamented that English was pure memorization and: "pretty hard for me because it is simply grammar and I know nothing of it. ... I don't believe that there is any possibility of my being found [flunked] at least this year for there are some absolute fools in the present third class
place
at
night
it is
and every one of them studying Mathematics bra, plane
who
got through.
You should
absolutely soundless yet there are five hundred
filled
see this
men
in
it
like hell."-**
each weekday morning and included geometry, alge-
and spherical trigonometry, surveying, and analytical geometry.
Afternoons were devoted to French or
to ethics
and
history. Tactical
instruction each afternoon consisted of artillery and infantry tactics, fencing,
The
bayonet exercises, and military gymnastics.-'
strain
on the cadets was
ton's plebe class kill
a
first
heavy
that several
members of
classman, prompting Patton to observe, "so you see
pretty hard and this 'the
sufficiently
Pat-
snapped before the school year ended. One attempted
knowledge may enable you
to
excuse some of
to
we
study
my
letters
very stupid ones.'"^" Patton was torn between an ability to see future greatness for himself
and his dyslexia, which served unceasingly both ordinary and stupid. His
overcome an
affliction
first
to implant the notion that
he was
plebe year was an uneven struggle to
about which he had no conception.
"I
dont
know
"The
whether you knew or not genius or
at least that I
soon after classes such a
men
belief.
that
I
of
America"
"Well ...
at
that
present
see
I
little
neither quicker nor brighter in any respect than other
nor do they look upon
me
as a leader as
it is
said Napolions class mates
me
have ideals with out strength of character enough
I
was a mihtary Papa in which to base I
great general," he wrote
looked upon him. In fact the only difference between that
77
have always thought
was or would be a
started.
am
I
School
Military
and other people
up
to live
to
is
them
and they have not even got them."^'
Another aspect of Patton's struggle centered on an
illusion.
He began
someone begun
entirely different
macho
rugged,
male.^-
to display
—
in short, to reinvent
When
Patton entered
to
was
affect personality traits intended to deceive others into believing he
himself in the guise of a
VMI
in
1903 he had already
unmistakable signs of a significant personality change. As
a teenager he had perceived that a military leader must present an image of invincibility
and toughness,
traits
then utterly alien to him. Determined to
prepare himself for generalship, Patton began acting in a manner that bore scant resemblance to his true persona.
As biographer Martin Blumenson
accurately observes of Patton, he concocted his
how
own
personal perception of
a leader and a general ought to look and behave, and he spent the
remainder of his aristocratic.
seemed
What
life
honing
that
image by becoming profane,
ruthless,
and
His famous scowl became so successful a part of his persona
as if he
had been born with
it
it
permanently engraved on his face.
Patton never understood was that while he succeeded beyond mea-
sure, in so doing,
"he killed
much
of his sensitivity and warmth and thereby
turned a sweet-tempered and affectionate child into a seemingly hard-eyed
and choleric adult.""
There
is
ample evidence of the evolution of young George Patton from VMI and West
the happy-go-lucky youth of Southern California into the
Point cadet possessed by a single-minded ambition to succeed
mation
that his classmates perceived as
—
a transfor-
naked ambition. There was nothing
wrong with aspiring eventually to become the first general in his class, but it was tactless to let it become common knowledge in a boastful fashion. Patton also bragged that he would letter at West Point in football, a feat he was unable to accomplish. His belief that he was different from other cadets, that
he possessed a unique sense of commitment they lacked, that he was special
—
where they were simply ordinary, was bound to breed resentment and it did. When the upper classmen learned he had been at VMI, the hazing intensified.
Other military institutions were regarded as
so than forcibly
VMI. During reminded
scornfully
"tin schools,"
none more
summer of 1904 Patton was frequently and often he was now at West Point. His classmates soon
the
that
dubbed him with the nickname "Georgie."
Nevertheless, despite his boastful attempts to portray himself as a tough guy, the ultramacho image that Patton cultivated in later years
was not
fully
The Making
78
of
an Officer
present in the youthful West Point cadet. Inside he remained a tenderhearted
young man, always anxious to please his father and requnnig constant parental approval and encouragement for everything he did.'^ Patton's letters to Beatrice and his parents in the
autumn of 1904 focused
almost exclusively on his academic difficulties. West Point required exten-
which turned out
sive memorization,
be the only means by which Patton
to
could keep pace with the demands of his instructors. The technique of
mem-
now
bene-
orizing he had learned from Nannie and Papa at Lake Vineyard fited
him.
Although Patton struggled with academic subjects, he had no such problems on the parade ground, where he was been perfect so
The grind was
interrupted in
mother. Aunt Nannie, and his
and Nita seems
to
far
more comfortable.
he proudly informed
far in drill regulations,"
mid-September by a welcome
sister, Nila.
be quite grown up.
'They were
don't believe
1
base wood,
it
cannot improve that which
fully reciprocated her brother's love life in
the Patton ancestral
shrine dedicated to her
home
famous
at
is
mother or
some
his doting
the flaws
already perfect."" Nita Patton
Swords,
brother.
to be near "the
which was
and admiration. She lived most of her
Throughout most of Patton's years
They wanted
his
he was protective and gen-
Lake Vineyard, and
guns, and a large portrait dominated the main
either his
from
be."*" Little
sister,
some varnishes "can hide
tlemanly, and once said of her that while in
life
visit
ever will
has been written about Patton's loving relationship with his
devoid of jealousy or envy. To the end of his
have
looking splendidly
all I
"I
Papa.''^
at
room of the
VMI
in
turned
it
into a
and machine
house.""
and West Point,
Aunt Nannie lived
boy"
later
pistols, rifles,
nearby lodgings.
in
case he needed anything. There are
pathetic letters between Georgie's parents, written during that time,
telling
each other
how
they miss each other, and
how someday, when the many
children are grown, they will be together, never to part. There are
references to "walking hand-in-hand into the sunset." But time, they encouraged each other to stay near "the boy"
mutual loneliness as best they could.
that their presence either reassured or inspired him,
feelings continued to be revealed mainly
beloved Papa,
who
.
in the
mean-
and bear
their
any of Patton's voluminous correspon-
is,
dence
in
.
''^
There
however, no evidence
.
in
his
and
his
innermost
intimate letters to his
rarely left California.
Though Patton and
his
roommate, Henry Ayres, had both attended VMI,
they rarely agreed on anything. Ayres had a penchant for finding trouble, as well as a propensity for settling problems with fisticuffs. Patton regarded
"The
anyone who tempted
School
Military
of
fate as stupid; in turn
America"
79
Ayres thought Georgie arrogant.
Trouble erupted one cold night when the two fought over whether their win-
dow
A
should remain open or shut.
room and earned
ensued
brutal fight
that
wrecked
Patton a swollen face that reduced his eyes to
their
Mirac-
slits.
ulously their brawl escaped the attention of the authorities, and within a
week he
.
the
.
.
two fought
had
As he continued
the best of
little
I
is
his teeth,
classroom, Patton spoke openly in his
to struggle in the
don't consentrate but daudle along ...
One of
demerits for foolish things.""'
dyslexics
though
it,
from between
lips
of the uncertainty of his surviving academically.
in studying
many
handle to pry his
mouth swollen. "^'^
so badly was his
letters
again, "with Ayres getting a
to use a toothbrush
that others believe they are
"I
my
have
am
I
old fault
also getting too
dilemmas faced by
the daily
merely stupid. There are few
ments worse than being publicly identified as "slow." The harder he the
worse he seemed
and by early October 1904 Patton's
to do,
tor-
tried
slide in
English had worsened:
I
am
the
doing
bottom
lack of
me on
rottin I
.
.
and unless
.
got an instructor
I
it
much
with
did in
camp
study and don't. in the
same
in
better will
an evil
I
to give a
but
am
see
I
and
regularity
seem 1
my
fix. ... If I
ing better for then
One
do much
.
.
.
not even stop at
moment found
out
my
utter
knowledge about English Grammar so he has been questioning
flunked. ... "I don't off as
I
who
I
equal
exactness
only hope that
absolutely worthless
I
know
have
will shake
I
that
it
should
I
lack of preparation today but tomorrow will be
were only
tried
with
I
dam"
my
and took a
self of a year
vital interest
ago
I
would ask noth-
but now, o! hellf^
letters read: "I am a characterless, lazy, stupid, who will degenerate into a third rate second lieucommand anything more than a platoon."""
of his most anguished
yet ambitious dreamer;
tenant and never
Patton tried out for the football team but was cut and played intramural football for his cadet
company, vowing he would
try
harder than ever the fol-
lowing year to make the varsity team. Football also became an excuse to
resume
his courtship of Beatrice. Cadets
games, and he announced
his delight if she
were
allotted tickets to
would come
to
any or
Patton dabbled in poetry throughout most of his adult the first efforts, in 1904, he describes the fall landscape:
the river are very pretty
now
with
all
life,
Anny home
all
of them.^
and
"The
in
one of
hills
across
the different colors of Autumn."
But
to
an imaginative mind they might almost seem to exemplify "[ejarthly vanity
which takes on
like the trees its
quenched by the
As
chill
most gaudy clothing
just before
it is
forever
winter of failure.""^
the time neared
wrote: "The best thing
—
when
his progress
the only thing
now
would be formally noted, he me to do is to by doubly
left for
The Making
80
down
hard work live stand
was
an Officer
the effects of a poor
problem
that his
of
What he could
start"^''
not under-
lay not in his study habits but his dyslexia. His
academic report for October was a mixed blessing. Of 153 cadets fourth class, he rated 55th in math,
1
in the
4th in Drill Regulations, but a dismal
however, that he was was a scoundril and did not like me so he consequently gave me low marks. You need not bother about my being 139th in English."*^
passing English.
found
It
seemed
"My
to bolster his confidence,
old instructor
in English."^"
His enthusiasm was fleeting, and less than a the pessimistic Patton of old.
nineteen years of his
I
amount
He complained
to very little
more than when It
was
I
seems
to
a baby. ...
me
boys appear haps
just that
it is
what ever
it
is
I
am
that for a
some thing they should be good at least to make successes but though [I] want to
to
he reverted to
later
he had wasted the
first
life:
every thing but good in nothing.
amount
week
that
in
one
fare in
person to
thing.
Other
dont succeed. Per-
I
lack that small fraction of courage, will power, or
I
which makes them succeed. Or perhaps
I
dont
any
fail
my jealousy makes me think I do. Still when I look at even my class mates I don't fell [feel] that sense of superiority which seemes to me should be felt by a (not great) but by a successful man. I some times fear that I am one of these darned dreamers with a willing spirit but a weak flesh a man who is worse than any one else only
always going
to
succeed but
who never
does. Should
I
be such an one
more merciful had I died ten years ago for I at failleast can imagine no more infernal hell than to be forced to live ure. ... I am not sure I will be a general. Perhaps I show weakness to write this letter but for the past three weeks I have had such an over it
would have been
far
—
.
powering sense of to
my own
.
.
worthlessness that
I
had
to give expression
it.-*^
To Patton perception was everything and vinced he had
little
to offer anyone.
low self-esteem
his
left
him con-
Other than Papa there was no one to
tell
him he was dead wrong. In
November
Beatrice wrote to announce that she would soon be
making
her debut in Boston. Patton fumbled his reply:
You
cant imagine
how funny
out." Don't get angry but ...
did
.
.
.
I
it
seems
to
me
that
any of the other people whose comming outs
this is sent
because you havent got
you have
.
.
.
well you dont
you are "coming
don't hold you in half as
lots
seem very
I
much awe
remember.
as
I
Now
more sence than they had because old.
.
.
.
Now
please dont be
mad
"
"The with
me
sedate,
He was
you want me
for if
and
Military
the rest of
all
School
to tell
it I
America"
of
you
that
1
81
think you are very old,
will.*
obliged to decline Ellen Banning Ayer's formal invitation to her
daughter's debut, but wrote to Beatrice that he hoped "you will have the
very best time in the world
November
at
your coming
out.
.
.
showed dramatic improvement in English to seventy-first, but he remained fearful that there was too little time left "to redeem my honor."" After his math grade plunged during a bad week, PatPatton's
ton predicted that
some
it
report
if he were to fail his plebe year. By would enhance his chance for a promotion
might be better
tortured logic he thought
it
by a
to cadet corporal, the highest rank attainable
I
actually think that if
I
don't get a corp
look you had better bring a coffin east
my
of developing
no one
in
my
and who so
In
who
class
sit
so hates to be
will die so
in the spring.
from the present out
may
It
such hard luck ... or
last
who
I
be a method
fancy there
so hard to be
tries
deliberately faked illness in order to postpone hav-
for a forthcoming written recitation, an act that in later years
—
have been a violation of the honor code
The ploy backfired when the dreaded recitation
He
the
diet,
for
which the penalty
West Point surgeon refused
and then denied
week. Kept on a liquid of starvation."^^
is
first
utterly fails.
December 1904 Patton
ing to
me
character to give
I
third classman. But:
would
is dismissal.'*^
excuse him from
to
his request to return to full duty for a
Patton returned to duty "in a condition
little
short
confided to Beatrice that he had been frightened. "I think
I illustrated Scotts verse 'o what a tangled web we weave. we practice to deceive.' only mine was a perfect 'Gordion knot.' The December exams were of crucial importance, and plebes were on academic probation until they passed them. "Those of the class who passed became cadets; those who failed did not receive their warrants.'"^^ Patton
that in this attempt
When
"^"^
first
passed. Papa did his best to encourage his son by
esteem needed such constant boosting until the next
academic
crisis
that his
began the cycle
all
letter,
but Patton's self-
encouragement lasted only over again. Papa tried hard,
but his pampered son was impossible to please. Even a minor letters
lull
brought immediate wails of protest to his long-suffering
between
father. Pat-
*Patton saved virtually every scrap of paper he ever wrote, resulting in a massive collection of papers. ters to
However,
after his death Beatrice
Ayer Patton burned most of her
let-
her husband, including those written during his West Point years, a fact confirmed
during a 1991 interview with her daughter, Ruth Ellen Totten. Thus
we
can only glimpse
Beatrice's inner feelings through the letters that survived the flames of her fireplace, the observations of family
and
friends,
and by inference from Patton's
replies.
from
The Making
82
of
an Officer
was letters of encouragement from home containing news of Los Angeles and the Patton household. But if they did not arrive with regularity, he would become depressed and occasionally testy. "You had betton's lifeline life in
ter
wake up and
for over
his
my am
but
last report
opinion
I
I
am
He
in
commend your judgement. ... In fact in my I am in the least discouraged I tell my shame only makes me cuss myself and
can hardly
pretty darned poor, not that
only ashamed; but sad to
does not make
letter
December 1904 "You said I did well
midyear exams
he reacted churlishly to his father's praise by writing,
own
had a
write," he once chastised his father. "I haven't
two weeks."" After passing
me work
harder.'"^**
between the humility of self-deprecation and the nagging
alternated
of a spoiled son accustomed to immediate acquiescence to his every whim,
whether
it
was
for stamps, writing paper, clothing,
candy, or to perform
some
erated having Nannie or
own
social
Mama
money,
nearby, he unhesitatingly used
ends. Robert points out that his grandfather wanted
wonders why they tolerated
would disdain Nannie's presence one moment
The answer
own
is
complex but
is
it
them
both ways, and
damned
as a
wangle a
nuisance, and favor.
was
consistent with the fact that he
creation: a youth raised in the long
tol-
to his
how, for example, he
his selfish behavior:
the next take advantage of her obsessive devotion to
very
his favorite
deed on his behalf. Although he barely
shadow of dead, heroic
their
Pattons.
Papa, skillfully assisted by Nannie, had deliberately cultivated in his son the
hope
he might become the heroic figure he himself had
that
tingly points out that there
who knew him
was a
not.
Robert
fit-
certain vulnerability in Patton that others
well could clearly discern. In private he did not take himself
seriously, displayed a chivalry that
charmed, and a vulnerability often mani-
fested by tears over the smallest thing. Moreover, despite his faults and his
nagging manner, Patton genuinely loved his parents, and, although unable to
comprehend Athletics
his affliction, they did all in their
became
power
to protect him.""
a valuable outlet from the ordeal of the classroom. During
the Christmas holidays in 1904 he decided to
make
the best of winter
and
took up skating, but his early attempts brought about frequent contact
between
his posterior
and the
ice,
leaving
him assured
that his future as
an
outdoor sportsman lay elsewhere. Acknowledging to Beatrice that he had, "just gotten to the stage
where
I
look upon any one
nasty things, with feelings near to worship," Patton
who can
stand up on the
vowed
keep
to
at
it."'
Lake Vineyard, Patton had never fenced before entering West Point. Although fencing was a formal part of the curriculum, he also began to practice with a broadsword in the anonymity of the gym, where he could give free expression to his perception that being a great swordsman was an essential trait of a great general. One day while practicOther than playacting
ing in the corner of the
Alvin Barber, a
first
at
gym
with another cadet
in
order to avoid attention,
classman and West Point's crack fencer, asked Patton
to
"The
Military
He performed
spar with him.
essential part of his
life.
School
America"
of
83
merely to learn the rudiments of
this sport
of gentlemen, and by the spring
of 1905 was sufficiently confident of his ability to write, "If to
anything else
never amount
I
can turn instructor with the broad sword, for
I
of the best in the class.
became an
so well that henceforth fencing
For the moment, however, Patton was content
It
of fun and
lots
is
I
practice
am
I
as
it
the best
much
as
possible."" Eventually, he began to refer to himself as "Master of the
Sword," a prophecy
that
would eventually be
fulfilled.
Patton also joined the track team and described himself as "turning into a
gray hound" even though on one occasion, "I almost brought
my
fiery life to
a sudden and tragic conclusion," after tripping over a hurdle at full speed,
on
falling
and badly skinning
his head,
lifetime of accidents that
A week
his knees.^'
These were the
strained a tendon in his left ankle.
first
might have killed unluckier or
later
he severely
of what would be a
less well-conditioned
men. Not only was Patton accident prone, but his impatience with the everyday problems of left
in
sometimes led
life
to acts of folly,
"hurting like hell" after deliberately cutting his
an attempt to
March
In early
"let the beast
the
proudly marched
Corps of Cadets entrained for Washington, D.C., where
down Pennsylvania Avenue
had been a nightmare of delays, generated
train]
like
.
.
.
mad
men
with a pocket knife
of a [wisdom] tooth through."
in
Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration parade. The that
such as the time he was
gum
"little
late
train ride to
Washington
meals, and an air of disorganization
currents
electric
it
wind during
a howling
of rage running
[throughout the
beat on the floor with gun butts and gave
little
short howls
dogs," before finally disembarking in foot-deep
mud
in the
of a cold, raw March
black
night.'"^
Beatrice and her parents had journeyed to Washington for the great event, and at the president's inaugural ball the night of
Beatrice danced together for the
ton
was
her
afterward.''''
clearly smitten,
He
first
March
time. Nineteen-year-old
and "had the
finest time
in the
4,
George and
George
S. Pat-
world," he wrote to
confessed to Papa that he could have danced on a hot
same eagerness he and Beatrice had danced on the cold stone meet a midnight cadet curfew, Patton felt Cinderella and departed with great reluctance. "Comeing out certainly
stove with the
floor of the ballroom. Obliged to like
had a wonderfully good saw. ...
I
am now
Throughout
effect
on Beatrice
.
.
.
she
is
the prettiest girl
I
ever
probably suffering from a bad attack of puppy love."^^
his life Patton avidly
employed any means
at his
disposal to
help advance or influence his career. In the spring of 1905 the entire Patton
come east to see Georgie, and remain in New summer. Patton, however, viewed the visit as more of an opporbetter his standing and urged his father not to "forget to cultivate
family was making plans to
York
for the
tunity to
the Tacks (U.S.
Army
officers assigned to
West Point
to teach military sub-
The Making
84 jects
and
an Officer
of
to administer discipline in the
don't count but
if
Corps of Cadets), the other officers
you can get on the good
side of the tacks
might get a
I
'make' [promotion]."^** Bolstered by Beatrice's encouraging
himself that he was
and
letters,
finally admitting to
Patton found even the impending end-of-year
in love,
examinations less threatening. However, his March report (103d left
him
French)
in
as discouraged as ever:
At
last
know what ing for
I still
me
it is
...
have found
1
my
the matter for
is
think that
I
am
certainly
...
I
am
nearly hopeless.
...
I
lot
of fools
who
I
don't
low rank-
hate to be so
men who
smarter than most of the
exasperating to see a
when you work hard
I
work
true place ...
I
rank
don't care beat you out
my own
cant think of any thing but
worthless-
ness so will stop writing.
Your goaty son,
George
my
Promising to "do
S. Patton,
Jr.^'^
damdest," Patton approached the exams "confi-
dent of getting through" and "happy at the prospects of an end to
study."^*^
Dyslexia so often results in fleeting highs and prolonged lows that Patton's euphoria was destined not to
last.
A
week
pendulum swung when
later the
another accident brought his morale crashing
He
(literally):
seventh hurdle during a track meet and finished
fell
over the
of second.
last instead
It
resulted in a tortured letter to his father:
Dear Papa:
I
seem
to
be destined to damnation.
gladly died Infact
crazy and patted
hard for
I
I
had hysteria
me on
the
in a
.
.
.
For an hour
mild form.
.
.
.
am
Monday
stupid there
is
would have
I
A[yres] thought
back and raised thunder over me.
hate to be beaten and try so hard and Fail
a 2.7 out of three
Pa
I
will
have
to take the
no use talking
I
am
nate that such earnestness and tenacity and so
.
.
.
and unless
math,
exam
stupid.
It is
my
sprained ankle gotten this afternoon
I
am
I
I
was
pretty
make
too.
truly unfortu-
much ambition
been put into a body incapable of doing any thing but wish, from
was
It
.
should have .
.
Asside
well and sad.
With George
lots
of love
S. Patton,
Jr.^'
"The
For the
Military
time in Patten's
first
School
life his
of
America"
85
father did not respond with sooth-
ing platitudes but instead bluntly but compassionately said that while ambition
and winning were admirable
traits,
defeat and failure without bitterness
"You must school yourself
— and
to take
your comfort
to
in
meet
having
wrote Papa, from that time on, "You have got to fight your battles
—take alone —
meet victory or defeat as becomes a man and a gentleman.
I
striven worthily
with a smile
you
fears for
When you
and done your
—and
—
know you
I
best. ... If
keep on trying
have done that
you do not get a 'Corp'
—your
are doing your best
—
for
me you
it
reward will come." Moreover,
—and
have won..
...
that is all .
.
God
to
have no
you can do.
bless
and keep
you."^-
Two
days
later
Mr. Patton received a telegram that he had secretly been
dreading.
THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY June
1905
12,
Dated: West Point, N.Y. To: George S. Patton
San Gabriel, Calif DID NOT PASS MATH. TURNED BACK TO THE NEXT CLASS. PROBABLY FURLOUGH THIS SUMMER. WILL WIRE DEFINITELY. //S// G.S.
PATTON'-
Mr. Patton immediately cabled his distraught son: IT
IS
ALL RIGHT
MY
BOY AND ALL FOR THE BEST. GOD BLESS YOU. FATHER. He also cabled his all for wife, who had only just arrived at West Point: don't worry BEST WIRE if NECESSARY SHOULD COME BUT HOPE [FOR AN] IMMEDIATE FURLOUGH [FOR GEORGIE] AND ALL HOME.
—
—
When
—
I
—
Patton returned to West Point in the autumn of 1905 to begin his mili-
tary career all over again, he brought with
which he began
Not
To
I
surprisingly,
one of the
first
a small black notebook in
him
to record his thoughts, goals,
and the happenings
notations was:
in his life.
"Do your damdest always."
his death, Patton never fully understood that during his first year at
West
Point he had indeed "done his damdest" and had fallen victim not to stupidity
or laziness but to dyslexia.
Words
written in 1984 by Dr. Harold N.
Levinson, about his aim in the diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia words,
would
certainly
have applied
to
Cadet George
S.
current or future dyslexic continue to feel stupid,
Patton in 1905: "To
dumb, and
ugly."'^
let
no
.
CHAPTER
7
"If at First
You Don't Succeed
.
You must do your damdest and win. Remember
what you
some
live for.
thing!
Oh you
Never stop
that
is
must! You have got to do
until
you have gained the top or
a grave. —CADET GEORGE SMITH PATTON JR.
Patton spent most of the
mer home on Catalina
summer of 1905
He
hunting wild goats, and fishing. July took the horse.
first
He wrote
Point,
many hard
falls
from the back of a
an hour to get the cactus
me."
He
also killed a goat but likened
of
of
it
hell,
is still in
"when
low ranking man
is
West
me
to the experience
dyslexics
at
to Beatrice that, "it took lot
For George
second year
continued to be accident prone and in
of what would be
of the horse and a
killed for a
sum-
in California at the family's
Island, preparing for his
S. Patton
it
I
at the
was
go
to join the spirits
point
is
of the goats
all
I
out it
have
called a goat also."'
a bittersweet time.
The low self-esteem of
the bane of their existence, but in this crucial
moment
in their
"showed by word or deed their disappointment at my failure."' Their intuition that his problems were outside his control may have done more to contribute to Patton's future success than any other single act, even though it was more likely attributable to their penchant for son's
life,
his parents never
never discussing family embarrassments. Free of recriminations from his parents, Patton looked forward to his
second year
at
West Point with
a
semblance of hope
that
he might eventu-
"If
You Don't Succeed
at First
ally graduate. "It is scarcely possible that
so sad at the
same
time.
.
home which
...
is
ever again be so happy and
Despite his problems and the ache
.
the other end of the continent at
may
I
87
at
being
at
from Beatrice, Patton "had a peach of a time
better than
I
Patton attributed his turnback to
deserved."^ Unable to fathom his dyslexia,
destiny."*
Beatrice wrote to sympathize, and although her words helped, he could
am awfully glad you all understand how was with me. [butl Looking at it in cold blood I have pretty small chance of coming out [graduating]."^ Patton's greatest fear was that Beatrice would give up on him and not wait for him to graduate before committing not envision a successful future. "I it
.
.
.
Ma
herself to another. "[I]t never occurred to Georgie that
him," wrote his daughter. "He was too humble his failure to pass
first
was
a
Oh! here
poem
to the snarl
of the striving
in love life
with
—and
."^ .
.
newly acquired black notebook.
filling his
about love, war, and
was
point in his
had humbled him even more deeply.
That summer Patton began
The
at that
fair
maidens:
steel
When eye met eye on the foughten fiel' And the life went out with the entering steel In the days
when war was war
Oh here's to the men who fought and strove Who parried and hacked and thrust and clove Who fought for honor and fought for love In the days etc.
Oh! here's For whom
to the
maids for
whom
they fought
they strove of whom they thought
The maids whos love they nobly sought In the days etc.^
In the notebook Patton recorded a ciples of war, diagrams, admonitions,
hodgepodge of thoughts, and
West Point had matured him. Patton inscribed would guide him:
terrible first year at
ciples that
Genius is an immense Always do more than
What
then of death?
of eternal
We
poetry, prin-
social notes that affirmed that his
live in
capacity for taking pains. is
is
required of you.
.
.
not the taps of death but
life.
deeds not years.
You can be what you
five prin-
will to
*
be.'*
*
*
first call to
the reveille
The Making
88
Between notes on from Beatrice
history and tactics
that Patton was,
be courteous without being
among them
were such gems as a quotation
"one of the few people
to the
is
man who
But damn the man who kisses a
/
in the
kisses a girl
girl
boast." Beatrice had also told him: "Don't argue with a
him
vince
lick him. If
you cant
lick
him keep
courtship continued during
Patton's
world
who can
homilies were also about love,
idiotic." Patton's
"Here
this couplet:
the secret close
an Officer
of
and keeps
and then goes out
man
If
to
you cant con-
still."
the
summer of
and he
1905,
became more ardent with each letter they exchanged. As he prepared to return to West Point he hoped that "I may see you just for a little while. You see
I
have
on time at
come
to
.
.
east a
little
early so as to be sure of getting to the Point
would you mind writing
.
home and
may come
if I
.
and
.
.
telling
me
whether you
Patton spent several of the most exhilarating days of his
Massachusetts, that August. In his
life in
from West Point
first letter
for me. I
.
.
That Beat,
.
swallowed her hook
is
Ayers did every thing
who
in the
Beverly,
I
had abso-
world that they could
certainly the best thing in her line in the world
to the swivle (as
one says of a
fool to have such a case at such an early age.
Fourth classmen
be
to his father,
he no longer bothered to conceal his feelings. "While in Beverly lutely a perfect time the
will
to see you.""'
back
are turned
fish)
I
guess that
and
am
a
."" .
.
West Point must retake
at
I
their fourth
year academic courses but are exempt from the hazing and harassment of
plebe
life.
In his second year at
West Point Patton existed
where he was neither plebe nor
third classman.
recorded: "It seemed very funny the tell
me
where
when
my
first
Of
limbo
in a sort of
his first
day back he
night at parade not to have any one
shoulders back you see
it is the first one I ever went to was not a 'Plebe.' If I am not the meanest corp. [oral] in the world do become one it will be a wonder for I will then have been a private
to get
I I
three years.
He
"'-
tried out again for the football
team and although relegated
to the
third string as a left end, the experience helped his self-confidence. After
one pileup during a scrimmage against the varsity team, Patton was the to
emerge from under twenty-one men, but threw
Then he
injured his right
arm and was taken
to the infirmary, his football
career over for the year. Although his injury had "probably saved
breaking varsity
my
last
the runner for a yard loss.
me from
neck," he remained determined to one day earn a place on the
team and the coveted A
found or killed
I
shall
make
this
letter,
writing to Beatrice that "unless
team before
I
I
am
graduate."'^ After recovering
he turned his attention to the broadsword and in the spring of 1906, he again ran the high hurdles on the track team.'^
Unlike the hospitalization of the previous December during which Patton was miserable, this time he was in high spirits and to pass the time even
at First
"If
composed
a
poem
You Don't Succeed
he described as "a by product of
that
write the siven ages of man." For a
poem
is
89
remarkable for
its
my
pen as
young man with dreams of
I
tried to
glory, the
intuitive sense of the folly of war:
And now we
sing not of the stage of life But of that stage of which there is no counterpart on earth The stages of the life of a cadet. First there 's the boy
Unapt by nature he for aught of hardship Yet his early mind perverted by untruthful
literature
He sees a picture of war glorified And longs to be a soldier He dreams of blood, of glory and of strife And knows not blood is pain and glory but a bubble Which bursts when riper age has made his folly clean But why alas does knowledge come too That we who
in
our youth did know
Have wrecked our
lives
by learning
late
it
not
it
too
late. 15
After the turbulence of his plebe year, Patton's second year
He
Point seemed like an oasis of calm.
saw
his efforts rewarded, noting that,
Midway through
if
studied hard and for the
first in drill
time
anything, his classes were too easy.
ranked fourteenth
his first semester Patton
seventh in English and
West
at
first
in
math,
thirty-
regulations in a class of 152 cadets.'^
Beatrice became more frequent and included a standing him any time she "happened" to be in New York. "To forestall the excuse that I did not invite you to any particular hop I here by ask you to every dance to be given at West Point from now until I graduate and
His
letters to
invitation to visit
ask only that you
make
let
me know
three or four days in advance so that
out your dance card."'^ She
birthday,
occasion
an
marred
came
to
West Point
only
by
Patton's
I
may
for Patton's twentieth
tendency
lifelong
to
overindulge his sweet tooth for candy and cake. Afterwards he wrote joyfully to his
day
.
.
.
mother
truely
When
one
that, "I is
in a
am
twenty and
bad way
to
still
alive.
I
had a peach of a
be 20 and as hard
hit as
I
birth-
am.""^
he was discharged from the hospital Patton weighed 160 pounds
"stripped." His confidence
grew and
continued to reflect an upbeat of a few months attended the
mood
earlier. In early
his letters to his parents
and Beatrice
so different from the traumatic letters
December, President Theodore Roosevelt
Army-Navy game, played
at
Princeton. At half time Roosevelt
was formally escorted by sixteen cadets from the navy to the army side of the field. Patton was one of the cadets chosen, "to my great surprise and
The Making
90
was
the only one of the
greater joy.
I
some
way had
other
me
have seen
president. ...
...
a pull. After
nearly burst.
I
think that
I
I
of
an Officer
bunch who was not an army man or
all it
pays to be military.
.
.
.
in
You should
a pretty big thing to be an escort to a
It is
must have looked quite impressive but [Beatrice]
was not in the least awed." He signed the letter, "Your distinguished son, George S. Patton, Jr."'^ A third straight Christmas away from home failed to dampen his spirits, even though he lamented
at still
hard on a patrician like me.
.
being a cadet private, "for
One of
.
his
this
Pleabism
is
roommates was "found" but
Patton sailed through the semiannual examinations with flying colors.-'
But
marks
after a stressful
week
January 1906, during which he made poor
in
French and English, he reverted
in
and wrote such a depressing
himself stupid and lazy,
to calling
Beatrice that he burned
letter to
it."
His com-
were a reflection of a dyslexic 's need
plaints about being "naturally stupid"
constantly to prove himself worthy in the eyes of others:
Darn lot.
.
.
am
I
it
.
I
because there tary."
who will
a goat and had just as well learn to be content with
grow weary of
That
is I
is
the rear rank and ...
any thing the matter except that
am
my
not very popular not
am "Too is
darned mili-
more unjust than he
dam them let them keep on some day how infernally inferior they are.-^
feels himself an inferior but
show and make them visit
feel
West Point
bolstered his morale and
melancholy
made him begin
letter in early
to feel
I
1906, Beatrice wrote to praise
my
ever heard about
letters
good about himself. After
were dramatic. "Thank you for what you wrote about
finest thing
I
infrequently, Beatrice proved to be
downside of Patton's dyslexia. Her
the perfect foil for the emotional
results
I
Now no one
better than they are.
Although she could only
his
am
him and it was
me
the the
self."^'*
Toward the end of his second year Patton began to anticipate the delights of advancement to the third class and set his sights on promotion to corponot just any corporal, but
ral,
his class. "I think
I
shall die
first
when
corporal, the I
get
it.
.
.
."
most prestigious office
He
in
also had been giving a
good deal of thought to soldiering and declared that, "given the chance I will carve my name on some thing biger than a section room bench." But first he had to pass his year-end examinations after faltering slightly in March. the
The year ended on a high note when Patton not only routinely passed exams with grades in the top third of his class but was selected second
corporal.'^ His in
promotion meant
that
he would be a cadreman (one of those
charge of hands-on supervision in the plebe
nately and perhaps predictably, Patton
summer camp). Unfortu-
was overzealous and managed
to irri-
'
"If
at First
You Don't Succeed
91
everyone, from his classmates to the tactical officers and, of
tate virtually
who
He soon learned that harassmuch amusement as I had hoped. At first I hated to get after them and felt like a bruit when ever I 'crawled' them but soon I began to feel angry when ever I saw a Plebe and have been mad for a
course, the poor plebes
ran afoul of him.
ing plebes did not "afford
me
bout three days and that
not a very pleasing condition of mind.""
He was
is
[as]
command
excited by the opportunity to be in
have no concept of when enough was enough.
"I
but seemed to
believe that
I
reported
more men than any other officer of the Day this summer," he told Beatrice, who had admonished him not to become overzealous. In addition to a longrunning squabble with several classmates, Patton's
ended
of authority
first taste
shock and disappointment when he was demoted from second
in
sixth corporal in late August.
For
military.
I
am
certainly
tainly is the biggest
shock
I
"Why
know unless man who can march don't
I
the only
have had for a long time for
me
be a good soldier. Please don't think
this class.
have
I
to
was too d
I
too worth less for
I
It
cer-
hard to
tried
will be adju-
tant yet."'*^ hurt, Patton displayed no inclination to change his demanding very high standards of those in his charge. "It is
Although angry and basic precept of
me
true that they don't like
but
when
I
get out in front of
them
the foolish-
ness stops," he proclaimed. His grandson accurately notes that while Patton
was
certainly headstrong, the later perception of
him
as disobedient or
insubordinate was simply untrue and part of the iconoclastic image he himself
had perpetuated through a lifteime of
"[Patton]
mander
the contrary, as his said of him:
fundamentally so avid for recognition as a great military com-
is
that
jeopardize
To
practice.
Army, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower,
oldest friend in the U.S.
he will ruthlessly suppress any habit of his that will tend to
it."^^
Patton continued to
his
fill
notebook with thoughts, from ideas and
quotes from Clausewitz to notes about cavalry.
Some
reflected his isolation:
You do what leads to your ambition and when you get the power remember those who laughed"; and, "No sacrefice is too great if by it you can attain an end."'" Not surprisingly, after his demo-
"Let people talk and be damed.
tion he wrote: ''Never trust a person
He
like you.
Destiny.
.
and pray
.
.
that
will surely stick
Look
you
well whether the
what ever
it
cost
I
who
has or thinks he has a cause to dis-
in the back. ...
shall
I
think that there must be a
game be worth gane
my
the candle. ...
I
On
his twenty-first birthday he delivered
As
usual the dyslexia enhanced his harsh judgments of himself:
life.
lives
cause
by deeds not years. At
me
earth and
self respect as
I
swallow me.'"'-
least
I
now have
hope so at
21
I
hope
desire."-
some
stern reflections
for if at
42
I
have as
on
his
"Man
little
to
had better say with Hector 'gape
The Making
92 Patton's third class year
he
tried
and
failed to
was
make
of
an Officer
relatively uneventful.
with a bare
minimum
was again
rele-
days was a brutal game played
gated to the third string. Football in those
of protection and, as Patton dutifully reported to his
have not been doing
father, "I
For the third straight year
the varsity football team, and
at all
well
.
.
[yet]
.
I
have managed
to get
up and have been so stiff that I could scarcely bend over enough to put on my shoes. "^^ He seemed to have lost his confidence of the previous year but believed the better food the football team received at their pretty well bruised
training table
was worth
Putting
the pain.
observed that he hoped his
sister Nita's
Patton
in perspective,
all
it
coming-out party was nice and "she
I do in athletics."-^ mid-March 1907 Patton regained his second corporal
raizes hell in society a lot better than In
jovially wrote to his father, "I take the opportunity of telling
stripes
you
matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, the very living model of a
Second Corporal. bootlick
I
am
I
begin to think that
almost
it.
more than anyone in the either Sgt. Major or even
.
.
.
Of
class. 1st
when
course, .
.
.
I
it
comes
to scientific
boning of
spiffed a lot and braced
With any
sort of luck
now
I
and
am in modem
I
my
self
should get
me in line my chickens
Sergeant in June, one of which puts
for 1st Captain; the other for Adjutant.
must not count
Still, I
too soon."^^
Academically, Patton remained a mediocre student and stood near the
bottom of his class
in
French and
in the
middle
in
drawing and math. By
January 1907 his class had been reduced to 114 cadets and although Patton
remained a borderline student
in
both French and Spanish, he successfully
passed his exams and, as he had predicted, was promoted to sergeant major, the highest cadet position in the second class.
He had not been home since the summer of 1905 and spent most of the summer of 1907 in Southern California, and ten days with Beatrice in Massachusetts prior to his second class year. Patton was a dutiful son who adored his parents and never consciously caused either of them embarrass-
ment or
distress.
One
of the lone exceptions occurred that
my
"for the only time in
life
so far as
I
know
he publicly insisted on wearing his father's dance. "Papa caught up with us with
my
I
silk
summer when, when
hurt Papa's feelings."
opera hat with a tuxedo to a
straw hat and said the silk one was
ridiculous and that just the day before he had seen Mr. Huntington wearing a
straw with a tuxedo.
I
said that
not true and hurt his feelings.
As to
I
Papa did nothing but copy Mr. H. which was
wore
the straw."^"
the West Point days passed with increasingly rapidity, Patton continued dream of glory and triumph in his chosen profession. In November 1907,
an entry in his notebook served as a vivid invocation of the that
burned within:
fire to
succeed
"If
at First
You Don't Succeed
93
George Patton you have seen what the enthusiasm of men can mean
for
As God Uves you must of your self merit and obtain such applause by your own efforts and remember that though at times of quiet this may not seem worth much yet at the last it is the only thing and to obtain it life and happiness are small sacrifices. You have done your things done.
damdest and that
Never stop
now you must do your damdest and win. Remember Oh you must! You have got to do some thing!
failed
what you
is
live for.
you have gained the top or a grave."
until
Patton also reminded himself
man can
eternal desire any
What
may
ever
slump
.
.
.
happen
remember
you die not tious
pay.
.
.
.
.
Nothing
.
.
.
ever
may
be
and having had a chance
Patton.
temptation
the
.
be one
to
pray
I
God
to
Never Never Never stop being ambi-
.
.
to
... If
life live
it
to the full glory
and be willing
to
too small to do to win. ... If you infringe your honor
is
you have sold your defense.
what
you are a soldier and ever seek command.
you have but one
.
.
that
a soldier
dam you George
"By perserverence and study and
that,
be great." Later entries were equally passionate:
Daring
An
soul. ...
is
wisdom
it
is
imperious conscience
is
your greatest
the highest part of war.
His words of advice to himself bore the stamp of maturity far beyond
young and inexperienced. They were
the years of one so
later to
become
the
essence of his military philosophy:
•
There
•
Do not console
but next time to
win a
well
is
will
I
battle or a
will with
I
•
but one time to do a thing that
In
do
your self with the thought, better," there is
campaign.
It
attack
the
can make a mess of this
no next time
must be won the
draw and win next week such
making an
is
"I
.
.
first
a course
make only one and
carry
.
first.
there
time.
is
but one time
Dont
... say
is
ruin absolute.
it
through to the
oh
last
down and hold Rememit. What folly to let them fall back to take part in a fresh assault ber Frederick the Great [who said to his faltering troops] "Come on men
house holder.
do you want
And
this
the
men who have
gained ground lay
to live for ever?"
from Napoleon: "To command an army well a general must
think of nothing the tenets
Make
else."^**
Even
by which he would
as Patton used his black notebook to devise later
govern his military career, the dyslexia
continued to ambush his self-esteem in what became a daily struggle for recognition.
It
continued to haunt even his dreams. Shortly before the
February 1908 cadet promotion
list
was announced, Patton wrote
to his
The Making
94
of
an Officer
was the adjutant and I was having a fine time was found and I was having a hell of a time.Every body was pointing their fingers at me and calling me stupid. I was so There is no use talking the only thing I am good scared that I woke up. father of a
dream
then next night
I
in which, "I
dreamed
.
.
I
I
.
save
at is military. I can't to
them
I
my
care about studies and
life
have not got the head for them.
like to as
some of these
He expounded
I
can not
sit
if
did care about
down and
study because
fools do."^'^
that to
become
a great soldier entailed learning
from
his-
tory in order to be
so thoroughly conversant with
when
of military possibilities that
all sorts
ever an occasion arises he has at hand with out effort on his part a parallel.
To
end
attain this
I
think
it
is
necessary for a
man
to
and hence crudest form and
itary history in its earliest
begin to read milto follow
sequence permitting his mind to grow with his subject
in natural
down
it
he
until
can grasp with out effort the most abstruce question of the science of
The obsession
Patton never conceived of any other career for himself.
with succeeding in emulating the deeds of his forefathers blinded him to
When Beatrice asked him if he were "to away heredity, and love of excitement and desire of reputation will I the army life? ... if you take away those three things what is left in
thoughts of any other profession. take like
life? If there is
away
any thing to
as worthless all
I
live for except those three things
have ever dreamed
of.
.
you have taken
.
He hoped his final West Point standing would be high enough to earn him a place in the cavalry arm. He wrote passionately of his desire to become a successful soldier: I
am
enough
fool
to think that
Now
I
am
one of those who may teach the
and if twenty years from now with no war and no promotion some one should say "I world
its
value.
.
.
.
that is a rash thing to say
thought you were going to teach the world?" there were
no dreamers
and even dreams may, no must come true
what he believes. Of course
who have never done much but foolish as
it
seems
war "which God grant" haps]
it
is
it
is
would
man
hurt.
But
if
advance
little
gives his
life
for
me
to give reasons
do believe
I
will
make
in
a
my
name
only the folly of a boy dreamer
is it
it
hard for any one particularly for
I
world of imaginary battles unreal ...
why
honestly think there would be
I
that they only
if
a
why he believes know that
self. I
in
my
if
there
or at worst an end
who
seem
.
.
.
self is
[per-
has so long lived in a
real
and every thing else
not better for a person to stick to the profession he has
always thought about than for him to do something for which he has no
"If
at First
You Don't Succeed
particular desire or capacity and
the army.
have thought about
I
it
I
95
certainly have
so long that
all
none for any thing but
the other parts of ambi-
tion are dead/-
West Point years were
Patton's early writings substantiate that the
more than an
When
far
army commission.
essential period of preparation for his
the time came, Patton put into practice the theories of
how men
should be led and battles fought.
Although Patton's early writings strate to his
he had yet to demon-
reflect brilliance,
contemporaries that his fiery intensity was anything more than
To
the ravings of a temperamental opportunist.
the end of his cadet days he
remained a dogmatic and unpopular cadet, a young man on the make. Beatrice attended the
pronounced
West Point- Yale
game in the autumn of 1908, and him prance up and down the field at
football
"great fun watching
it
inspection, chest bulging and chevrons shining, serenely unconscious of the
two pairs of cousinly eyes anxiously fixed upon him. He seemed by far the most military person on the post that day; our only anxiety was that he might break in two at the waistline. Patton's belief in discipline was seen as excessive, but when he was promoted last
to regimental adjutant in
begun
to live
adjutant Patton
up
February 1908 he exulted that he had
to the high standards
was always center stage
he had
set for himself.
in front of the
As
at
cadet
Corps of Cadets.
Impeccably dressed and a master of military posture, Patton was
now
the
focus of attention. The adjutant read the orders of the day each morning and led the corps wherever they marched.
It
was what he had long coveted, and
new position also entitled him to move from the drab barracks into a tower room in the First Division. Blumenson notes: "He was very busy that spring. His studies, his duties
he made the most of
it.
His
as adjutant, and his activities in track, polo, horsemanship, and the broad
sword gave him little leisure time. What also consumed much of his time was his habit of changing his uniform, he told Beatrice, fifteen times a day in order to
be clean and neat always."^
"Do you remember long ago
He thanked
Beatrice for her faith in
would like to be adjutant but you probably think me a feared I never would be and you said I would fool for being so pleased with my self but realy I am not so teribly stuck up for when you come down to it I have only beaten about a hundred men and
him.
...
I
said
I
.
that is not so very
He
also
much.
began
I
wish
to display the
ize the public perception of
ton toiled in the practice,
it
pits,
him
were more enigmatic
raising, lowering,
unflinching as bullets angrily splattered it
to test his
courage under
.
more.
traits that
as a general.
." .
.
would
One day on
later character-
the range, as Pat-
and marking targets during
he inexplicably stood up during the
he had done
lots
.
all
firing.
He
faced the firing
around him, and
fire.^'
More
rifle
line,
later stated that
to the point
was
the mir-
The Making
96
was not wounded or
acle that he curiosity
On
and prove
an Officer
killed giving in to the urge to satisfy his
his courage.
another occasion, in February 1908, Patton was attending a class in
when
electricity
him
of
if it
a cadet asked if the spark
from an induction
coil
would
kill
passed through his hand:
The Prof
invited
him
to try
it
and the man refused.
the class so easily scared so after the lecture
could
try
it
for
I
realy
to see
how
it
hardly liked to see
I
went down and asked
would
feel.
At
first
if I
he did
me to do but at last he allowed me and it hardly hurt at all my arm is still a little stiff. He did not like at all having his bluff
not want
though
was curious
I
it
called though.^^
However, it was in quite another area of his life that Patton's courage was soon to be put to the test. It had been nearly six years since he had fallen in love
with Beatrice Ayer. Although their love for one another
remained unspoken, other. Their letters
letters to his parents,
two years
at
perhaps the
West first
it
was
plain that neither could bear to be without the
had grown
in
frequency and intensity,
which decreased dramatically
Point.
Blumenson notes
time in his
life
—
in
at the
expense of
number during
that Beatrice
to think seriously about himself
ambitions. However, despite gentle admonitions, she failed to cure his habit of writing excessively
his last
caused Patton
vain, "F'-oriented letters:
—
and
for his
him of
He remained
hopelessly "self-centered and visualized the world as an extension of himself.""^
As 1908 drew a
mere
six
to a close, graduation
months away. Patton
finally
was no longer a distant came to the realization
not enough simply to be in love with Beatrice, and that his
be complete unless he were to
wed
this
woman who
life
fantasy but
that it was would never
so thoroughly domi-
To avoid losing her he must soon not only propose to Beatrice, but win her hand from her formidable father, Frederick Ayer. George Patton found the prospect more terrifying than anything he had yet done in his young life. nated every facet of his
life.
PART
IV
Junior Cavalry Officer (1909-1917) You know, looking back on Patton, he has been a general
all
his
life.
—CAVALRY OFFICER (FORT
RILEY,
KANSAS, CA.
1914)
i
—
CHAPTER
8
Love and have loved Beatrice ever since the summer
I
in
California.
—CADET GEORGE
For nearly marily by
demic
which focused on
difficulties,
his life at
PATTON
Banning Ayer was
six years Patton's courtship of Beatrice letters,
S.
VMI
pri-
or West Point, his aca-
and matters of male vanity, such as
his
could have seen him performing on the parade ground or
wish
that she
in athletics.
An
early manifestation of his lifelong fear of aging resulted in a near paranoia
about his appearance, in particular, his rapidly thinning "beautiful golden curls [which]
were disappearing and he worried a
about losing his hair
lot
which, of course, he eventually did, although he loyally used Ayer Hair
Vigor for years and years." Patton found the Ayer family
so awfully nice that
and see Bee. ... loved but she
now
is
I
it is
positively oppressive.
have not told her
—though
or perhaps ever. She
she has been wearing
my
it
is
would be
it
fatal for
very nice to
ride,
swim,
me
and
me I
to
at Catalina,
with her shadow. But,
O
have ever
mention
I
motor
sail, I
that fact
think she likes
favorite color dresses ever since
them. Gosh, those skirted bi-peds as girls, aren't in
We
that she is the only girl
said
me I
who pawn themselves
Lord what an ass
I
for
liked
off
am!
Although she missed Georgie, her love for him did not prevent Beatrice Ayer from having the time of her life, exulting in the exuberance of youth in a whirlwind of "balls, parties, beaus, concerts, art exhibits, theatres
—
all
the
Junior Cavalry Officer
100 things
ment
young
ladies did."
for her siblings.
Her love
When
life
also
became
a topic of great amuse-
Beatrice required an emergency appendectomy,
Ellen Banning Ayer took charge of her recuperation with her customary bustling efficiency. In the Ayer family there
minor surgery.
illness or
was no such thing
as a
minor
honor of the occasion Freddie and Kay Ayer
In
composed a ditty for Beatrice, and to the end of their lives, would hum it whenever she "acted up." It was sung to the tune of the then-popular "Reuben, Reuben." Georgie Porgie, so they say
Goes a-courting every
Sword and pistol by
day.
his side
Beatrice Ayer for his bride.
Doctor, Doctor, can you
What She
will
is
tell
make poor Beatrice well?
sick
and she might die
That would make poor Georgie
Down
in the valley
There
sits
And she And she
cry.
where the green grass grows
Beatrice, sweet as a rose.
sings
and she
sings
and she
sings all day
sings for Georgie to pass that way.
Patton spent his Christmas furlough of 1908
at the
Ayers'
Common-
wealth Avenue mansion in Boston. In their six years of courtship, both had adroitly sidestepped the question of actually declaring their love for each
As daughter Ruth Ellen observes: "How much more fun a courtship days when 'a glance, a bird-like turn of the head, the pressure of a hand' was as much a thrill to the suffering lover as getting right into bed ." Finally, Patton's feelis nowadays. They could savor every moment. other.
was
in those
.
.
ings overruled his inability to express to Beatrice that he
with
her.
Some
sufficiently terrified that Beatrice
might refuse his declaration
posed a fake telegram, which he carried
him back
He
to
to
was
have com-
in his pocket, purporting to order
needn't have worried, for Beatrice readily responded that she loved
somebody
had a
in love
West Point immediately.
him. In one of his rare tell
was madly
idea of his anxiety can be inferred from the fact that he
hell of a
I
letters to his
will bust
.
.
.
mother, Patton confessed
every time
time not to every time
I
that, "if I
dont
saw B I wanted to kiss her and went driving or walking." Almost I
Love and Marriage certain that Beatrice
would spurn
event until one afternoon
when
101
his declaration, Patton kept postponing the
they found themselves alone in the family
library:
am
I
coward but
not a
this
business of pointing a gun
pulling the trigger in order to prove
enjoyable.
.
.
.
Well
she was a dear to smile again
it
.
.
I
it
did
it
and
never have
1 still
known
she has
known
.
it
is
it
was
not loaded
empty gun. Thank God! Oh
a very
spent such an afternoon
I
yourself and
at
not particularly
is
.
.
.
were
had not lived for nothing. The strange part
for a long long time six years.
too what an ass
I
have been.
.
.
She said
I
I
never think
is I
should have
.
Neither would commit to a formal engagement, and their future was
left
undecided, in part because Patton expected to be sent to the Philippines, a routine assignment for a newly commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S.
Army
of the day. Beatrice told her parents of her love for Georgie Patton,
and they merely smiled and said
that of course they already
knew, and they
liked him.
Nevertheless Beatrice's love for him "scares
me
to death,"
and he
seemed incapable of actually proposing marriage, apparendy satisfied merely to have announced what had so long been in his heart, and convinced that he was unworthy of her.' After reading one of Beatrice's love letters, Patton wrote: "I sat with out moving for an hour and then went out and ran around the hills like a loon."- To his mother he acknowledged,
"Gosh
I
have the queerest feelings.
I
am
actually afraid."
Despite his feelings for Beatrice, Patton occasionally dated other
women, and
in early
1909 he was briefly smitten with an attractive and sex-
named
whose family was very wealthy. I fear that I would take the B. ass that I am when with the money I could be a general in no time," apparently forgetting that Frederick Ayer was also a multimillionaire.^ Even when it came to love, his powerful ambition always came first.
ually alluring Vassar coed
"Yet
if
you put
[her]
Kate,
$40,000,000 against the B.
Patton wrote to Frederick Ayer to spell out his career intentions, but in reality to
man
announce himself
—who did not want
that Patton
as Beatrice's suitor. In his reply the wily old
a career soldier for a son-in-law
—coyly suggested
ought to seek civilian work after performing his military service.
"Your plan of
life,"
he wrote,
"is alright if
you can have a command for a
year in God's country and not in the Philippines. Fighting malaria
is
not
war." Ayer had stopped just short of issuing an outright refusal, only
because Patton had yet to ask formally for Beatrice's hand in marriage.^ Patton again wrote to Ayer to explain that since the
summer
[of 1902] in California,"
"I
have loved Beatrice ever
and then respectfully declared
that after careful self-examination he believed that "I
am
only capable of
Junior Cavalry Officer
102 being a soldier."^
was an ever-so-polite-but-firm
It
rebuttal, indicating that
he had no intention of taking up some other profession. In no doubt that marriage between his daughter and young Patton was inevitable but to getting his way, Frederick Ayer nevertheless began a delibcampaign to wean him from an army career of which "he had the typical New England view of the 'brutal and licentious mercenary' ... the Yankee[s] always thought of the army as the refuge for thieves and mur-
accustomed
erate
derers."
The dialogue between the benevolent tycoon and later when Ayer wrote:
the
young cadet
resumed a few days
—
A man in the army must always feel unsettled That his location home life are subject to the dictation and possible freak of another whom he may despise or even hate. A man like you should be independent of such control His own master Free to act and develop in the open world. Every independent man should choose his own course in life. ... I believe that the qualities of a good soldier will help a man win in whatever calling he may choose.*^ .
.
.
and
—
.
.
—
.
.
.
.
Patton lost none of his admiration for Ayer, and for a time briefly considered
army
resigning from the
in derision of the little
"all for the
love of you.
.
.
.
The
'all' I
just used is
can do to be good enough for you."
I
In yet another attempt to explain himself to Mr. Ayer, Patton wrote that
he had never found any logical reasons cer: "I
only feel
inside.
it
It is
why he wanted me to be
as natural for
be an army
to
a soldier as
it
offi-
to
is
breathe
Patton was torn between his love for Beatrice, the magnetic lure of a military career, and the inevitability of a clash with Frederick Ayer.
As was
his custom, he vented his feelings to his parents in a letter that searingly reflects the conflict
between
Banning Ayer and
his love for Beatrice
his
obsessive ambition to be a successful soldier:
January 17, 1909
Dear
Mama and Papa:
... All
my
feel inside that
proposed least
it
life I it is
have done every thing
my job
to Beatrice
I
and
that
war
not for
my own
more
could to be a soldier for
come.
.
.
.
I
When however I
did something from instinct and against reason. At
seems unlogical because she does not
soldier should not marry. This because
get
1
will
use, but to
like
war
.
money seems an
buy success and
if I
.
.
and because a
excellent tool,
were unmarried
I
could
things by paying attention to daughters of prominent people
if
— Love and Marriage
Now
necessary marrying one of them.
and
are logical
I
Realy
I
But when
see B.
I
way
stop
know what
I
it
did or do
show my
I
to,
me
as ever
I
is live
tomorrow
if
There
is
will be.
I
am
it
be great
to
different
happily and die old. for
one day
inside
me
1
but
I
I
I
had a
.
right but
think
I
down
fall
man have
acted as I
no foolish child dream
is
it
my
would be willing
could be realy great
I
.
worried to death.
from other men
.
.
a burning something. ...
cold sweat imagining that ple have
God knows I am
self a mess.
do you understand got
got
is
.
better than any thing else in the world.
an ass or just human. Would an embrionic great
I
do
logic goes to hell.
sane mental manoevers and
all
and worship her and enjoy doing
to
climb the ladder and
to
all
have no strength of character.
of Beat and straight
Am
these things are not nice but they
had carefully planned
pretty clear field.
103
age. All they
I
it is
want
to live in torture, die
.
wake up
I
night in a
at
have lived and done nothing. Perhaps
dont believe they do. Perhaps
I
have
am
crazy.
There
all
is
concealing things from you for you might help and ought to know.
peo-
no use I
want
No small ambition for a goat yet why not me At least I think a man can not do wrong
to be a dictator or a president.
some one has to try.
.
.
to be
why
not
.
Your devoted much perplexed
ass of a son
George Patton
At one point Patton had no sooner implied commission
and seek a suitable
after a year
Beatrice that, "before everything else
only thing
may
care for are you and
I
loose ambition and
comes contentment with ure
am
self in that
cleark and
the middle of life
ing up
—up—some one must be on
views are so insane
that
I
even you and Lord knows poor
B
I
but
would
rather
I
Unable
begin to think
may
to resolve his
he would resign his
I
why
I
sit
am
I
he wrote to
not a patriot. The
may be worthy by a
fire
but
never be sane. is
of you ...
if
I
dont fear
pounding on the
not you
.
.
.
But
I
with sanity fail-
in side say-
my
hopes and
dont think he understands them; no one does, not I
bother you seven days in the
I
was a
fool to
you
tell
make you made [mad] now
wrote again ten days it
top
that
a soldier. ...
only fear a slowing up of the engine which
I
like
my
become a
I
Ayer
to
civilian profession than
all I
week with them
did at
first in this letter
than dissapoint you
later."**
anguished conflict between love and career, he
later: "I
have
tried hard for
to think of another profession but
or care about other things. ...
success in business amounts
to.
it
is
your sake as you dont
like pulling hair.
dont want to make
I .
.
.
As
far as will
I
dont
money and
goes
I
know
that is all
could but
it
would
Junior Cavalry Officer
104 be self murder ...
my
dont want to boast but the chances seem to point to
I
being some thing in the army out of
The problem was
under the grim conditions of army
between her love
fix," torn
it
nothing.'"'
Ayer oppose
that not only did Mr. life
his daughter living
but Beatrice was "in the hell of a
and her perceived duty
for Patton
to her eighty-
seven-year-old father. Patton complained that the Ayers "dont understand
army business
the
inconceavable to them that a
at all. It is
man can have no
desire to gain [a fortune] and can wish to kill a fellow being by any such
coarse method as shooting."'"
overwhelming fear was
Beatrice's
choose the army over
army
her.
would defy her
that Patton
him
wife, and for a time attempted gently to persuade
was not so bad
civilian career
marriage to
her, as
father
and
Although she dreaded the prospect of becoming an
seemed
after all,
what
if
She decided
likely?
and wrote: "You must decide alone and then
that perhaps a
he elected to put his career over
I
was even worse
that prospect
go with you any where."
will
Henceforth Patton would no longer apologize for a profession he was proud of,
and he informed Mr. Ayer
By
transition.
For nearly
Beatrice."
Now
would
that
1909 Patton's
early
he intended to remain
letters to
for the rest of his
life,
army."
had always formally begun: "Dear
six years they
he had declared his love for
that
in the
Beatrice had undergone an abrupt
her, they
began, as they
with: "Darling Beatrice," "Darling Beat," or
"Beatrice Darling." Previously content to relate the daily happenings in his life,
I were ordered to would love you and be true to you just the am devoted to you I love and worship you and only you
Patton suddenly began to articulate his feelings. "If
the north pole or Hell
same.
.
for ever
.
Dearest
.
and
I
I
ever."''
seemed irretrievably bogged down in Patton's uncerarmy and Beatrice's reluctance to leave her family. Patton remained torn between his army career and its inevitable hardships, which hardly befitted a young woman of Beatrice's social stature: Still, their
future
tain prospects in the
Even live in
but get
if I
did suggest to
am
them. ...
I
fear
fits in cities if I live in
thought more of
my
stand? please do ... living in deserts
write
when
them
to
I
some such
self than of it still
.
.
plant.
you but
bothers
and swamps.
army
self leaving the I
than live like a squash or
saying
my
Boston or any other decent place
.
me
I
I
could not
way I dont fit do much more
would not
I
dont dearest can't you underit
might be awful for you
d
think very long over such things
you but they do bother me a
you
that
Beat that sounds as though
[that]
Hell d
I
for
made
not
d .
.
.
is
what
Perhaps
I
I
.
.
.
feel like
ought not to
lot."
Fortunately Beatrice never learned that Patton had also written to his father: "It
seems ridiculous
that
I
should have fallen in love with a
girl
so
Love and Marriage
105
completely useless as a wife for an army officer and there that fact she has not that
I
am madly
with her and she
in love
me."'^ But he did
The path
is
no use avoiding
one redeeming feature for a wife aside from the is
a d
sight
worse
in
tell her:
that
seem intended
I
will enjoy particularly
you who
to follow is not
are not
one
that
any one else
by nature intended for such a
being too grand and bright and well educated.
A woman to like the
how
will like
it
ever gloomy
it
may
and perhaps forget the
sound. If
mud
I
ever get to what
I
rather have your love than the world and
is
want you
of the road. ... Oh! Beaty
you every second and think of you and long for and pray
life
army
ought to be narrow minded not over bright and half educated and that the truth
fact
love with
for you.
I
love
I
would
Darling dearest darlingest
all.
Beatrice.'^
The question of marriage thus remained unresolved: Patton did not formally propose, and Beatrice was as yet unable to bring herself to leave the Ayer family nest.
Patton's fifth and final year at the annual Field
Day
in
the 220-yard hurdles,
won
most triumphant day of
West Point was
most successful one. At
120-yard hurdles, and rounded out the
the
his athletic career at
220-yard dash.'^ His feat
in the
his
June 1908 he established a new school record in
won him
West Point
as the runner-up
a place in the cadet yearbook,
the Howitzer, with the fifteen other wearers of the coveted letter A.
ton also shot "Expert" with the
rifle
and continued
Pat-
to excel in
swords-
classmen
who had
manship.
The
won
text
their
A
accompanying the photograph of those
included a notation
that, "It is said that
first
Georgie Patton has com-
piled for future generals, a rule for winning any battle under any combination of circumstances.""*
Patton had years to
mdeed composed
later, after his
the
a
list
of the
traits
of a future general.
Many
son donated part of his father's vast collection of books
Friends of the West Point Library, the following notation was
unearthed on the final page of a textbook called Elements of Strategy: "End of
last
in the
lesson in Engineering. Last lesson as Cadet,
back cover was:
QUALITIES OF A GREAT GENERAL 1.
Tactically aggressive (loves a fight)
2.
Strength of character
3.
Steadiness of purpose
4.
Acceptance of responsibility
Thank God." Inscribed
Junior Cavalry Officer
106 5.
Energy
6.
Good
health and strength //signed//
George Patton
Cadet
U.S.M.A. April 29, 1909'^
To
the
end of
his
West Point days he remained
virtually friendless,
his reputation as a "quilloid" (a description coined
and
by the cadets for one
who puts others on report for any infraction of the rule book) endured.-" In summer of 1908 eight first classmen were expelled after being caught
the
saw no harm in what his classmates had done, Patton seemed disinclined to haze, preferring instead to enforce discipline. When the commandant, Lt. Col. Robert L. Howze, demoted most of the first class cadet officers during a shakeup in the summer of 1908, Patton was unaffected. After Howze sent for Patton and "said some very foolish yet very nice things about me. I went about inflated to the bursting point hazing. Although he
all day."^'
Patton's stubborn independence
was demonstrated one day
meal when he led the Corps of Cadets into the mess
hall
noon
at the
and, as they
awaited the "Take seats" command, an unpopular [army] officer entered.
Cadet custom was to stand sage and
left
silently at attention until the officer got the
mes-
the room. Patton, however, believed that any officer, whatever
his alleged misdeeds,
was deserving of proper respect
for his rank.
On
this
when the corps began to give the officer the silent treatment, Patton became so disgusted that he marched them out of the mess hall.^^ Martin Blumenson assesses Patton's often stormy relations with his classmates as made up of equal parts of affection, admiration, and exasperaoccasion,
tion at his obsessive quest for eventual greatness, left
unspoken instead of publicly
West
Point,
which most thought better
articulated. Sadly, despite five years at
by the time Patton graduated
in
1909, he could claim none of
them as close friends. The editors of the Howitzer lampooned Patton with
this entry
under his
photograph:
Confusion reigned supreme. The barracks were being shaken by a violent earthquake, and dishabille.
men came tumbling
out of their divisions in
all
stages of
Suddenly the Cadet Lieutenant and Adjutant appeared
area, faultlessly attired, as usual.
in the
Walking with firm step across the
area,
he halted, executed a proper about face and the stentorian tones rang out, "Battalion Attention-n-n-n! Cadets will refrain from being unduly shaken up. There will be diately.
By
no yelling
in the area.
order-r-r-r of Lieutenant
The earthquake
Colonel Howze!"
will cease
imme-
Love and Marriage
.
.
.
Two
broken arms bear witness to his
on the football
tune,
field
zeal, as well as his misfor-
—but misfortune could not run
overtake him on the track.
armored
107
We
enough
fast
believe that George's heart, despite
and have heard
exterior, has a big soft spot inside,
penetrated with his dart where the explosive
D
might
make
he
lest
Cupid has
that
fail.'^
After agonizing over what branch of the army to apply
decided on the cavalry. Concerned
to its
Patton
for,
a choice that
would not
guarantee him the best opportunity to gain promotion and, eventually, fame,
Army
he asked one of the Regular Capt. Charles
become
years would
officers in the
Department of Tactics, in later
not only a close friend but a trusted mentor, advised
He daydreamed
Patton to select the cavalry.''
that
he would be assigned to
the 15th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia, across the
from Washington, D.C., where, "I
who
Summerall, what he should do. Summerall,
P.
might ... get a boot
lick
"if
Potomac River
have any capacity," he wrote his
I
father,
on people of note."
Patton presented Beatrice with a photograph of himself in the uniform
of a
classman. She had
first
and kept page.
wonder what
I
mounted
it
for the rest of her
it
life.
On
be written on
will
in a small, oval antique silver
it.
June 1909."-^
Reflecting on his five years at West Point, Patton recalled his as a plebe. I it
failed a
"How
little
at least
I
scared
I
was
and did not succeed
have
tried to
do
Beatrice: "That night in the
now
boy
a
a
little
that
I
saw and
it
came
.
.
.
your cadet
is
girl
light at
first
day
my desire to succeed. did my best as I found
earnest in .
.
.
He
but
I
also reaffirmed his love for
Avalon a boy loved a
even more dear than then.
girl.
How
And
fortunate
meet you. ... To day when I wrote room for the last time it was your face me how when a plebe I had first written my name I
was
to
in the section
to
on a similar board accross the there
in
moon
older loves a
on the board
how much
day
that always."
almost unthinkably fortunate
my name
that
frame
back she inscribed: "An unwritten
the
hall
how
it
had been your face
going you made him
may
that
the officer be
had been
worthy of
you."" After five grueling years the ordeal of West Point ended on June 11, 1909,
when 103
first
classmen marched proudly
in
honor of the commencement
speaker, the recently appointed secretary of war, Jacob son,
who spoke
McGavock
of both the illustrious history of West Point and
Dickin-
how
its
graduates had distinguished themselves in earlier wars. Patton's final class standing
was
not, for
had
it
was
forty-sixth.-** If that
seems average,
not been for his dyslexia he undoubtedly
it
would have
graduated near the top of his class. Aside from himself, three of Patton's classmates were destined to later wear the four stars of a
full
general:
William Hood Simpson, Jacob Loucks Devers, and Robert Lawrence
108
Junior Cavalry Officer
Eichelberger.
A
John Clifford Hodges Lee, became a controversial
fourth,
and a dropout from Patton's original class of 1908, Court-
three-star general,
ney Hicks Hodges, was also destined
to
command
an army in Europe in
1944-45.-''
The Patton family and Beatrice were in attendance at this seminal event of newly commissioned 2d Lt. George Smith Patton, Cavalry, U.S. Army. In 1909 Patton's father had been appointed to the West Point Board of Visitors and, after the ceremony ended, Capt. Morton F. Smith, of the Department of Tactics, told him, "You need have no worry over the future of your boy. He always does more than is asked of him." As Patton would later write, "Papa was pleased and told me this. With some excepin the life
tions
I
have always lived up
The Pattons
left
for
to the ideal.
New
York City and the graduation dinner of the
class of 1909 at the elegant Hotel Astor. to Tiffany's,
where they purchased
watch which Patton
later carried
1916 and throughout World War
With
his
to
first
to report to his first
As he
Army
left
duty station, Fort
West Point
for an uncertain
of the time, Patton had good reason
not only overcome his dyslexia but had achieved the
on the long road toward
step
becoming a celebrated
fulfilling his destiny
of
general.
Patton spent most of the off Catalina Island.
him
expensive
with him during the Mexican expedition in
commission came orders
He had
be proud:
all-important
his parents took
I.^'
Sheridan, Illinois, in September 1909. future in the Lilliputian Regular
The next day
his graduation present, an
He
summer of 1909
in California,
much
wrote to Ellen Banning Ayer to ask
if
of
it
fishing
he would be
welcome to visit at the end of August before reporting to Fort Sheridan. His was both solicitous (for he genuinely cherished Ellie Ayer) and unintentionally humorous, noting that, "All the family would send you their love were they awake yet perhaps it is as well they are asleep for it would be but useless to send their love when you already have it."^' letter
Like his prospective in-laws, Patton could also be the master of the
grand gesture. The entire Ayer family was gathered on the terrace in their finest
summer
dress
when 2d
Lt.
at
Avalon
Patton suddenly appeared on
horseback. But instead of dismounting in front of the house, he kept riding right
up the
stairs
and onto the
and solemnly bowed During
at
their brief
her
terrace,
where he alighted
in front
of Beatrice
feet.^'
time together the lovers burned the candle
ends in a spree of socializing and yachting. The
visit
at
both
was enlivened one
morning by the appearance on the terrace of a brass band, hired for the occasion of Katharine Ayer's nineteenth birthday. It was typically Ayer: festive and splashy, and Patton relished every moment. Beatrice wrote to Aunt Nannie that Georgie "certainly did look handsome you are right, 'beauti-
—
Love and Marriage ful' is the
word
—and we have had
your having spared him to your hankies
to
us;
the happiest visit
we have been
sponge the tears off
109
.
.
.
so happy. ...
[this letter].
how am
I
I
appreciate
using one of
"^^ .
.
.
Aunt Nannie could not bear to be separated from her beloved nephew and had followed him to both VMI and West Point. Now it was Chicago, where she rented an apartment to remain near "the Boy" during the first six months of his assignment to Fort Sheridan. Patton never recorded his feelings about Nannie's bizarre behavior, but he did write and visit her occasionally. Her absence from California must have pleased Mr. Patton, who was temporarily freed of her oppressive presence at Lake Vineyard. r
Located just outside Chicago, Fort Sheridan was a small cavalry post and
home
the at
of an element of the 15th Cavalry Regiment, which was also based
Fort Myer, Virginia, and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
decreed that the
Army
regulations
of a newly commissioned officer was to
first official act
inform the regimental adjutant where he could be contacted prior to report-
was unaware
was based not was intercepted by his new commanding officer, Capt. F. C. Marshall, and returned to him with a polite suggestion that he write again. Patton immediately penned a second letter to ing for duty. Patton at
that the regimental adjutant
Fort Leavenworth but Fort Myer. His letter
the adjutant, candidly
acknowledging
his mistake.
Capt. Francis Cutler Marshall, Patton's
one of the few
men whom
first
commanding
can be said that Patton revered.
it
officer,
An
was
1890 West
Point graduate, Marshall had served with the 8th Cavalry in the Sioux
Indian
War
of 1890-91, participated in the China Relief Expedition in
1900-1901, and taught
West
five years at
in the
Point.
effective leadership, Marshall
Patton on his
first
Department of Tactics during four of Patton's
A man
of dignity, patience, and quiet but very
man to tutor Lieutenant who led by example, Maryoung Patton, who reciprocated by try-
was perhaps
duty assignment.
shall genuinely liked the ambitious
An
the ideal
officer
model himself on this outstanding soldier. Within days of his would write glowingly: "I am certainly glad that I got into Capt. Marshall's troop as he teaches me things that the other two [newly assigned lieutenants] never hear about from their troop commanders.'"^ ing hard to
arrival Patton
Patton thought of his
sense he was quite right
he had a great deal to cer
was one
aspect of his
new assignment
for, like
learn.
To absorb and master
thing, but the
new
as a fourth plebe
profession
most important and
was
year,-'^
and
in a
any other inexperienced second heutenant, the duties of a junior officlearly the
to earn the respect of his
most
difficult
men. This an
offi-
cer must achieve on his own.
Although
West Point were crude, nothing could have preArmy of 1910 was poorly enhsted ranks were populated by men of scant education and his quarters at
pared him for Fort Sheridan. The small Regular paid,
and
its
— 110
Junior Cavalry Officer
ambition. Between 1895
little
— when
the figure
was
$52 million
less than
and 1916, the average military budget was barely $150 million, and funds
improve the squalid living conditions
were on the
virtually nonexistent." Patton's bachelor quarters
of what was
bad
.
.
no
is
The
dirty.
.
.
.
furniture."^**
army of 1909 totaled 84,971 (4,299 officers and 80,672 whom was dispersed in small military garrisons that,
active
enlisted men),
third floor
They were, he wrote Beatrice, "pretty Save for one mahoginy desk and an iron
better than a slum.
little
empty and very
.
bed there
to
army's remote outposts were
in the
most of
were rarely of more than battalion
like Fort Sheridan,
Referred to as
size.
"hitching post" forts, these tiny outposts were a relic of eighteenth-century frontier
America
that
now
meet the vision of Theodore Roosevelt's
failed to
Army must
administration in Washington, which believed that the U.S.
modernized
to fight
any potential future
However, attempts
war.^"
dating permanent military forts by secretaries of war and chiefs of to
be
at consoli-
dating
staff,
1880, had failed to overcome congressional pork-barreling in allocating
funds to their constituencies where they would earn votes for re-election.^'
On
day of duty
his first
cific duties
Army
U.S.
in the
Patton had yet to be assigned spe-
and merely observed the unfolding of the daily routine of
life in
a peacetime cavalry troop:
I
who
have a horse
who
me
calls
is
not bad nor good and a saddle
"the Lieutenant"
lieutenants as "Mister"].
am
was
Fort Sheridan at best,
4:30
duty
P.M.,
I
was customary
my
have not yet got
my mind
a bit upset in
[it
I
be
will
all
.
also an orderly
.
time to address
feet [on the ground]
right in a
and so
day or two.^^
most army
better situated than
.
at that
installations, but
even
such a place was dreary. Patton was detailed to stable duty
at
and was thus rarely able
to take
mitted an officer to visit the city any time between noon and midnight. winters were frigid, and the heat and humidity in
Always prone
to
at
advantage of the custom that per-
hay fever, he suffered "to beat
summer were
The
oppressive.
hell."
Fort Sheridan also housed a military prison, and one of Patton's duties
whenever he served
"When
escaped.
them. ...
I
I
felt like a
convict
my
awfully ignorant looking and lord
he ought to wear a diving like the
people
in
was
as officer of the guard
went on guard
suit to
I
had
self before
how
ward off the it is
to
I
to ensure that
had finished
me
I
him on
.
.
they were
smell. "In their sleep they look
used to read.
.
.
.
Think of
it
a
a very sad sight."^^
Captain Marshall greatly eased Patton's transition. lated
.
no one
and count
into the cage
they 'stunk.'" Patton recorded that
Hell in a book of Dante
hundred and twenty ruined souls
go
to
He
his forthcoming marriage, which, of course,
also congratu-
was news
to Pat-
Love and Marriage ton
who had
full
account of
ows
yet to propose formally to Beatrice. "It seems it,"
he wrote to
more
some paper had
Some
times
scares me."
it
realistic training and, gradually,
he entrusted Pat-
by assigning him a variety of
responsibility
a
suppose coming events cast their shad-
her. "I
before but what a long shadow.
Marshall believed in ton with
111
duties.
He
learned lessons that would later be used to good advantage. Patton especially
enjoyed the practice marches and bivouacs that were standard fare for
when
cavalry units, and performed well
put in charge of the advance patrol
of Troop K, which entailed setting up, securing, and manning campsites. fed his dreams that
"Some day
have a big
will
I
men
stove and a trunk and a lot of
tent
me
cussing
It
and a refrigerator and a for having
so
much
baggage."^
was unimpressed with the quarters of some married officers, on obliged by army protocol to pay a social call. "I met some peo-
Patton
whom he was ple
on
who
—
positively
a girl
make me
know."
I
He
ill
when
think of the effect they
I
would have
observed that the Marshalls managed to afford three
servants and a striker (enlisted orderly) and dressed and behaved better than
was
others at Fort Sheridan. Patton
stage of his
at this
life
perhaps unduly
impressed by people's status and tended to make judgments on the basis of social standing.
One
tive in a stately
mansion
night he
awe of
was
invited to dine with a very wealthy execu-
Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, and
in the affluent
may
came away
in
in business,
where wealth was an objective, did not prevent him from feeling
comfortable
—and somewhat envious —amid such
his wealth.
That Patton
Regardless of the monotony of duty
at
not have desired a career
trappings.
feeling of being without Beatrice, Patton led an active social
post and in Chicago. In his off-duty time he attended football
diagramming and sending plays back formal balls
at
to the
which he proudly wore
dining out and the opera ("I hell of a lot about
it.").
He
.
.
.
coach
new
his
really like
dated several
empty
Fort Sheridan and the
it
suit
at
and
though
women
West
I
both on
life
games (once
Point), dances,
silk hat, the theater,
don't understand a
but apparently failed to
develop any lasting attachments, although he wrote
to his father that
them, a certain Miss Bishop, appeared to be
with him. "She
and rather pretty and very useful.
girl
More shall
I
in love
have taken her
than Beat, would care to hear about."
On
is
one of a nice
to a lot of plays.
Halloween, Captain Mar-
provided him a costume, complete with mask, and
to the noisy
accom-
paniment of loudly clanging pots and pans, the Marshall entourage visited each of the quarters on post and "raised the duce generally. "^^ As a bachelor, at the homes of married junior offimore than made up for the long, dreary
Patton was frequently invited to dinner cers.
His active and satisfying
life
hours of repetitive troop duties.
Although Patton had begun there
to
were many harsh lessons yet
make to
a
name
for himself at Fort Sheridan,
be learned. The
first
dealt with leader-
112
Junior Cavalry Officer
ship,
and was an example of
to overrule his
good
sense.
nearby
stables, cursed a
his occasional
One
tendency to permit his emotions
afternoon he found an untethered horse in the
soldier,
and ordered him
men
to run, tie the horse,
and
him and so is an excellent punishment. The man did not understand me or thought he would dead beat so he started to walk fast. I got mad and yelled 'Run dam you Run.'" Patton then run back. "This
makes
the other
laugh
at
sensed that he had needlessly humiliated one of his soldiers, and after assem-
who
bling those ior. "It I
witnessed the incident, he publicly apologized for his behav-
sounds easy to write about but was one of the hardest things
think but
am
I
glad
I
did
it
now
that
is
it
I
ever did
done."^^
would not be the last time Patton would embarrass himself by an irraThe positive aspect was that he not only quickly understood that swearing at an enlisted man was a serious impropriety for an officer, but It
tional act.
possessed the courage to humble himself by issuing an immediate public apology.
It
was
the first of
many such
during his lifetime, making the act
though
it
would never get any
—
easier.
apologies that Patton would deliver
as his grandson notes
— "an
form,
art
"^^
Patton was so dissatisfied by the idleness of garrison duty that he and a
low
officer undertook a course of military studies four afternoons a
fel-
week.
Whether or not he cared to admit it, Patton was rapidly learning what Mr. Ayer had pointed out: that a military career in the peace time army was a dead end. He had scarcely been ing:
my
"God
but
I
at Fort
Sheridan a month before complain-
wish there would be a war. Until there
is I
see no hope of
ever needing to buy any more furnature [for his bachelor quarters] for
you cant
fill
an empty heart with
chairs."^**
There was no better example of the boredom of military high desertion rate ("five thousand earth"),
and the high occupancy
remained a serious problem, and cities,
enlisted
men were
rate of the post stockade. in
life
than the
year in the best paied army on
many
Drunkenness
places, particularly the larger
regarded with utter contempt. Discipline was
swift and harsh, the duty usually soldiers
last
mind numbing, and, although American
were better paid than those of other countries, the pay was never-
theless wretchedly low.
what they were
letting
Some
soldiers enlisted without fully understanding
themselves in
for; literacy
was
a major problem, and
conditions, though improved from those of the post-Civil
War
period,
were
at best austere.
who as one of the outstanding generals of World would one day be intimately associated with Patton, has left a superb
Lucian K. Truscott,
War
II
life in the cavalry. He writes of an existence dawn and was governed by the call of the bugle:
account of before
that
began well
Love and Marriage
Troop
officers took turns standing Reveille with their troops and, after
roll call,
reported to the officer of the day.
ous other occasions during the day Sick,
113
and
Drill calls.
sages. Just the bugle.
In short, the U.S.
No
PA
bells,
And we
Army 2d
.
The bugle blew on numer-
.
systems, telephone calls, or radio mes-
followed
its orders.^-
George
Lt.
.
prescribed intervals: Mess, Police,
at
Patton entered in 1909 was
S.
rooted in the cavalry, infantry, and Coast Artillery Corps, and woefully
unprepared to enter the era of modern warfare ushered
by the new
in
century. Although significant reforms were being undertaken in Washington, there
was
evidence of
little
in the "hitching post" forts
it
such as
Sheridan.
Patton spent Christmas of 1909 on furlough with Beatrice and the Ayers.
As
they had the previous year, the two lovers discussed marriage, and once
again the matter was
weeks
father several
B. for rasons
none
to
my
suppose
it
and being
if
me
she will marry
left
.
unresolved. Patton's version, as written to his
was:
later
any best known .
.
telling her family
is
to her self will not say definitely that
but as she has no objection or appears to have .
.
.
She certainly
is
an awful ass but then
I
hard to blame a person for clinging to the present happiness
changing
slightly scared at
it
...
I
think that the only thing
that scares her is the thought of leaving her family not of leaving her
wealth for she does not give a
never leave them for
I
dam
would look
for that.
Any way
like an ass
she has got to or
hanging around much
longer."^"
Nevertheless Beatrice to a
it
was another magical time
moon goddess coming down
dress the world in silver. ...
you were so perfectly lovly evening and
new
was so happy derful being
I
I
can but think that you are she.
that
it
was
sort of sacred.
.
.
.
Beaty
think that that
more perfect than hours on this earth are. I wake up and when I did it was even more won-
still true.^'
Eventually the Ayers would have to approve
would seek
I
years were
feared to
ton wanted no part of facing them, and trice
compared
for both. Patton
to
it
if
they were to maiTy. Pat-
was eventually decided
their permission. Mr. Ayer's
that
Bea-
obvious disapproval of Patton's
chosen profession was evident, but as her daughter has written, Beatrice
114
Junior Cavalry Officer
"was the most strong-minded of the Ayer children; she always got her way
in
the end." But not without a fight:
Granfer Ayer was not going to allow his darling to be taken off to a
Army
forsaken
God
Post in the middle of nowhere. ... If Georgie really
cared for precious Beatrice, he would do the decent thing, resign his
commission and take a job (one which was waiting Boston. getting
.
.
.
accustomed
despair. ...
own way
[He] had not had his
He
to the feeling.
.
.
80 years without
Georgie retaliated with heated
.
said that if he could not
for him) in or near
for nearly
marry
Ma
he would never marry
anyone, but that the army was his chosen career and his profession and
he was going to stick to
and serve
it,
his country in the
way he knew
best.
A father
confrontation between the strong-willed Beatrice and her autocratic
was
outma-
inevitable, with neither party apparently prepared to be
neuvered. Frederick Ayer liked George Patton, but he was adamant that his
beloved daughter not be exposed to army ing a hunger strike, refusing
all
life,
and he refused
by locking herself
the marriage. Beatrice retaliated
to
approve of
her bedroom and stag-
in
suggestions that she change her mind.
Every night on the stroke of midnight, there would be a basket dangling
down
on a
the stairwell
string to
pickings from the larder.
each day
.
.
.
.
.
be
filled
by
She seemed
.
[sister]
this,
Patton, that
who
to Georgie, but
said that
it
literally
it
was quoted
fragile
on her windowsill. After
to proceed.
[Frederick Ayer] had the last word, of a
he wrote
the choicest
Granfer Ayer capitulated to his concerned
and gave permission for the wedding
letter
Kay with
grow paler and more
[and] could be seen leaning sadly
about a week of folk,
to
sort. I
to
.
.
have never seen the
me by Ma
changed Georgie's
he was persuaded that Georgie's vocation lay
women-
.
life.
and by Nita
Granfer Ayer said
in the military,
and so
they would henceforth each do the thing they did best; he would earn the
money, and Georgie would earn the
Frederick Ayer's change of heart Patton sent
him
may
glory.
well have been in response to a letter
in early 1910, detailing his financial worth,
which seemed
to
impress the old man, no doubt because he believed his future son-in-law
to
be of dubious wealth. Ayer's
letter
was a complete concession and
rather
generous:
We confide her to you with our love quent return to us
we
and
fullest confidence.
Her
fre-
you keep
this
ever
shall look for with longing. Will
Love and Marriage in
mind?
them
know your accommodations
I
good
good
sailors
which she
do hate
I
is
to get the
to
some a pretty
is
It
home
accustomed but what can
has been to give
my
custom when
and the younger ones. This
good wish
1
so different from that
life
do." However, Frederick Ayer
I
Patton:
my
children have married and
them a monthly income, and
circumstances. ... until
Fort Sheridan, Patton wrote his
at
poor kid into a
was taking no chances and informed
army
it
and soldiers must; and you know she
Uncertain even of obtaining quarters
trice
what you would have
enjoys roughing
sailor.^'
mother, "Gosh to
are not
in private life, but think that Beatrice
extent, as all
115
is
[I]
shall
do
the
same
left
to
our
Bea-
without regard to their
admire your firmness of purpose
in sticking to the
more strongly tempted by another occupation, and with every for your early
and steady advancement,
I
am. Sincerely, your friend, F. Ayer.''
The Marshalls invited Beatrice to visit Fort Sheridan to see for herself life would be like. She was appalled, and "at some point during her visit Ma offered to break their engagement as she didn't think she could ever make a good army wife. Georgie kissed her out of that fancy." Mr. Ayer was right; Beatrice would ever be the good soldier, but she did not have to like it and, in fact, came to loathe the shabbiness of their quarters at Fort Sheridan and the other "hitching posts" where Patton was assigned. Both clans duly arrived for what was as much an inspection of the army as it was to view the future homestead of Lieutenant and Mrs. George S. Patton. It turned into a family affair: The Ayers escorted Beatrice from Maswhat army
sachusetts, while
had decided
to
Mama
and Nita arrived from California. Patton's father
throw his hat back into the
a political convention at which he for the U.S. Senate.
Although he would
Democratic nomination
Mama
hoped
political arena
to
and was attending
be nominated by the Democrats
fail in
1910, Patton did obtain the
in 1916.
disapproved of the lodgings her son would eventually acquire,
and the two quarreled, with Patton attempting
money simply would
not buy
him rank or
to explain to his
mother
that
a decent set of quarters; in those
days post quarters were assigned solely by rank. Moreover, there was also a policy called "ranking out," which meant that an officer with seniority could force a
more junior
officer to vacate his quarters.
officers at Fort Sheridan, Patton
was
at the
As one of
bottom of the
the
most junior
eligibility list
and
Junior Cavalry Officer
116 wrote his father: I
am
"I
absolutely at sea as to where in Hell
get back but the only thing to
As
the
do
to trust to
is
I
God and good
wedding day approached everyone began
show
to
will live
signs of strain.
Beatrice cried a good deal, leading Patton to admonish, "[B]ut B.
on crying
times you will hurt your looks so
at all
tension the
members of
To help
two families began writing
the
another. Patton's genuine fondness for Ellie letter
stop."^''
Ayer
is
I
way
I
may
perhaps be able to cheer you a
think of marrying Beatrice and of her leaving
and surprises me. Frightness, vastness of
my
responsibility.
that in all reverence
at the .
.
you are equally
letters
so.
one
to
official.
home
little.
me
for
.
.
it
thought of the wonder of
Truly
.
you go
world of her and keep her happy
will try to take the best care in the
in that
if
relieve the
evident in a charming
he wrote to her shortly after the engagement became
and
when
luck."^^
God .
.
is
good
.
When
it
me. Yet
to
I
frightens
and of the I
think
.
Devotidely yours,
George Patton was granted five weeks' leave for the marriage and a
S. Patton,
Jr.'"
honeymoon
in
England. As the wedding day approached, Mr. Patton wrote lovingly to his
"My Dear
future daughter-in-law. Beginning,
Little Girl,"
he spoke of his
Lake Vineyard without his family and how his spirits were raised by a letter from Beatrice. He had sent her some orange blossoms from Lake Vineyard and, "In my memory I saw the little white headed kid who loneliness at
was 'Georgie'
.
ings to the dear
.
.
and
I
thought Lake Vineyard must send
little girl
... so
you see
my
dear
its
little girl
flowery greet-
—when you put
those poor faded blossoms in the scent bag you put with them this joyful
loving thought of this far off father ing
—
his only
At
'little
—who surrenders without
fear or misgiv-
boy' to your loving keeping 'for always.'
the last minute, Patton wrote with evident relief that he
assigned quarters and drew a
map
to
had been
show Beatrice where they would live. Two weeks from now we will proba-
"You don't know how glad [I am] somewhere between Prides [Crossing] and Boston ... It will be so strange I hope you will not be too sad Beaty. I will try to comfort you and darling we love each other so much that we will be happy. God .
.
.
bly be in a machine
bless our house.'"**^ In one of his final letters to Beatrice before their marriage, he
aged to reveal signs of the
fire
still
man-
burning within that no amount of happiness
was ever destined to quench. Barely ten days before the wedding he wrote, "Beaty we must ammount to some thing. "^'^ When the occasion demanded it, Patton could be eloquent, as he was in his last romantic letter before the
wedding:
Love and Marriage
117
May
22, 1910
Darling Beatrice:
This shall
the last letter
is
still
first letter to
you
shall write
you almost eight years ago
have thus been enabled infinite perfection.
than then ... for grant that if
I
increase for
it
tude for
I
as your lover only hereafter
be your lover but also your husband. Darling since
When
I
So
that in a
is
I
I
my
have grown older and wiser and
way
I
may be
have ever loved you to the
my
said to love
you more now
my
of
fullest
power.
capacity for loving you
only by a divine love that are,
wrote
understand and more clearly see your
develop in no other way
you
all
I
to better
I
have been, and will be
I
can express to you
to
me
.
.
God may
my
grati-
.
my
think of the excited happiness with which
"Rattish" and
"Plebish" hands have opened your darling letters of the past, and the emotions of
hope or fear and always of pride which those
can hardly comprehend that
I
we
are hence forth to be
letters elicited ... I
one
.
.
.
me yet not at the now that my prayer is to be granted it seems be happy. God grant it! May our love never be less
have prayed that you should love and marry
expense of your happiness so certain that
than
you
now And
will
our ambition as fortunate and as great as our love. Amen.
George^"
The wedding of George Smith Patton took place amid the splendor of Avalon on
Jr.
the noteworthy social events of that year sachusetts. Beatrice's
engagement
ring,
and Beatrice Banning Ayer
May
26, 1910, and
was one of
on the North Shore of Mas-
which she wore
to the
end of her
was a gold miniature of Patton's West Point class ring, in the center of which was a topaz, his birthstone. Beatrice wore the same wedding dress that her mother had worn for her own wedding in 1884. It was trimmed with real orange blossoms from Lake Vineyard, brought on the train by the Pattons in a box of wet cotton. Patton and the five ushers wore their full dress life,
blue uniforms."' Beatrice's bridesmaid was her best
man was
her brother, Frederick Ayer,
sister,
Katharine; Georgie's
Jr."-
The only blemish on this otherwise festive occasion occurred the day when Mrs. Patton fell ill with influenza and was obliged to remain in her Boston hotel room during the ceremony. Although a gteat disappointment for the Pattons, it left an enthralled Aunt Nannie in the limeHght of what was perhaps the "shining hour" of her life. "She could for an hour live her dream as she stood in the receiving line, next to the only man
before the wedding
Junior Cavalry Officer
118
whom
she had ever loved, with her adored Georgie
should have been her son, marrying a
girl that
she always thought
she herself truly loved."
The ceremony took place in St. John's Episcopal Church in nearby BevFarms against a background of white and green spring blooms that decorated the chancel. It was the first military wedding on the North Shore since the Civil War and the guests were drawn from Boston aristocracy, and from places as far away as New York, Minnesota (Ellie's home state), Virginia, Washington, D.C., and California. The rector of Boston's Old South Church performed the service, after which the newlyweds passed beneath erly
the traditional crossed swords of Patton's classmates and cousin. Mr.
Ayer
hired a special train to convey the invited guests to and from Boston and carriages ferried
A
flowers. trice
full
them from
the station to Avalon
which was awash with
orchestra on the terrace provided the music, and after Bea-
Patton cut their wedding cake with George's sword,
it
solemnly played
the "Star-Spangled Banner."^^
After the ceremony, the newlyweds posed for a formal wedding photograph, George in full uniform, with his officer's cap in his right hand and
gown
Beatrice in her dazzling wedding
bride" as the local paper later described
The
entire
wedding was a
typical
looking every inch "a rarely lovely her.^^
Ayer production:
first-class
and
lavish,
with loving attention paid to the smallest detail. Ellie Ayer dispensed with her multitude of bangles and on this occasion wore only a single strand of pearls and a pendant.
and
As the guests continued to celebrate. Lieutenant away to Boston where they spent the night
departing the following morning for the
Patton before
his bride slipped
SS Deutschland which was
New
to take
York
them
to
occupy the bridal
to
England for
suite of
their
honey-
moon.^^
The following morning when
the
newlyweds rang
for breakfast, instead
of a waiter, into their suite marched Ellie Ayer, carrying a single white rose in a crystal vase,
had risen early
followed by several of Beatrice's brothers and
that
morning
for the train ride to
Boston
to
sisters.
All
"be there when
Ma thought it was terribly thoughtful, but it almost The public Patton may have been a firebrand but privately he was a shy man, and this Ayer display of affection was decidedly not his 'the children
awoke.'
killed Georgie. "^^
idea of togetherness.
By
all
accounts the
and delighted trip.
honeymoon was
in visiting
They landed
in
delightful.
Both were avid
England, which was George's
Plymouth on June
3
first
and spent several days exploring
Cornwall. After a stop in London, where Patton bought the
would soon become a in late
June to
set
first
of what
vast collection of military books, they returned
about the business of moving to
home." And, would never be
travelers
ever foreign
newly wed George same again.
their first
as the
his life
the
Illinois
S. Patton
home
and establishing
would soon
learn,
CHAPTER
.
.
9
And Baby Makes Three"
A
marriage without conflicts
is
almost as inconceivable
as a nation without crises. -ANDRE MAUROIS
He had never seen anything as all
his sensibilities
never got over
as the
awful
and
revolting to
birth of his first child,
and he
it.
—RUTH ELLEN PATTON TOTTEN
Beatrice Patton arrived at Fort Sheridan apprehensive, her head filled with
seemingly endless advice about
how
to deal with this "wild westerner" she
New England was was merely a place where one One woman warned her that she ought
had married. To many easterners anything west of scarcely better than a foreign land. Chicago
changed
trains
en route
to California.
never to leave her quarters without wearing her
auburn tresses "might rouse some Indian local
hat, as the sight
to
of her long
go on a scalping spree.
.
.
.
She was warned against drinking the water, and told to be sure to ask the butcher if the meat was fresh [and] Ellie gave her some sound .
advice.
.
.
.
.
.
[N]ever get intimate with your next door neighbors; never bor-
row anything; never confide
in
anyone but your husband, your doctor, your
pastor and, of course, your mother."'
Beatrice happily reported to Aunt Nannie that 'during our short house-
Junior Cavalry Officer
120
keeping experience together," her husband had "added to his other accomplishments that of champion furniture polisher, varnish-and-painter, cook,
plumber, carpenter, gardener and heavy chaperone.
He
will
be a piano tuner
next.'"
Their
home was
first
a far cry
from Commonwealth Avenue or Lake
Vineyard. The rooms were so small that only four chairs could be used in the dining room,
and the bedroom closet was so narrow
boater had to be stood on
its
edge. Shortly before they
that Patton's straw
moved
in,
the interior
of their quarters had been painted peacock blue, with paint the quartermaster
had
left
over from the painting of the railway station. Kay Ayer accompa-
nied them and helped Beatrice establish her barely settled into Quarters
Troop
K
92A
at Fort
for an extended period of
left
first
household. The Pattons had
Sheridan when, in early August,
summer maneuvers
in
Wisconsin.
Patton was placed in charge of transporting the mules and horses. Beatrice
would have preferred modations
in
to
accompany her husband and take temporary accom-
nearby Sparta, Wisconsin, but was dissuaded from doing so by
Captain Marshall. Not only would Patton be too busy to see her for more than a few hours a week, but the other officers' wives were remaining at Fort Sheridan.^ After a short time she and her sister
summer
der of the
at Pride's
Although they lacked realism, mock during his
first
good deal
battles taught Patton a
cavalry maneuvers. Marshall placed
and assigned him other responsibilities in the cavalry.
spend the remain-
left to
Crossing.
that
Although Patton proclaimed
him
broadened it
charge of a patrol
in
his experience of life
down a fictiwho had been
"thrilling" to cut
tious guerrilla force with sabers, his wise old sergeant,
through three wars, thought make-believe war "beat them
all."^ It
was
time that Patton began a habit that was to endure throughout his
began
to read military classics to
self to excel, but often
dog
is
He
extend his knowledge and challenge him-
found them
difficult.
reading as any thing can well be and as a
at this
life.
is
Clausewitz was "about as hard
as full of notes of equal abstruceness
of flees." Patton missed his bride but had plenty of time on his
hands for reading and sleeping and wishing for an assignment elsewhere.
When
they were reunited in the middle of September, an elated Beatrice
announced
was pregnant with
that she
their first child,
the following March. Patton, however, displayed
To Ma, it
this
was
the ultimate goal of a
little
woman's
which was expected
enthusiasm:
life; to
find love, to have
returned, and to be able to bear a child to sanctify that love.
Georgie, on the other hand,
and his golden ful that they
course.
girl.
were
felt
He wanted to
a
shadow creeping
in
.
.
.
between himself
her to himself, and he was slightly resent-
be joined so soon by another.
Ma
sensed
this,
of
And Baby Makes Three" While both families were equally
121
thrilled with Beatrice's
news,
it
was
for different reasons.
had been raised
[BeatriceJ
in a close-knit, loving family,
"the more, the merrier"
felt
.
.
.
Name" must
with the thought that "the
and she always
and the Pattons were always obsessed be preserved. They never had and
never did, recover from the physical and spiritual losses of the Civil War,
when
so
many
Pattons and their kin had died on the bloody fields of Get-
tysburg and Winchester
.
"Will you mind terribly
answer
.
.
With
—because he loved Ma with
all
I
Beatrice found the
army an
She had
said to Georgie;
her the perfect
"What do you
think,
who
with the other officers' wives
even cosmopolitan Chicago could not
that
when
the only occasion
in the other half
and made few friends during her
common
she decided to "drop by" her next-door
of their quarters, Beatrice was about to knock, when:
The
officer
still
covered with shaving
lived there
came shooting
lather, his
out the door, half of his face
suspenders hanging about his knees,
his razor gripped firmly in his right hand,
and running as
him came
fast as
he could
around the corner of the building; and
after
dressing gown, with her nightcap
on and her rolling pin clutched
firmly in her right hand. neither of
It
He gave
of his heart;
alien place
httle in
and longed for the culture of Boston
On
a girl?"
married one, didn't I?"
stay at Fort Sheridan.
neighbor
Ma
of this in mind. is
Beaty?
replace.
all
one
if this
was
still
They were so
intent
on
his wife, in her
this silent pursuit that
them saw Ma.
the last time she ever "dropped by" unannounced.
Beatrice avoided the post doctor at Fort Sheridan, repulsive, partly for his beard but mainly for his habit of
whom
she found
chewing tobacco.
Unwilling to become an object of interest to soldiers using the post
mary or
to entrust herself
and her unborn child
had no confidence, Beatrice was referred
to a physician in
to a doctor in
infir-
whom
she
Chicago by the Ayer
family physician in Boston. Nor was Patton destined to keep Beatrice to
himself during her pregnancy.
One of the
keep her company, and
Patton or Ayer family
always present
to
Boston society
to the austerity of Quarters
The
women was
to ease the difficult transition
from
92A.
birth of his first child turned out to be a shattering experience for
George Patton. As
their daughter writes, Beatrice
had not only longed for a
by her beloved Georgie, but she wanted its birth to be a special time of sharing and tnumph. The tiny bedroom became crowded with Ruth Patton,
child
a doctor, a nurse the Ayers brought from Boston and Patton himself
could find space. "The Ayers were outside on the landing.
when he
Junior Cavalry Officer
122
To everyone
was an occasion of supreme joy, except
it
and see the beautiful
to stand there
girl
to Georgie.
he had been married to
He had
less than a
year being torn to pieces (in his eyes), by a monstrous stranger that was
much wanted by
not either pretty or appealing or very
plenty of kittens and puppies and calves and colts
he had never seen anything as awful and revolting to as the birth of his first child,
and he never got over
put the baby in his arms, he rushed out of the
and was sick
in the kitchen sink.
The
family, all
him.
bom it.
all
ran downstairs,
crowding
in to cheer, felt
how
he really
was
a girl, born at sunset
Ayer Patton. Throughout her
When
No
one knew
felt.
on the afternoon of March
She was christened Beatrice Smith Patton, which was family.
they tried to
room and
he was showing very suitable and sensitive emotions.
trice
seen
his sensibilities
When
that
Patton's child
He had
on the ranch, but
life
later
11, 1911.
changed
to
Bea-
she was fondly called "Bee" by her
the Patton family arrived en suite a
month
later they hid their
disappointment, professed that there remained ample time for a male Patton heir to arrive
one fine day. Nevertheless they were heard
Bee Patton
"Smithy" or "Smith." With a nurse
later
as
to refer to
in constant
baby
attendance and
with his parents, sister Nita, and aunt Nannie seemingly always present
in their tiny quarters, Patton
became despondent and
lonely. Indeed, there
were moments when Patton thought he would never again be alone with bride,
and he resented the intrusion of his beloved family, even while he
his rel-
ished the opportunity to have them present."^
Patton had been the center of his family's attention his entire
he was woefully unprepared abruptly
to play
life,
and
second fiddle not only to an
To make matters worse, Beatrice was obliged to husband. Unable to cope with this shattering blow to his outsize ego, Patton grew sullen and suffered the first of what would be occasional bouts of depression. On March 22, for example, he wrote to Aunt Nannie that "the accursed infant has black hair is very ugly and is said by some dastardly people to slightly resemble me which it does not, since it is ugly."^' For a time the nickname coined by the Pattons stuck. In a letter to Aunt Nannie written in July 1911, Beatrice referred to the baby as "Smithy," and it was not until her first birthday that she was infant, but
an infant
pay more attention
girl.
to the child than to her
referred to as "Little Bee."^
Patton's disinterest in and jealousy of his daughter lingered well into the
summer ing,
of 1911. Mother and daughter had again returned to Pride's Cross-
and when Patton wrote
to
Aunt Nannie
in July,
he
made only passing
reference to the fact that the child had gained nearly a pound. "I suppose that
is
fine,"
he disclosed, with an obvious lack of enthusiasm.** Beatrice's
reaction to her husband's apathy has never been recorded, but there
is
no
.
And Baby Makes Three"
123
when
reason to doubt that his behavior was a profound disappointment
the
occasion ought to have been a joyous celebration of their marriage. Patton
seemed incapable of identifying with essayist Lafcadio Hearn, who become a father, I think the strangest and strongest
observed: "If you ever sensation of your
own
child."
To
who wrote
humorist
be hearing for the
life will
time the thin cry of your
have agreed with the
likely
that babies are: "an alimentary canal with a loud voice
one end and no responsibility
at
his family, there
first
would more than
the contrary, he
was a
Nevertheless,
at the other.'"^
when
it
came
would lead
puritanical streak in Patton that
to
to the
unleashing of his wrath for the slightest real or perceived disrespect to his daughters or his wife.
when he was
In 1918,
gized for his behavior
in
at Fort
France preparing for combat, Patton apolo-
the time he had just returned from I
deserved) for some of the
there again
I
would behave
maneuvers "and you gave
letters
better
I
had written you
though
I
His doldrums
may have been
to write of
me
hell
at the
would ever
was only a remote "By time this reaches sand hills of Northern Mexico
fact that there
I may be a heap of rotting carrion on the may not," he wrote to Aunt Nannie. "But we hope to be the [even though] there may be no war. God forbid such an sent .
You
participate in such a war.
next troops
I
.
time
in being."'"
exacerbated by the news that the deterio-
you or
(which
wish we were
between Mexico and the United States indicated the immi-
nence of war. What upset Patton was the possibility he
still I
was very jealous
were not so mad as circumstances justified you rating relations
him
Sheridan. His loneliness led
eventuality
.
however."" Clearly anxious for something more exciting than Fort Sheridan,
him
Patton thirsted for any assignment that would enable in
to test his
courage
combat, and Mexico offered the only possible prospect. Like any marriage, the Pattons' required a considerable period of adjust-
ment. Not only had there been precious to
accustom themselves
strains
on each were multiplied. One day not long
the colonel's wife unexpectedly
new
teaching
sation the
how made well
time for George and Beatrice
little
to living together, but with a
'in
recruits to shoot
woman
came
on the
to call
rifle
infant, the
on a day when Patton was
some polite converHad Bee's birth someWere they happy? "Was all
range. After
finally got to the point of her visit.
a difference in their marital relations?
the
newborn
after Little Bee's birth,
bedroom?'" Embarrassed, and beginning
to take offense at
such
when the colonel's wife said, old woman, Mrs. Patton, but
very personal questions, Beatrice was startled
"I know you must think me an interfering when Colonel Girard came home at noon for
fact that
his lunch, he
Mr. Patton had been standing on the
between the
targets,
and he wondered
if
rifle
some circumstance had occurred of
such a nature that Mr. Patton was trying to take his
because of some misunderstanding
at
mentioned the
butts all morning,
home."
own
life
.
.
.
perhaps
124
Junior Cavalry Officer
When
her husband arrived
home
that afternoon,
he encountered an
enraged Beatrice, with her bags packed, awaiting a taxi to take Bee, and a maid to Chicago to entrain for Pride's Crossing.
ounce of Patton's powers of persuasion he had previously
at
West
to
Point, merely
convince Beatrice that he had, as
testing his courage
was eventually persuaded
Beatrice
by her husband's
On
was again
baby
been curious to learn what George
Washington meant when he wrote of the merry sound of past his ears. Patton
her,
took every
It
under
bullets whizzing
fire,
and, although
unpack her bags, she was not amused
to
antics.
another occasion, in France, Patton learned that the price of taking his
wife for granted was costly. Whenever they often during their long married
attending to the details of the
they
were scheduled
to
life
—
moved
—and they would do so
the responsibility for packing and
move devolved on Beatrice. The day before Patton came home to find Beatrice
depart,
exhausted, and thoughtlessly said: "I hope you remembered to pack
swords under the bed."
When
she found
some
thirty
those
all
swords and scabbards,
something snapped.
The next
thing she
remembered was chasing Georgie through
the
rooms
with a sword uplifted in her two hands, and Georgie running madly ahead
of her, jumping over chairs and tables, and his hands clasped over his
head
to [ward] off her stroke, yelHng; "Don't! Don't! Please Don't!"
almost caught him, bringing the sword
edge of a
table.
Georgie helped her
to
In other aspects of their married Beatrice. For example, Beatrice
was
down
so hard that
it
She
struck into the
pack them.
life,
Patton would readily defer to
fluent in French, a subject he
had strug-
gled to master at West Point, and he willingly accepted her help and advice.
After translating an article from a French military journal in the 1911, Patton asked his wife to revise startling
changes
Although father,
his
my
in
ideas.
pay was
money was never
it,
expecting that "I
automobile and in that
"marked
it
summer of find some
"'-
paltry,
with Beatrice's monthly stipend from her
a problem in the Patton household. Patton kept a
meticulous record of his expenses during the riage but soon gave
may
first
few months of
their
up as a waste of time." Patton purchased
letters to his father
mar-
his first
displayed a considerable knowledge
the beginning of his considerable interest in and
knowledge of
motorcars and would lead him eventually to the tanks." Patton also pur-
chased his
Chicago
first
horse in 1910 and, after attending several horse shows in
—believing
it
would enhance
his career
participate the following year. Writing to fine advertisement for a
man
[in the
—decided
that
he would
Aunt Nannie, he confided,
Army]."'^
"it is
a
And Baby Makes Three" Then, and Crossing to
Ellie "constantly played
don't think she did wrote.
Ma was
to Pride's
her parents. Her mother would frequently write to remind
how much
her daughter
come, Beatrice often returned
in the years to
visit
125
it
her elderly father missed his "thinking flower."
on Ma's feelings about coming home for a
to devil Georgie,
I
think she really
always torn between her duty
to
felt
visit. I
what she
Georgie and her duty
to her
parents."
Beneath
bawdy
his serious facade Patton possessed a
he was to demonstrate on
many an
occasion.
When
sense of humor, as
Patton was stationed in
War I, Beatrice, Little Bee, and Ruth (bom in 1915) returned to Pride's Crossing for one of their frequent visits. It was Ellie's custom to have the grandchildren recite for her and her friends in the great living room that overlooked the ocean. Shortly before they departed Texas, Patton took Little Bee and Ruth Ellen aside and inquired, "if Ellie still asked us if we had a new 'piece' to recite. The Ayers
El Paso, Texas, shortly before World
Ellen
were great on that
recitation ... so
was a big
secret,
Georgie said he was going
and we were
to tell
it
to
nobody
to teach us a piece
until Ellie
asked us to
recite."
The great moment came to pass at teatime, in the presence of Ellie and some family and friends, including an elderly woman who used an ear trumpet. As Ruth Ellen writes:
We
had been brought down
best
bow.
.
.
.
Ellie
did, so there
taught us
be admired.
was
a
We
real lace insets,
saw our entrance and
have a nice piece they could
we
to
hand-made dresses with
were dressed alike
in
our
each of us with a huge hair-
said, "Beatrice, dear,
recite for our friends?"
Ma
hush while we said our new piece
do the
said she that
girls
was
sure
Georgie had
—which was:
There was a goddam spider
Lived up a goddam spout There came a helhiva thunderstorm
And washed the bastard out And when the sun came out again And dried up all the rain Damn, if the old son-of-a-bitch Didn climb up that spout again! 't
I
was looking
right at EHie,
and saw the bangle-covered arm holding
the teapot suspend itself in mid-air. There
was
Bee thought an encore was
we
were gently removed.
indicated, and
a great silence.
My
sister
started the piece again, but
Junior Cavalry Officer
126
The following morning Beatrice was summoned
who
father,
Litde daughter,
George
I
have had some
that every
that
1
all
me
about
have taken the
on the
first
my
have passed
is
quite under-
three-score-years
day thereafter has been an added blessing with the
love of your mother and our wonderful children.
be
aged
communication with
sort of
family around him, and that
little
You must remember
and
ten,
feel that
I
he wants his
that
standable.
and
for coffee with her
attempted without success to suppress a smile while saying:
I
cannot expect them to
forever Georgie needs you and his
little
liberty of purchasing these tickets for
daughters, and
I
your return to Texas
of the week.
In the spring of 1911, Patton again sought reassignment to the Cavalry
School
at Fort
Riley by writing directly to his regimental commander,
informed him that
least
at
three
who
years of commissioned service were
become eligible. The Patton way was never to take some means could be found to influence others. It was but Patton merely deemed it an indispensable means of
required before he would
no for an answer
if
blatant bootlicking,
going about the business of looking after himself and his career. "I
wish
I
saw
the chance of war," he
the adjutant general
who knocks Yet why?"'^
it
shall
complained
to his father, "I get horri-
He reminded Papa of his acquaintance with of the army, who might be persuaded to help. ". [H]e be opened unto. The trouble is that we hate so to knock.
bly bored doing nothing at
A posting
all."'^
.
.
as military attache in South America, duty as a tactical
West Point or, ideally, an assignment in Washington were all desirable options. With the insurrection there now over, what Patton emphatically
officer at
did not want
When
was an assignment
Captain Marshall
to the Philippines.
left
Fort Sheridan in
May
1911 for temporary
was given temporary command of Troop K, at a time when very junior officers were rarely given such opportunities. It was a clear signal that Patton's success in carrying out his first assignment had made the desired impression on an officer whom he esteemed and emulated. Yet, as Martin Blumenson notes, the honor seems to have had a minimal impact on Patton, who would have otherwise been expected to trumpet duty
his
at
Fort Leavenworth, Patton
achievement
to
one and
In reply to a letter
all.'^
from Patton, Captain Marshall wrote
Department policy not
to assign
any officer
to
that
it
was War
West Point who had not would advise you to work
attended the French Cavalry School at Saumur; "I your rabbit's foot good and hard and get sent there. There's no use putting off,
either.
difficulty."'''
If
you can get your friends
interested
Patton immediately wrote to Beatrice:
you
will
it
have no
— And Baby Makes Three" Should you think favorably of
would work it
it I
would
the Mass[achussets] people for
in California
and
in Texas. ...
I
was glad
127
try for
me
it
.
.
.
your father
and papa would
try to fix
to get the letter ... for
it
gave
me a chance to inquire how to use influence ... if nothing else comes of it we will at least know more on that important point than we do at pres-
However, before Saumur could become a
reality
it
seemed
Patton to escape Fort Sheridan, and his immediate efforts were
on obtaining a transfer and
to Fort
that of his family to bear
Myer. Once there he could bring
on a future assignment
to
essential for
now
focused
his influence
Saumur. By Septem-
ber 1911 Patton was optimistic, in part because Maj. Willie Horton, a beau
of his sister-in-law,
Kay
Ayer, was "doing
all
he can in Washington and he
is
quite influential.'"'
made
In October 1911, the Pattons
their first
journey as a family to
Southern California, where Papa had built an elegant
Lake Vineyard mansion
to replace the outdated
new five-bedroom
house of Benjamin Davis
Wilson, constructed in the 1850s. Patton was greeted by the Patton-Banning clan as a conquering hero. Daughter Ruth Ellen writes:
Georgie was the fair-haired boy for
him
or, later
when
He was
his cousins.
into the wilds of the
they
all
hoped and
Whether
it
at
Lake Vineyard. Nothing was too good
they were married, for
the great adventurer
unknown
east,
all
cut loose and gone off
where fame and glory awaited him
felt sure.'**
was Horton's influence or
ily that resulted in his
Ma. He was adored by
who had
that of a
member of Patton's fammuch to the delight
reassignment remains unclear but,
of both George and Beatrice, in the autumn of 1911, Patton received orders to report to Fort
Myer, Virginia, for duty with the 15th Cavalry."
CHAPTER 10
"A Young Man on
Make"
the
Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them.
—ANONYMOUS
When
Patton reported to Fort Myer, Virginia, he instantly found himself
propelled from the backwater of the army to
its most prestigious post. SituPotomac River and Washington, been called Fort Whipple during the Civil
ated on Arlington Heights overlooking the
D.C., Fort
Myer had
originally
War. Once part of Robert E. Lee's vast Virginia
estate,
it
of the bulwarks of the defense of the Union's capital
ignominy of losing Washington
to the
was considered one city. To avoid the
Confederate Army, President Lincoln
ordered Arlington Heights seized in July 1861, shortly before the Battle of Bull Run. Only Fort Stevens to the north of Washington was ever besieged,
by Jubal Early's army grandfather).
and
By
in the early
Albert Civil
J.
in
1864
the 1870s Fort
1880s
it
Myer, the army's
War two hundred
(ironically, a raid
spearheaded by Patton's
Whipple had become a permanent
was renamed Fort Myer first
in
garrison,
honor of Brig. Gen.
chief signal officer. In the aftermath of the
acres, centered
became Arlington National Cemetery,
on Lee's
stately Arlington
House,
the best-known burial ground of the
nation's military dead.'
Although originally devoted
was designated a cavalry post became its senior officer, and
to in
communications 1887,
activities. Fort
when General
Myer
Philip Sheridan
"A Young Man on from then
the
Make"
129
1942 some of the Army's most celebrated mounted regi-
until
ments formed the garrison. Horsemanship was a central cially in the period
between the World Wars, when the
Olympic equestrian
ing role in
activities. Fort
Myer was
the earliest developments in the field of Army aviation. ers
had contracted with the Signal Corps
activity, espe-
Army had
a lead-
also the site for
The Wright
broth-
On
to build a biplane. ...
September 1908, Orville Wright made fifty-seven complete
circles
9
over
the drill field.-
The gulf between
the general staff in Washington,
in a position to cultivate
many of whom were line officers who
promotion and favor, and the
served in the far-flung outposts of the army, often without recognition or
promotion, was epitomized by the difference between the elegance of Fort
Myer and the By 1912 staff
primitive "hitching post" forts like Sheridan.
Fort
Myer was
also the residence of the U.S.
and other senior officers stationed
of the 15th Cavalry,
was perhaps
it
in
Army
chief of
Washington. As the headquarters
the ideal duty station for the ambitious
young Patton and his wife. Not only was the rolling countryside south of Washington honeycombed with riding trails, there was foxhunting in Virginia and
spring. Of equal imporMyer were automatically
Maryland and prestigious race meets each
tance was the fact that those stationed at Fort
granted access to Washington's high society. The 15th Cavalry provided escorts for military funerals and visiting dignitaries at state ceremonies, and
played what was widely regarded as some of best polo on the eastern seaboard.^ Officers stationed at Fort to participation in the elite
and
Myer
automatically gained admittance
glittering social life of
Washington, where
members of Congress, Executive Branch, the War Department. For a young man on the make duty at Fort Myer was a heaven-sent opportunity to
they frequently hobnobbed with
and
—most important—
like
George
S. Patton,
exercise his growing proficiency at self-promotion with those
most help advance effective
his career. Patton
had learned early
alship and high
could
if
he was to attain his dream of gener-
command.^
In addition to
its
ceremonial duties, the activities of the 15th Cavalry
typically included endless rounds of equitation,
marksmanship, scouting,
new commander, petent officer.
Capt. Julian R. Lindsey, as a studious, hardworking,
The
first
thing Patton noticed about Fort
work much harder here than
tary." Patton
mounted and dismounted
and grooming and maintenance Troop A and soon impressed his
patrolling,
of their animals. Patton was assigned to
ple
who
no matter how
and proficient an officer he became, the influence of guardian
angels in powerful positions was vital
drills,
that
had begun
Sheridan, and at Fort
at
Sheridan ...
it is
Myer was
all
together
com-
that "peo-
more
mili-
to write professional military articles while at Fort
Myer he continued what would become
a lifelong
130
Junior Cavalry Officer
1912 he produced an imaginative and original mono-
practice. In February
which was written in the form of Napoleonic maxims (principles of warfare) and called Principles of Scouting.^ One of the many virtues of duty at Fort Myer was the quality and size graph for use by his troop,
of the government quarters, which, even for a junior officer, were an enor-
mous improvement over homestead
at
Hannah and father,
the dreadful
Fort Sheridan.
abode
that passed for the first Patton
The Pattons employed
a full-time
a chauffeur to drive the family car for, as
maid named
George wrote
to his
everyone else seemed to have one, and they "could not keep up"
[their social
standing] without following
move
suit.^'
Beatrice had found Fort
Myer
she was overjoyed to more comfortable environment of Washington, with its glamorous social life and its important people: "Ma, a city girl, fitted right into the Fort Myer- Washington life; and Georgie was beginning to grow greater in his own esteem, and with Ma at his side, who knew all the mores of the so-called Sophisticated East, he became more self-confident. Ma was able to entertain and do the things she had been brought up to do with style and
Sheridan intolerable, and with the
be
to Fort
in the far
verve."'
Good
fortune soon smiled on Patton. Secretary of
son was fond of a daily ride on his horse.
morning
jaunt,
War Henry
L. Stim-
day, while out for an early
Stimson encountered Lieutenant Patton on one of Fort
Myer's many equestrian friendship that
One
was
to
trails,
and both men
lost
no time cultivating a
endure for the remainder of Patton's
life.
Stimson was
impressed by the young officer's dash; thereafter they would often ride together, and occasionally the secretary
would
recruit Patton to serve as his
aide at social events at Fort Myer.** In later years their friendship
serve Patton exceedingly well and help to save his career at Patton's assignment to Troop
March 1912 he was reassigned
A
lasted a
mere
its
owned by
now
realized that they
ginia and
Kentucky
in search
of
at
Fort
were no match for the well-bred horses
those stationed at Fort Myer.
in the local steeplechase races,
new
stellar Fort
Although he had bought several horses while
team."^
Sheridan, he
to
three months, and in
as the squadron quartermaster. This
arrangement probably enabled Patton to practice and play on the
Myer polo
was
nadir.
To compete successfully
at
polo and
he visited the famed horse country of Vir-
new
bought a registered Thoroughbred
horseflesh. In Lexington, Kentucky, he
to
add
to his stable,
which soon num-
bered seven horses.'" Sixteen years earlier a young French educator and sportsman. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, had resuiTccted the ancient Olympic games, which had fallen
Romans in the fourth century. In modern form an promote international goodwill by means of amateur competition
into disrepute under the effort to
on the
athletic field,
de Coubertin 's vision of a
modem
Olympics became a
"A Young Man on reality in 1896,
when he managed
to
the Make"
131
induce nine nations to send one hun-
dred of their sportsmen to Athens to compete in the
hundred Greeks as a celebration of the highest
The become
Olympiad,
Fifth
be held
to
in
in
first
games with two
amateur athleticism."
1912 in Stockholm, Sweden, would
most successful yet of the revived modern games.
the largest and
Twenty-eight nations sent a
of four thousand athletes, including the
total
women, who competed in swimming events. For the main events of the games was the Modern Pentathlon,
first
first
the
a
Greek competition
the original
version of
soldier-athletes vied against
one
three hundred meters, pistol shooting
on a
in
swimming
another in five events:
which
time one of
new
twenty-five-meter range, running a four-thousand-meter (two-and-a-halfmile) course, fencing, and riding a five-thousand-meter steeplechase.'-
competition was limited to military contestants and cials
began considering
became
their choice of representative, Patton
virtually the only candidate.
riding and
when U.S. Army
The offi-
immediately
At West Point he had been a runner,
his
swordsmanship were well known, and since early childhood he
had learned
and
to shoot
swim long
to
distances in the waters off Catalina
Island.
In that era there
which
petitions at
were no Olympic
trials
or biannual international
athletes could vie for a berth
on
com-
their national team.
Instead appropriate entrants were sought and invited to participate. Each athlete then devised
the games. Patton
States in the
and carried out
was
Modern
the
own Army
his
U.S.
first
training
program
to prepare for
officer to represent the United
Pentathlon. However, he
was not named
to the U.S.
Olympic Team until May 10, 1912, leaving precious little time for training for the games which were to commence in early July. As Patton later wrote of the experience, he "was in excellent physical condition but had not run for about
two years nor done any
fast
swimming
for three.
His grueling training regimen began immediately and brought untold
misery to both Patton and his family. As daughter Ruth Ellen
relates, "It
was
He went on a diet of raw steak and salad and was, accordfor human companionship. But he had to push himself as he
hard on everyone. ing to
Ma,
unfit
had such a short time
in
which
to get into shape."
When George
nephew Fred Ayer "a tiger from whose jaws
trained for an athletic event, he was, as
about as pleasant to be around as
game has
just
been snatched."'^
He gave up
Patton
later related,
a
haunch of
alcohol and tobacco and pun-
swimming and running, his two weakest knew only one way to train and that was mercilessly and
ished himself brutally in both events. Patton
without regard for himself or his safety.
he was not a natural
athlete,
gled to run well, and, in
It
was
all
had shown himself
reality,
the
to
more
difficult
because
be accident prone, strug-
loathed swimming, perpetually disdaining
it
as a sport.
Yet the
fires
of ambition burned as deeply within Patton as they had at
Junior Cavalry Officer
132
Point, and the Olympics presented a splendid opportunity for him to show what he could do on a world stage. All else was secondary. There was no respite when the U.S. team and the Patton clan embarked for Antwerp, Belgium, aboard the steamship Finland on June 14. Accompanied by his
West
wife, parents, and sister Nita, Patton continued his grueling training during
the voyage.
He
practiced swordsmanship and running with the rest of the team, a
regimen
that
began
dawn and included
at
runs of two miles around the
rigged off the fantail. To accommodate the swimming team a special twenty-foot-long canvas pool was installed on the deck. Patton swam in place with a rope tied around his
decks of the Finland, and pistol practice
waist that
left
at targets
raw chafe marks.
The Pattons
traveled from
Belgium
There they were well received and
to
fell in
Sweden, arriving on June love with
Sweden and
pitable people. Patton continued his rigorous training, but he
were immediately caught up
in
the aide to
29.
hos-
his family
an exciting round of parties, some of which
were attended by the royal family.
met
and
its
It
was
King Gustavus Adolphus
at
one of these events
V, Colonel Bjorling.
that Patton
The two men
became lifelong friends. (The last photograph of Patton taken before his death was with Bjorling in Sweden in 1945.) Mr. Patton accompanied his son to each practice and was ever present to provide encouragement. He also quickly became a favorite of the Swedish sat
down
club.
An
officers,
who adored
at a table
angry
him.
One evening Mr.
outside a hotel that
member
was reserved
Patton unintentionally
for
table in front of the startled Patton. Instantly a
Swedish
Mr. Patton leaped from a nearby chair, broke the cane
and brought him
to his
members of
a select
strode up and insultingly placed his cane on the
own
officer
who knew
in half, apologized,
table.
Besides himself there were forty-two other contestants in the Pentathlon, eight of
can entered
whom
who
were Swedish
Patton had ill-advisedly rested instead to
was the only AmeriThe day before the games opened of engaging in some form of workout officers. Patton
actually participated.'^
keep himself loose, and had only practiced
pistol shooting, firing a near-
perfect score (197 of 200),
which boded well for the
However, he was
and apprehensive and barely
part
due
restless
to the long
summer
first
day's competition. slept that night, in
days, which brought scarcely an hour of dark-
ness.
As
a result Patton did poorly.
He had
shot well enough, and might have is
that
one of his
was thought
that
perhaps
stood high in the pistol competition, but the oft-related tale bullet holes could not be located in the target.
It
it
had passed through the same hole from a previous round, and his generous Swedish competitors insisted this obviously must have been the case, but the missing bullet could not be located. Consequently the judges were
"A Young Man on
the Make"
133
wound up
obliged to penalize Patton ten points, and he
a dismal twenty-
first.
Beatrice blamed herself for his poor showing, later telling her daughter
that,
"her Georgie could not have failed on his own," and
him back
to their hotel earlier
hardly a probable reason.''^
if
she had taken
he would have won, a chivalrous gesture but
The
tale
of the so-called "lost round"
is
apoc-
ryphal. In reality not one but two of Patton's rounds missed the target, thus
making
it
impossible for him to have
won
or even placed high in the pistol
competition.-"
On
number of competitors had dropped to thirtyswimming event, finishing a very respectable sixth, although he was so exhausted at the finish that he had to be helped from the pool with a boathook. The third and fourth the second day the
seven. Patton did well in the three-hundred-meter
days were devoted
to fencing,
on the courts of the Royal Swedish Tennis
Club, in which Patton finished third of the remaining twenty-nine. The event was perhaps the most demanding of the five Pentathlon events, and required each
man
to fence with a dueling rapier that
weighed nearly one
and one-half pounds, for three touches against every other competitor. Patton had good reason to be pleased with himself. "I
give the French victor. Lieutenant
Mas
de
was fortunate enough
la Tree, the
to
only defeat he had."-'
made him vulnerable to the finesse of his competitors, most of whom were far more experienced. Remarkably, of the twenty-nine opponents he met, Patton defeated twenty.^- It was a noteworthy achievement, especially for an American of limited experience who Patton's pugnacious, slashing, give-no-quarter attacking style easily
him
a
crowd
favorite but tactically often left
had never been tutored by a world-class teacher. Patton's offensive-mindedness with the sword future generalship
on the
battlefield.
Throughout
was
a harbinger of his
his career disdain for
defense was a Patton trademark. To attack was to succeed, to defend was to invite defeat. In 1912, barely three years out of
attacked the Pentathlon as later he would the
West
Point,
German Army
George in
S. Patton
World War
II.
Now, only two events remained, and, except for his disastrous placement in the pistol shoot, Patton would have been in bona fide contention for a medal. His chances were greatly enhanced by another third-place finish in his best event, the five-thousand-meter steeplechase, where,
on a borrowed
Swedish cavalry horse, Patton and two Swedes registered a perfect score over the formidable course. The winners were then determined by the best time, and Patton's third place finish could only have been accomplished by a rider of
championship
caliber.^^
day of the Modern Pentathlon was the dreaded four-thousandmeter cross-country run. By this time a mere fifteen competitors were left to
The
line
up
final
in the
Olympic stadium before
the royal
box
to
begin the race over a
treacherous course that (under Olympic rules of the time) none of them had
been permitted
to
view beforehand. The course wound through a twisting.
134
Junior Cavalry Officer
forested path replete with mud-filled
hilly,
swamps. Even worse,
was an
it
exceptionally hot day, with high humidity that soon drained the energy of the runners.
As was
his custom, Patton simply ran as fast as
long as he could, without regard for pacing himself.
example of
his refusal to settle for anything less than
mance. Pacing oneself was for others; he would give
damn
he could for as
was
It
yet another
an all-out perfor-
it
his best shot
and
the consequences.
Before the race his trainer had given him a shot of opium to provide
him through
additional stamina to help is
"hop," and
its
use was
still
opium
for
Although performance-enhanc-
Olympic competition,
ing drugs have been outlawed in present-day
"hop" given Patton probably did him
name
the event. Another
legal in 1912.
little
good
—other than
the
inducing a
feeling of well-being and spurring Patton to "run like hell" for the finish line.
Dressed
in a
stadium for the
whom
white
shirt
and knickers, Patton was the
reenter the
As
Patton later described as "a very hard and energetic sportsman."
he neared the finish longer
make
began
line Patton
his legs run,
to stagger,
he began walking the
passed him to win the race, as did another Swede ton
first to
Close behind him was a Swede, Gosta Asbrink,
final dash.
somehow managed
lapsed in a dead
one died
faint.
in the torrid heat
later
final fifty meters.
who
Asbrink
finished second. Pat-
to cross the finish line in third place before
Two
he col-
of the other fifteen runners had also fainted, and
and humidity.-^
Patton might well have died.
known, but he
and when he could no
wrote that
it
How
was
long he remained unconscious
several hours.
"Once
I
is
not
came to I could of more hop. I
my eyes and felt them give me a shot would be an overdose and kill me. Then I heard Papa say in a calm voice, 'Will the boy live?' And Murphy [the trainer] reply, T think he will but cant tell.' "-^ Patton was severely dehydrated from his ordeal but the effects of opium under such conditions undoubtedly worsened the situation and might easily have killed a less-well-conditioned athlete. Fortunately, he not
move
or open
feared that
it
was young and
many
at the
peak of physical
fitness,
and thus survived the
first
of
close brushes with death.
Patton ultimately finished
had he done
fifth in the final
better in his best event, the pistol,
Pentathlon standings and,
might have qualified for an
Olympic medal, all of which were won by Swedes who had trained hard for Even so, his performance was superb; he defeated twenty of
eight months.
the twenty-nine fencers; and in
competitors
—
this
swimming seventeen of
by a man whose only practice came
the twenty-three in a
canvas tank
aboard ship. Small wonder the Swedish newspapers said of him, "His energy
is
incredible. In the distance running races, he returned to the sta-
dium completely exhausted but did not falter. ... In the fencing, his calm was unusual and calculated. He was skillful in exploiting his opponent's every weakness. "^^
"A Young Man on
When
he
left
Sweden
his
Los Angeles. The limelight
whom
Jim Thorpe, the man the world. '"^
Modem
—
135
accomplishments were
in
Stockholm belonged
American
known
—was
the
first
man
outside
American,
most wonderful
the king called "the
a Native
little
to another
athlete in
to
win the
Decathlon and the track-and-field version of the Pentathlon, only
be stripped tee, for
Thorpe
the Make"
to
of his gold medals by the International Olympic Commit-
later
having once played semipro baseball.'^
Whether on
the playing field, the drill field, or the battlefield, Patton
anyone who posed a
as an adversary
army
athlete or a fellow
The 1912 Olympics were
officer.
viewed
threat to his aspirations, be he another
a conspicuous
exception, in which he generously praised his competitors, noting that the
Modem
Pentathlon was in reality
an officers' competition, and certainly the high
spirit
of sportsmanship
speaks volumes for the character of the officers of the present day. There
was not a
single
for points.
tme
.
.
.
.
and
soldier,
.
.
protest or any unsportsmanlike quibbling or fighting
Each man did at the
his best
end we
all felt
and took what fortune sent
more
like
good
friends and
like a
com-
rades than rivals in a severe competition, yet this spirit of friendship in no
manner detracted from
The senior
the zeal with
which
officer representing the U.S.
all
strove for success.'''
Army
Col. Frederick S. Foltz, and in his report to the
Stockholm was
in
War Department he
Lt.
praised
Patton's excellent showing and observed that, "he deserves great credit for the enthusiastic and exhaustive
very
For Patton,
way
in
which he prepared himself for
this
around competition."-*'
difficult, all
who had been
raised from childhood
ethics of the ancient warriors, the
on the purity and
1912 Olympic Games were perhaps the
closest approximation in his lifetime to that heroic ideal that he had fanta-
sized about. Like himself,
were
to
men who
lived
up
to that
model of perfection
be admired, indeed even venerated. Throughout
his life Patton dis-
approved of most of his contemporaries because he believed they lacked the essential qualities of a warrior,
and he rarely had anything laudable to say rivals, even though
about them. In Stockholm, Patton had only praise for his their goal
was
to
win and thus
to
deny him the glory he sought. Each had
earned the ultimate tribute that he could pay them. At the height of his fame during World
War
II,
only an
enemy
officer. Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel,
would command such esteem.
would endure, World War II ended in 1945 the entire eight-man pistol team invited him to Stockholm, where, amid cigars, fine wine, and nostalgic reminiscences, George S. Patton once again fired his pistol in a symbolic reenPatton's relationship with the Swedish Pentathlon team
and
after
Junior Cavalry Officer
136
actment of the Olympic competition and bettered his score of 1912, finishing second.^'
News
traveled slowly in 1912, and
it
was not
until early
August
that the
page of Los Angeles Times proclaimed: "Young Patton has carried off
front
honors
in fencing, shooting, riding
reports that are
and swimming and according
coming from Stockholm
considerable attention.
.
to the
his athletic versatility is attracting
.
Patton had arrived in Stockholm determined to improve his swordsman-
and during the Olympics he inquired of his newfound friends the name of
ship,
the finest teacher in Europe. Without exception he
swordsman was
and instructor of fencing
From Stockholm
at the
Cavalry School
told that the greatest
master of arms
Saumur, Adjutant M. Clery."
at
had embarked on a whirlwind Euro-
the entire Patton family
pean tour and had already
was
Army and the
the ''beau sabreur' of the French
visited Berlin, Dresden,
and Nuremberg, where
Beatrice and his father sampled donkey-meat sandwiches and drank
German
beer in small restaurants. While the remainder of the family continued their tour,
in
Patton and Beatrice journeyed to Saumur, where he began a crash course
swordsmanship from the great master. For nearly two weeks Patton was
tutored in the fine art of the sword. His brief stint merely whetted his appetite for further instruction
bond.
He
left to
retum
from Clery, with to the
whom
he had begun to form a close
United States on August
Saumur at the
influence to get himself detailed to
first
10,
determined to use his
opportunity.
Although he lacked the notoriety the age of mass communications might have given him, his overseas adventure had been the fulfilling his
desUny of living up
to the Patton
first
step toward
name by becoming
The glow of his triumph in Stockholm and Saumur would endure to the end of his life. soldier.
a great
the exhilaration of
While Beatrice was on an extended visit with her parents at Pride's Crossing, Patton returned to his army duties at Fort Myer, from which he had departed three months earlier. The difference was that now he had been noticed.
He was summoned to dinner with the army chief of staff, Maj. Gen. his new friend, Henry Stimson, at which he was able to
Leonard Wood, and
recount both his Olympic experience and his training under Clery to sympathetic
and important
ears.
His morning rides
company of General Wood. acquaintance with
ments less
Wood
now
In the future Patton
to write
him
letters
occasionally included the
would take advantage of his
suggesting various improve-
in cavalry drill or procedure.
During his temporary bachelorhood, Patton threw himself into an endround of polo and equestrian events. His duties with Troop A included
teaching his
men
to shoot.
target practice the less
I
He groused
think of
it.
Our
to Beatrice that, "the
great trouble
is
that
more
I
see of
men do
not do
"A Young Man on what they are the
American
They
told.
first
this talk
among
the
Maryland State Fair
at
137
about the independence of
we would
if
them
better than teaching
cultivating his contacts
race at the
much!
soldier will cost a lot of lives,
we would do much
place
think too
Make"
the
Washington
He
elite.
Timonium, returning
and win one hundred dollars and a
He
a
and the manner
bills
few days
later to
and keep his
bills
During her absence his frustration manifested
complaints about unpaid
also continued
finished third in a
silver plate.
Patton relied on Beatrice to pay the household orderly.
teach them to obay
to shoot."^^
in
itself in
which she was handling the
family finances. In early September he wrote a shamefully patronizing ter.
life
frequent
let-
"Your finances are perfectly ridiculous," he griped:
To put
all
your money
takes an act of
god
could have
so
let
to get
many
think you had better prison.
.
.
.
let
Yet attempts
was
if
at
is
me
run your
am
and so
don't see
May
love you
I
very busy.
the
tied
up
that
it
how you
way you
did.
I
I
more
all
the time and
love you.^'
more than a few days passed without a letter from Beatrice, his humor sometimes disguised a biting sarcasm. In 1915 when she from the
in California recovering
churlishly complained, "I have had no
don't care
I
here after or you will go to
bills
Inspite of your lack of brains I
interest
pretty foolish. ...
run from April or
bills
miss you even here where
no
at practically
it
much
for
Although loath affluent lifestyle,
you to
still
admit
like to
1
it,
birth of their
news
hear
second child, Patton
for over a
at times.
week and while
I
"^^
Patton relied on Beatrice to maintain their
which included a growing
stable of fine horses, tailored
uniforms, dogs, and an automobile. However, in an age
when men
ruled the
family roost, Patton never viewed his occasional wretched behavior toward his wife as
male chauvinism. Although he was demanding, single-minded,
and highly opinionated, as
somehow managed
their
to assert her
marriage deepened over time, Beatrice
independence while
ing in her husband the illusion that he
household.
was
Whenever she was absent
in
at the
same time
instill-
the absolute master of the Patton
Massachusetts, he missed her
deeply and sometimes his resentment boiled over in the form of hurtful
let-
The longer she remained away the less tidy his life. Even the family dog, a bloodhound named Flip, caused Patton grief. One day he ran away and was later found in Washington's red-light district by a soldier."
ters.
When
Frederick Ayer wrote to question his workaholic lifestyle and
mildly criticize his continued military career, Patton turned the tables by
observing that there was a perfectly good reason for both:
If
you had not done more work than other people when you were my now what you are. ... I quite understand that what
age you would not be
138
Junior Cavalry Officer
I
am
doing looks
of advertising.
And you know
like play to
you but
makes people
It
talk
in
and
my
business
that
is
been the
that the notice of others has
it is
in the best sort
a sign they are noticing. start
of
many
suc-
cessful men."^*^
In
October Beatrice and
Little
Bee returned
to Fort
Myer. The child was
to talk. Not word was "Dada," and whenever they passed the train station the child would loudly call "Dada" and once cried when her father did not come. "Georgie is perfectly crazy over her and she over him. Dear old things!" Beatrice proudly wrote to Aunt Nannie.-'^ In December 1912 Patton's budding friendship with General Wood paid off when he was detailed to the chief of staff's office as a staff officer and occasional aide to Wood and Stimson. In modern jargon Patton was an
growing rapidly and surprisingly her
to the delight of the
Ayer clan had begun
first
action officer but although the duties varied, usually involving the preparation of letters for
the right
Wood
hand of the
or staff studies on a variety of subjects,
seat of
power
nor his duties entitled him to the coveted did not stop Patton,
who
it
put
him
at
in the army. Neither his very junior rank title
of general staff officer but this
wrote several important papers that were undoubt-
edly read by the chief of
staff.
No
second lieutenant could have wished for
more. His study of military history was beginning to pay off
in
high ratings
and the notice of those who counted.
None counted more erick.
A doctor
Point,
Wood had
than Leonard
Wood, who was something of
mav-
taken over as chief of staff in 1910 determined to reform
the creaking machinery of the army,
which was mired more
in the realities of the twentieth century. Historian Russell
Wood
a
and a graduate of Harvard Medical School rather than West in tradition than
Weigley has called
"a military evangelist," who, in concert with Stimson, fought for uni-
versal military training
and a host of other reforms designed
to increase the
preparedness of the army for war.^"
What Olympics
got Patton the most recognition
was
a portion of his report
on the
that dealt with his fencing lessons with Clery. His experience at
Saumur not only brought him to the attention of the army's most senior offihim some valuable publicity, when a revamped version of the report appeared in the Army and Navy JournaL^^ Life was good, and Patton was making the most of his opportunities. Beatrice wrote to Aunt Nannie that her husband "has said so much about his charmed life that I half cers but also gained
believe in
it
sometimes."
When Woodrow
Wilson was inaugurated
in
February 1913 Patton was
one of Wood's aides and rode in the great parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. By the time his tour in Washington and Fort Myer ended, the name "Patton" had been heard and read about with increasing frequency. Socially Beatrice used her talents to good effect
when
she and George hosted a din-
"A Young Man on
ner for Papa Patton, as well as other affairs
name to the forefront and keep Army and Navy Journal there were five Patton's
family/-
And
appeared
in the prestigious
in
same month
the
it
Make"
the
all
139
designed to bring Lieutenant
there. In the
March
the
many
of
first
articles
arm
Armory. Technically
the Springfield reality
In
was manufactured
that
by Patton
Cavalry Journal. For some months he had been
new sword
advising the Ordnance Department on the design of a cavalry
12 issue of the
separate articles featuring the Patton
in it
1913
for the
to his precise specifications at
was called
the U.S. Saber,
came to be known as the "Patton sword."^' March 1913, too, Patton's enormously successful
M- 19 13;
in
it
Department ended with a warm
letter
"appreciation of the satisfactory
manner
from in
Wood
a return to
it
was
letters
his
for the
of praise. For Sec-
a feather in his cap and a considerable boost to
His good work with the saber also enabled him to apply for
Saumur
in the
summer
of 1913.
Patton participated in a flurry of horse shows, three-day events, races, steeplechases,
many
War
which you have discharged the
army's most senior officer and rarely receive such
his self-esteem.
detail in the
which he noted
Second lieutenants do not normally work
duties assigned to you."
ond Lieutenant Patton
in
and polo, leading
to his
flat
experience in April of another
would suffer during his mount and slashed his scalp open in two places. Although he was only laid up for two days, Beatrice worried about her husband's impetuous riding style, and wrote with resignation to Aunt
of the
accidents connected with horses that he
lifetime. This time
Nannie: "There
he
fell
isn't a bit
from
of use in worrying about him. ...
have him race, but the best way oppose him
in
his
keep him
to
to his senses
I
sort of hate to
seems
Patton was soon back in the saddle, competing furiously the elite eastern courses, and playing polo.
writing to Beatrice that
dreamed
to
be not
at
some of
to
any way."^^
that either
man
it
He found polo
was "wonderful," and
that
enthralling,
he "had never
or ponies could be so fine."^' Later, he
would
good war" and essential to the training of a commander for combat.^'' His nephew rated him as a good but certainly not great polo player, noting that he made up for his lack of skill by the ferocious manner in which he played, replete with profanities that were highly
declare that polo
was
like "a
unsuitable for tender ears.^^
Training his horses was another important aspect of Patton's equestrian life,
how
and he once spent two days the experts did
it.
in a stable at Pimlico,
Maryland,
to learn
Fred Ayer remembers that Patton "did not tolerate
disobedience from horses any more than he did from subordinates," citing an incident in which Patton decided that Hilda Ayer's [Fred's mother] horse, a stubborn gray its
named Gun
Metal, required curing of his habit of rearing on
hind legs: "Goddammit, Hilda,
prescription
was
to suggest
I
can stop the bastard from rearing." His
breaking water balloons against the sides of
Gun
140
Junior Cavalry Officer
Metal's head whenever he reared, making the animal believe rather than water running
saying,
"Maybe
Not
to
so, but
down
you're not doing
it
to
my
be dissuaded, Patton replied, "All
He
ance and
was blood
horse."
dammit, there's another
right,
way." Vaulting into the saddle, he yanked on reared up.
it
head and flanks. Hilda Ayer declined,
his
Gun
Metal's reins until he
then deliberately leaned backward, and the horse lost
fell to
the ground.
its
bal-
Only an accomplished horseman could have
landed out of harm's way, as Patton did. Before the startled horse could recover, he sat that'll
on
head to keep
its
from scrambling
it
teach the dirty son-of-a-bitch a lesson."
appeared, both of Patton's prescriptions for dies for rearing. tially lethal to
ers in
The
latter,
however,
both horse and
is
Gun Metal were
failed.
by brute strength
if
need
in the
be."^*^
Gun Metal was
perilously
left outraged.'*^
rightly call himself either an officer or a
gentleman without being an expert horseman. however, Patton also "saw
may have
accepted reme-
practiced today only by expert rid-
spooked for some time, and Hilda Ayer was
no officer could
to its feet. "I guess
brutal as they
exceptionally dangerous and poten-
rider. It is
extreme cases. This time Patton
In the cavalry
As
On
a
more
practical note,
horse a creature which he must dominate,
Small wonder then, that Patton's equine
tionships were as stormy as his
human
rela-
ones.
1913 Patton received orders not only reassigning him to the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley, Kansas, on October 1, 1913, but authorizing his return to Saumur that summer, at his own expense, "for the In June
purpose of perfecting yourself the payoff
from
in
swordsmanship." Both assignments were
his intense lobbying
Riley. Nevertheless, Patton
campaign
to obtain a posting to Fort
had no intention of being a mere student
Mounted Service School. For months he had promoted ter
the idea that a
at the
mas-
of the sword be assigned there to teach swordsmanship. Not only did he
ingeniously prepare the
he even managed
School
to
way by
securing unofficial approval of his idea, but
persuade the commandant of the Mounted Service
to
recommend
it
to the
War Department, which then approved it. new course was Lt. G. S. Patton,
Naturally the ideal candidate to teach this
and his attendance title
at
Saumur would earn him
the right to the
newly created
of master of the sword. His mastery of swordsmanship under Clery
would qualify Patton
to
become
For the second summer
in a
the army's first-ever master of the sword.^**
row
the Pattons sailed for Europe,
and once
again the great Ayer wealth permitted them the luxury of shipping the family
auto to France. (Patton's monthly salary as a second lieutenant was a
lowly $157.50.) The $300.00
it cost to ship their car to France for a mere six weeks was the equivalent of $4,125.00 in 1991 dollars." They arrived at Saumur in late July after a leisurely drive from Cherbourg that took them through the hedgerow {bocage) country of Normandy.
"A Young Man on It
the Make"
141
was countryside with which Patten would become intimately reacquainted
summer of 1944."
in the
With baby Bee safe
Saumur was
Crossing, their sojourn at
at Pride's
perhaps the finest time of their marriage.
They were alone French
.
.
with no family whatsoever.
at last,
was associating with some of centuries
—
Ma
spoke perfect
loved the French people and understood them.
.
the
heroes
of
.
.
Georgie
.
the greatest warriors of the 19th and 20th
youth
his
the
in
"beaux
the
flesh,
The flower of the French Army, so soon to be mowed down by the trampling Bosch hordes. These were men of legend. There will never be their like again. They reminded Georgie of the descriptions of gallants.".
.
.
the Southern beaux and braves
been immortalized for him by
who had
fought in the Civil War, and had
his step-grandfather.
Colonel George
Hugh
Smith."
became an
Patton toiled studiously under Clery's tutelage and not only expert
swordsman but
how
also learned
to
be a teacher. In Stockholm the
previous year, his defense had been "the despair of his teachers, for the aggressive Patton was interested only in offense. His method of parrying was to counterattack."^^ The only word in Patton's vocabulary of swordsmanship was "thrust." He found the word "parry" as repugnant as he did "defense." In addition to intense fencing sessions and discussions with Clery, Patton also attended classes at the Cavalry School.
speak French, although he had to be assisted by Beatrice, classes with
him and took notes
He learned to who attended
that she translated at night.
Another expert swordsman from a nearby military school, who came
Saumur
for several days to assist Clery, later wrote
him
a
warm
letter
to
of
friendship and praise, noting that Patton had the glorious task of teaching to others "the beauty and love of arms.
knew you to become
in the short time
Houdemon,
I
later
threshold of
hand
my
figure,
house
either to wield a
—
a
I
felt that
know
it
will
you were
be easy for you, for even
a master."^'
He was
Lt.
Jean
a general and a French national hero in the
Houdemon
world wars. In 1947
proud and elegant
I
recalled the brief encounter: "I
still
two
see his
accompanied by Mrs. Patton, brightening the thin cavalry man with a keen eye and a firm
tall,
sword or guide a horse
."''' .
.
Houdemon found
Patton
a keen student of war, and for the brief period they were together they were inseparable, their riding, shooting, and fencing tles
augmented by a study of
and wars, particularly those of Napoleon. Houdemon would
that Patton's historic
him of Napoleon
bat-
later write
campaigns of the Third Army in 1944-45 reminded "from [the] overall strategy right to the psycho-
at his best,
logical approach of the
When George was
commander
himself.""
not fencing or studying, he and Beatrice toured the
142
Junior Cavalry Officer
historic chateau region of the Loire Valley
using the efficient
bile,
on
Hun's ravaging hordes had
modem
in these fields
and
hills
had already picked the
tory
was
It
incident
"He
to study
said that the battles
'there are
and
that history
Myer
lost
the greatest
in life.'"^**
that there occurred the
own
chased him with one of his
his angry wife
'for the
it
had been
was
no practice games
as they prepared to return to Fort
when
and one day was des-
was
through knowledge of the country; that his-
battlefields,
One of his mottoes was
teacher.
life,
war. "His intention
next time around,'" said Ruth Ellen.
and won
legions and Attila the
been there before him, and Patton was con-
all
vinced that he too had fought there in a previous tined to fight again in a
and automo-
foot, horseback,
maps of Michelin. Caesar's
swords, leav-
ing Patton thankful Beatrice had not learned swordsmanship under Clery.
Among
their
gift for
Leonard Wood. The unassuming Clery had presented Patton with a
many purchases
photo of himself inscribed, "to
Saumur
at the
while in France was a fine leather saddle, a
my
end of August they
best pupil. "''^
left
behind
When
many
the Pattons departed
friends,
and a
full vessel
of goodwill.
They
Myer
sailed
from Cherbourg
to prepare for
in early
September and returned
to Fort
George's immediate transfer to Fort Riley. The culmina-
tion of his triumphant tour at Fort
Myer was
a high rating on his final effi-
ciency report from his regimental commander. For both George and Beatrice
army had been an unforgettable George S. Patton. than two years he had represented the army and his country in the
their brief tenure in the heartland of the
time.
More
In less
important,
it
was
a milestone for the career of
1912 Olympics; gained the attention and respect of the army's top
officials
and the secretary of war; had been acknowledged as the army's foremost expert on swordsmanship; and, as a result of his five weeks at Saumur, the prized
was
title
of master of the sword in the U.S.
quite an achievement for a
Army was bestowed on
mere second lieutenant of cavalry.
him.
It
CHAPTER
.
A Home Where
.
A
very zealous and ambitious young
—FROM
was
Fort Riley in 1913
a
throwback
the
Roam"
Buffalo ...
11
officer.
1915 EFFICIENCY
to the frontier
REPORT
army of
American
the
West. Located in the desolate, rolling prairie country of central Kansas, adjacent to Junction City, an aptly tributaries
merge
to
named
railroad interchange
where two
form the Kansas River, Fort Riley was the home of the
Mounted Service School
1920
(in
it
would be redesignated
the Cavalry
School). First established in
many
the crossroads of the ico, ily
1
852
to protect
westward-migrating
settlers
large Indian tribes that inhabited the region. Fort Riley
Oregon
Trail
and a second westward
was
trail to
from the
situated at
New Mex-
Arizona, and California. Fort Riley's twenty thousand acres are primarrich alluvial plain but are bordered
nearly two hundred feet high, rock."'
known
For much of the year the grass
by white limestone escarpments
to natives of the area as is
burned
"The Rim-
to a straw color, but in the
spring the prairie turns such a luxuriant shade of green that
it
reminded Pat-
ton of France.
Freezing cold
in
winter and unbearably hot and humid in the summer,
Fort Riley was, like Fort Sheridan before, the very antithesis of urbane Fort
Myer. For
all its
lack of sophistication, the Fort Riley garrison nevertheless
epitomized the Old
Army
American public then than
of 1913, which was no more popular with the it
had been a century
earlier,
when
the
army had
144
Junior Cavalry Officer
Old Army was the western frontier, was not much interest in soldiers and soldiering, but the cavalry had long represented the most dynamic image the army possessed. To this day there remains an indefin-
become
a
permanent
then Fort Riley was
institution. If the
its
able mystique about
heart and soul. There
men who
risked
life
and limb
to ride hell bent for
leather in uniforms of blue and gold across the great
open spaces of the American West, as had Custer's 7th Cavalry, Since 1892 the Mounted Service School had been instructing aspiring young cavalry officers in the fundamentals of their profession, and, as Lucian Truscott has written,
"The reservation
Fort Riley
at
the Cavalry School
was
in
was
a horseman's paradise ... a detail to
every sense 'leading the
also "a wonderful training ground for fighting
bat leaders.
was com-
It
for fighting
"-
Traces of the old frontier army were including
of Riley'!"
life
men and
some
teenth century.
still
evidence
in
at
Fort Riley,
grizzled cavalry veterans of the Indian wars of the nine-
When
Patton arrived in late September 1913, there was
still
a
sign on the parade ground reading:
Officers will not shoot buffalo on the parade ground from the
windows of their
quarters.
BY ORDER OF THE COMMANDING OFFICER^ The
highlight of an average day at Fort Riley
show, or a foxhunt but rather the daily ceremony
was not a parade, late
a horse
each afternoon when
every activity ceased for a few brief moments as the bugler blew retreat
and the American
flag
was lowered from
and reverently folded away
its
place atop the post flagpole
until reveille the next
morning. After Beatrice
would often place Little Bee in her carriage and push her toward the flagpole, where both would observe the end of another day while waiting for Georgie to make his way up from the stables arrived in October 1913, she
to join them.
Although Fort Riley was hardly glamorous, an assignment there was prized
by cavalry
The Mounted Service School was highly was a prerequisite to the successful career of any 1913 the school was devoted "almost entirely to equiofficers.
regarded, and attendance
cavalry officer. In tation,
horsemanship, and the various
arts
and
crafts associated
with animal
management."^ Classes were held Monday through Friday, and there were off-duty studies required of each student. "This
place
I
have ever been
to his father. is
"We
more work than
in
and also the most
start at eight I
is
the
o'clock and get through
have ever done
most
strictly business,"
in the army.'"^
strictly
army
Patton wrote
at three thirty
which
A Home Where
As
usual
when
the Fattens
the Buffalo
Roam"
145
moved, Beatrice had returned
to her family
while her husband attended to the business of establishing the family homestead and
commencing
ominous:
"I
his
new
fully as ugly as the
one
at
is
Sheridan but a
little larger.
and
[sic]
woman
you ever saw though clean
to .
.
if
you
as there
is
mobile.
.
all
by
.
.
The rooms
"It is
are fin-
not allowed to paint
it.
.
.
.
are to survive this place at
all
not another thing to do. There
.
.
You have no
itself
how
idea
with nothing near
come and clean it. It is the dirtiHe got to work varnishing the
into a storage area,
is
and
you
will
have
to ride horse
"I
back
not even a place to go in an auto-
deserted this post
is. It is
For once he began
it."
built shelves
was more unfavorable news.
in the kitchen. In subsequent letters there
think
it is
.
."^
dirt.
and doors, turned the back room
floors
her was somewhat
only one bath tub and that very small." There was no room for a
live-in servant. "I hired a colored est thing
first letter to
day except get a house," he wrote.
to
ished in yellow pine like sheridan [There]
His
duties.
have not done much
out in the plains to
demonstrate
thoughtfulness. "I love you and miss you," he wrote in early October, "but
don't want you to to give
up a
lot
on
come
my
until
every thing
is all
right here.
You
certainly have
account."^
At the Mounted Service School Patton was both pupil and
teacher.
As
the
newly anointed master of the sword he taught three separate classes swordsmanship
to both his fellow classmates
virtually all of
whom
outranked him.
Some
taught by such a junior officer, and Patton
and members of the
in
faculty,
resented the notion of being
was aware
that
he must do some-
remedy was typically he unwrapped but did
thing to gain their respect and undivided attention. His
Pattonesque. not open.
One day he
Then he began
Now, gentlemen, grades, and
I
arrived with a package that his lecture:
know many of you outrank me, some of you by many how hard it must be to take instruction from a man as still a little damp behind the ears. But gentlemen, I am I
realize
you must regard
about to demonstrate to you that
I
have been an expert with the sword,
in nothing else, for at least fifteen years,
and
in that respect
I
am
if
your
senior.
Patton then withdrew from the package (which had been sent to
him by
his
mother) the two wooden swords he and Nita had used as children in Lake Vineyard, and waved them in the
and then the class broke up
air.
in gales
There was a brief moment of silence,
of laughter. Although Lieutenant Patton's
problems were now mostly a thing of the interested "is the hardest job
I
past, he
ever tried and
I
found that keeping them
certainly
am tired
at night."
His efforts attracted the attention of the school commandant,
who
not
Junior Cavalry Officer
146
only wrote "excellent" on his
first
efficiency report but praised Patton for
"his great zeal and proficiency in his work."
him during World War
Fort Riley said of
Patton, he has been a general
all
his
II:
An
officer who knew him at "You know, looking back on
life."**
In addition to his other school activities, Patton also wrote the drill reg-
new cavalry sword, as well as the introduction to a pamphlet Army Racing and Records for 1913, which the War Department hoped
ulations for the titled
would serve to enhance the image of the cavalry by publicizing and encouraging army officers to participate in racing and polo. Patton's introductory indeed it was more of an exhortation than an introducessay emphasized the value of competition and knowledge of horsemanship.'^ tion
—
—
The Pattons and on trice.
visited
Lake Vineyard during
the 1913 Christmas break,
their return the reality of life at Fort Riley nearly
As Georgie had warned
of a Boston aristocrat
Ma
in the
didn't speak the
her, there
was very
little
to
overwhelmed Beaoccupy the interest
middle of Kansas:
same language
that
was spoken by
the other
Army
wives. Her interests had always been music, the theatre, racing boats, her family, the life of a cultivated Eastern heiress.
She had never had
to
worry
about money, or "making do" and she didn't understand the gossip or wistful references to "olden days." In those days the "old
army" was a
who were the sons and grandsons and of Army officers and who knew each other
club, with an inner circle of people
daughters and granddaughters
from the cradle
to the grave.
.
.
.
acting ability, she could put on a it,
and she was lonely
Nita Patton and
good show, but her heart
—and even a
Kay Ayer were
Fort Riley attractive
Having a great deal of her mother little bit
Ellie's
really wasn't in
bored.
frequent visitors. At an isolated post like
young women were
prized,
and during these times the
Patton household was a busy and exciting place.
With so
common
little
to stimulate her active imagination
interest to share with her
tion seriously if she
was
and equally
little
of
husband, Beatrice began again to ques-
cut out to be an
army
wife.
She had
virtually noth-
many of whom were southern, which Beatrice associated, however snobbish it may have seemed, with the servant class. A hired couple came in to take care of the household duties. ing in
common
with the other wives, a great
to feel she was a terrible failure as an Army wife and seemed very wild and crude and savage."
"She was beginning mother. ...
It all
Nevertheless Beatrice always referred to her experience her "waking up" period, a time
when
at
Fort Riley as
she reasserted her identity and
accepted the reality that she was married to a career officer, and thus there
would be many more Fort Rileys in was a way of life at Fort Riley and on
their
immediate
future.
Porch
sitting
the afternoon of her "awakening," the
A Home Where wife of one of Georgie's classmates
the Buffalo
who
Roam"
down
lived
147
was over-
the street
heard to reply in a loud voice to a series of "What says?" from her deaf mother-in-law: "I said that with that pretty to see her folks,
little
Mrs. Patton gone so
much
Mrs. Merchant seems to be getting her hooks into young
Mr. Patton."
A distressed which was about
Beatrice grabbed Little
what can only be termed a unique encounter with her
there experienced
inner
self.
Bee and ventured to the Rimrock, from New England, and while
as alien as a place could be
She began
examine the path surrounding the escarpment and
to
suddenly:
She was not standing on the lone
prairie in the
the shores of a dead sea, millions of years
gone
Middle West dry.
.
.
She ran as
.
[but]
could push the carriage, handed the baby to Hannah, and sat right
and wrote all
In
the
book
to Lauriats
store in
Boston
books they had on American marine
them she learned
that
... to
on
fast as she
down
send her immediately
fossils.
Kansas had been the bottom of the Permian Sea for
350 million years during the Paleozoic Era.
No
longer were the plains of Kansas bleak to her. They were a treasure
house
to
be explained, explored and exploited. That one minute she told
changed her whole
us,
again in her
life
life.
Her inner eye had been opened. She never
had a dull moment, or a single regret for the fun and
games of her childhood. She had discovered
Not only did
this
the
whole world.
unique experience change Beatrice's
she suddenly began to view her neighbors in a kindly
Captain Eli
DuBose Hoyle
(another future general),
legend in her time and a charter
became one of tions who was
member
Beatrice's closest friends.
life forever,
spirit.
but
The wife of
who was something
of a
of the Old Army's inner circle,
A woman
of Amazonian propor-
was high" and played the piano "like an angel," Mrs. Hoyle had beautiful eyes, and her charm and hospitality made Beatrice feel completely at ease for the first time. With Mrs. Hoyle to guide and befriend her, Beatrice began to feel very much at home in the company of the Old
To her
"as wide as she
Army
wives.
intense joy,
many
It
was much
like family life in the
Ayer household.
years later Beatrice Patton's only son
would marry
the Hoyles' great-granddaughter.'"
In
May
1914 Patton graduated from the Mounted Service School and was
rated "proficient" in each of the various subjects taught.
mended
as the first master of the
instructor in
swordsmanship."
sword and rated
He was
also
com-
suitable for duty as an
Junior Cavalry Officer
148
Even though Patton was far removed from Washington, he managed to means of ensuring he would not be forgotten by those whose influence counted. When Leonard Wood was replaced as chief of staff by an officer find
whom staff,
Patton did not know, he unhesitatingly wrote to the deputy chief of
Maj. Gen.
Hugh
scheme
L. Scott, to deplore a
of the Fort Riley reservation: "In writing this
letter
I
to dispose of a section
fully realize that
grave risk of overstepping the bounds of military decorum. that
you
excuse any presumption on
will
my
part
I
trust
on the grounds
I
run a
however, that
I
am
personally, perfectly disinterested in the matter." Although writing directly to an officer
who would soon become
the
new army
chief of staff
full
well that
if
he had written through military channels, the
never have arrived
Washington with
in
his
name
was
knew
about as far out of bounds as a second lieutenant could get, Patton
would
letter
associated with a recom-
As it would on numerous other occasions, Patwhen be received a favorable reply from Scott.'^ During World War II Patton would employ the same method to outfox his superiors. Until someone forced him to stop, he would do things his unorthodox way. "Uaudace, I'audace, toujours raudace!" became his motto, dating back to his earliest days in the army. What he had learned at Fort Myer was mendation
to retain the land.
ton's audacity paid off
continuously refined to ensure that no one ever forgot
who he
was.
was further enhanced in June 1914, when he received a letter from the American Olympic Committee announcing that he had been unanimously elected a member of the U.S. team for the Sixth Patton's prestige
Olympiad,
be held
to
His selection had
in Berlin.
come about on
the
recom-
mendation of the president of the committee. Col. Robert M. Thompson,
whom
the Pattons
had met
in
December 1912
at
a hunt breakfast in
Wash-
ington, D.C.' His self-promotion had once again paid off handsomely. -
He the
also thoroughly enjoyed the distinction of being the only master of
sword and wanted
to continue teaching for another year.
had no intention of leaving Fort Riley
course of instruction for promising company-grade officers. as
Moreover, he
he completed a second-year
until
He was
one of only ten students and spent the summer break of 1914
flurry of activity,
and a
trip to
growing His
which included
selected
in his usual
a leave with the Ayers in Massachusetts
Columbia, Missouri,
in
search of additional horses for his
stable.'" visit to Pride's
Crossing coincided with one by his father, and the
two men traveled together back
to Fort Riley,
where father and son enjoyed
an extended reunion. The two rode the open plains, and for the Patton was able to view his son
event such as Little Bee's birth.
work and at His memoir of at
play,
first
time Mr.
unimpeded by a family
his father recalled with obvi-
ous fondness these all-too-rare occasions. Yet Patton also used them to
enhance
his image, noting that
whenever
his father visited him, "it did
me
a
A Home Where lot
the Buffalo
Roam"
149
of good as his intelligence, character and learning impressed favorably the
better class of officers
whom
he met."'^ Beatrice wrote to her father-in-law:
"You don't know what a comfort it is to me to have you with Georgie! He loves you so much that you can keep him in order better than anyone else in the world."'^
accomplishments as an Olympic athlete and
Yet, despite his unique
master of the sword, Patton was often restless and dissatisfied, naively cizing himself to his father for failing to live up to his stated goal of
was twenty-seven: "Now
ing a brigadier general by the time he
nine and not [even] a
On
first
June 28, 1914, the assassination
in
more than passing
twenty-
Sarajevo of the Austrian Arch-
Here
interest.
—
at last
—was
outbreak of
to the
George Patton followed the momentous events
I.
am
Lieutenant."
duke Franz Ferdinand soon inflamed Europe and led
World War
I
criti-
becom-
in
Europe with
what seemed
to offer the
opportunity since his commissioning to experience war firsthand, but
first
dismay followed when Woodrow Wilson declared the United States neutral
Germany had launched
a day after
once
Leonard
to
Wood
leave of absence "on
France. Lest objective
Wood
was
for advice
some
its
offensive in the West.
and assistance, and
pretext" that
He
wrote
at
to request a year's
would enable him
to join the
war
in
mistake his intentions, Patton pointedly noted that his
to participate in
combat, not observe, for
"it is
only by doing
things others have not done that one can advance."'^ It
was an audacious gambit
—and one
that provides a clear
Patton's burning passion to experience war.
If
I
can get the leave
understanding that
I
my
who
did well under
interest
above
I
you have already taken any one
Wood's reply dashed
.
.
in
me
folly.
that
I
We
get
1
have contemplated
and because
I
it
the
value your opinion
.
Patton's hopes: "Don't think of attempting anyall right;
but go to look
don't want to waste youngsters of your sort in the service of foreign
nations unless they need you the present job. ... It
if I
Riley to an
am encouraged by
thing of the kind, at present. If you can get a leave, on.
at
I
would not bother you except
that of
the
me last year and will continue my method. As me for support would only be risking my
Please do not think this a spontaneous
for years.
Of course, with
United States for help
can turn over the Swordsmanship
I
family does not rely on
self.
rest.
will never apply to the
in trouble or captured.
officer
can manage the
I
example of
As he wrote Wood:
I
more than appears
know how you
was no coincidence
feel,
to
but there
be the case now. Stick to is
nothing to be done."'-
that his next efficiency rating noted Patton as "a very
zealous and ambitious young officer."
Junior Cavalry Officer
150 It
was
in early
1915 that Maj. Charles D. Rhodes, a veteran of the Sioux
of 1890-91, and Leonard Wood's chief aide during Patton's brief tenure
War
War Department in 1912, rated Patton "excellent" all around. HowRhodes was also the first officer to put on record what many regarded
in the
ever,
Although Patton lacked experience with troops,
as his overzealousness.
Rhodes found the lieutenant a "most promising young officer of high devotion to duty, and marked industry.
He
is
ideals,
somewhat impulsive and
intol-
erant of the opinions of others, and needs a period of severe duty with
troops to counter-balance his protracted duty
around
away from troops and
to
round
out his efficiency as an
all
In June 1914 Beatrice
had become pregnant for the second time, but
officer."-"
this
event appeared to have no bearing on Patton's consuming desire to help
World War
the French fight
made
I.
Since his experience with the birth of Little
But whenever he inquired what she would like for an anniversary, Christmas, or birthday present, Beatrice would always reply: "I want a baby." When she announced her pregnancy there was an unshakable conviction, at least in the minds of the Patton family, that this time around Beatrice would certainly bear for them a second "Boy." The child was due in February 1915, and "he" would be born at Lake Vineyard, in the same "extraordinarily ugly bed, [that had been] bought in 1856 for the second Mrs. Wilson, when Don Benito was furnishing the new ranch house he had built for her" the same bed in which Ruth Patton and her son had Bee, Patton had
clear his reluctance to have a second child.
—
been born. For weeks beforehand the Pattons dashed about that
even included planting gardens
newly decorated bedroom with
was summarily
command
exiled,
room
name George Smith
of activity
from "his"
pink-and-white wallpaper. Aunt Nannie
and her bedroom was turned into a
post, a "production
bearer of the
its
in a frenzy
that the child could see
sort of family
for the first grandson, to be the
proud
Patton, IV." Shortly before her due date,
Ruth and Nita Patton escorted Beatrice from Fort Riley to Lake Vineyard, where she was made to sit in leisure on the veranda, with little more to do than smell the pungent aroma of orange blossoms and drink cow's milk
from the Lake Vineyard herd. Although Patton was obliged fully involved in the tor if there is
child
must go. This and
I
remain
any question between her is
he too became
at Fort Riley,
life
and the
hope she
it
get another doctor
will
have no
who
will.
trouble."-' Alas,
.
"tell the
doc-
of the child, the
life
probably an unnecessary caution but
he will not subscribe to
woman
to
drama, sending a warning to his father to
.
when
I
.
insist
She the
is
on
it.
If
a brave
momentous
event took place on February 28 after another long and difficult labor, Beatrice
had produced a second daughter, who remained nameless for a time.
A Home Where So
certain
had everyone been
151
would be
that the child
name
thought had been given to a
Roam"
the Buffalo
a
boy
that little
for a girl.
For the second time an atmosphere of gloom pervaded the Patton household. Painfully aware that she had "failed" again, the plucky Beatrice
informed her mother-in-law: "Well, Aunt Ruth, better luck next time!" With a shocked expression, Ruth Patton exclaimed, "Beatrice dear, please don't
mention 'next time'
to
your Uncle George.
He
has had a very hard day!"
Patton was awakened in the middle of the night and handed a telegram by
who was
his frightened housekeeper, letter after the big
had died. In
certain Beatrice
event, Patton wrote "D-E-L-I-G-H-T-E-D!!"
his first
He
also
admitted:
I
am
very glad from a selfish point of view that
Though had
been possible
it
comforted you a
little.
.
.
You had
.
you can get more advice. All Ruth or Ellen. You might tainly like the
sound of
heart and hope
would have been
1
call
that
better have
know
I
it
is
that
for it
was not
I
1
think
named
it
there.
.
.
out there where
don't like the sound of either
I
Beatrice Second like a race horse.
name
.
might have
the best of any.
I
love you with
cer-
I
my
all
you have not suffered or are not suffering more than nec-
essary."
Quite naturally such tongue-in-cheek advice on naming the baby was ignored. Instead, to honor her mother and mother-in-law, Beatrice had the
baby christened Ruth
Ellen.
The attending physician had turned trice in
breast for no
more than
ten minutes.
By
returned to Fort Riley, Ruth Ellen had daily "I
became
thinner. "I
had everyone mad
Finally in desperation, a great-hearted
and
we
out to be inept, not only leaving Bea-
extreme discomfort but decreeing
man
was not
at
become
took
could nurse
me
sickly, cried incessantly,
I
many
never stopped
years
my
and
later.
crying.
to a local civilian doctor in Junction City,
He we can
of genius. Dr. Fred O'Donnell.
Mrs. Georgie,
now. She's starving
each
at
mother and new daughter
a bundle of joy," she related
everyone else because
Ma
said, cheerfully, 'Well, start right
that the infant
the time
1
think
to death.'" Put
took one look save this
little
at
me
lady
if
on a formula of cream laced
with a small dab of brandy, Ruth Ellen soon became a model infant, and
everyone began sleeping
at night.
Once again George Patton swallowed
his
disappointment in a busy schedule of soldiering.
Shortly before the birth of his second daughter, Patton's beloved step-grandfather,
of his
George Hugh Smith, died life.
Smith had risen
commissioner of the
state
to
at the
age of eighty-one. In the final years
prominence as a California
supreme court and
state senator
and a
in particular for his writings
about jurisprudence, which brought him recognition not only in the United
152
Junior Cavalry Officer
and
States but also in Britain
am
in
Europe. "He was a great mind wasted and
I
was very fond of him and wish I could have seen more of him. He did not have the military mind in its highest development because he was swayed by ideas of right and wrong rather than those of policy. Still he was probably more noble for his fault.'"^ George Hugh Smith had epitomized the ideal of the citizen-soldier who fought for Virginia and its way of life, which makes Patton's rather scornful reaction to his death even more incomprehensible. sorry," Patton wrote to his father. "I
On May
7,
1915, a
German submarine torpedoed and sank
the
Cunard
liner
Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, with a loss of 1,198 lives, 128 of them
American. Patton was incensed, blaming what he regarded as American cowardice on President Wilson and his policy of
woman
can see that the loss of
many," he complained 'Too proud to called
to his father.
fight.' In
protests]. If
a
"Who
dares ... to say that one can be
any other country or age that pride has always been
by another name.
failes as she
"Anyone but
neutrality.
a question of indifference to Ger-
life is
...
I
think that
we ought
to declare
war
if
Germany
should to pay heed to our foolish talk [Wilson's diplomatic
Wilson had as much blood
monly thought
to contain
him
in
he would do
this."
as the liver of a louse
is
com-
There was more than a kernel
of truth in Patton's anti-Wilson diatribe, for in less than two years the
United States would declare war on Germany. As Patton saw
Germany
time
beats the allies
we
will
have time
if
we
start
"By
the
to get
an
it,
now
army."^^
Mounted Service
Patton graduated from the second-year course at the
School in June 1915. student, teaching,
year, apportioned
to increase his reading of military history.
for Patton to
immerse himself
in
since
we
reading.
"My mind
left
is less
War now
him
will not be gained
I
read the more
at a
to continue to study
I
it
see the necessity for
by a highly educated 'bottom' but by a
well developed 'top,'" of which he fully intended to be a
By 1915
was not
been the case with
like a potato than has
Sheridan ... the more
It
books for twelve hours
time, and the mental upUft he derived encouraged
even more.
between being a
and writing about swordsmanship. Whenever Beatrice
was absent he began
uncommon
had been a busy
It
part.-^
Patton had established himself as the army's leading expert on
the sword, had developed the criteria for a
new
cavalry saber badge, and had
written an illustrated pamphlet, really an instructor's manual, titled The
Diary of the Instructor
some of
in
Swordsmanship. The pamphlet also contained
Patton's usual strong opinions,
among them
that
anyone who
refused to admit to a saber "touch" ought to be tried by court-martial. Naturally
any notion of using the saber defensively was scorned.-^
In the spring of 1915 Patton
was again injured in a fall, this time when was riding on the prairie. "She rolled on
his horse stepped in a hole while he
A Home Where me," he wrote Beatrice, kicked
me
in the
German
.
.
.
When
duelist."-^
fact considerably
still
Roam"
in California,
"and
153 in getting
head with her hind foot and cut quite a hole
five stitches taken. like a
who was
the Buffalo
more
I
get less hair than
I
in
now have
I
up she
which
had
I
will look just
Yet the cut was nothing to jest about and was
in
Myer
in
serious than the one he had sustained at Fort
1913, keeping Patton on sick call for nine straight days.-^
After graduation he
was granted two and one-half months leave and
tons returned to Massachusetts for a leisurely
was terminated one day when
a vacation that
summer
removed an unconscious
he was
his car overturned as
returning from a polo match. Another driver discovered him, the car, and
the Pat-
of relaxation and fun,
managed
to
lift
stranger, dressed in polo clothes,
whose head had been battered by gravel and was covered in crankcase oil. Patton was taken to the nearby home of Mrs. Charles G. Rice (the mother of Hilda Ayer, nee Rice, who was married to Beatrice's brother, Frederick), from which his savior had departed only moments earlier. He was placed on a bed more dead than alive. When Mrs. Rice opened Patton's mouth, she found him strangling from the oily gravel and sludge he had swallowed. The stranger's clothes contained the labels of her son-in-law, Frederick Ayer Jr., who at that moment was on his honeymoon. It was only after Mrs. Rice cleaned him up and summoned a doctor that she discovered the man wearing her son-in-law's polo clothes was George S. Patton, whose life she had just saved. Needless, to say Patton was eternally grateful, and when Mrs. Rice died in 1933 after a fall from a horse, he came from Fort Myer to attend her funeral, saying that he would have come no matter if he had been halfway around the
world.-*^
During the early part of 1915 a rumor, which soon proved
sweeping the army
that in
true,
began
October the 15th Cavalry would be reassigned
constabulary duty in the Philippines to replace the 8th Cavalry.
Once
schooling ended Patton, was due to return to the regiment.'" Although
could do
little
to avert this perceived disaster to his career,
to
his
God
George Patton
could and would help himself. After chaperoning Beatrice and the children to Pride's Crossing, he
immediately journeyed to Washington. Patton never recorded just
how
he
managed to persuade someone of influence in the War Department, possibly his West Point mentor, Charles P. Summerall. He was pleased when the black doorman at a theater recognized him. "No one else did. Some day I will make them all know me."^' Patton's new posting was to be on the Mexican border with the 8th Cavalry, which was then in the process of relocating to Fort Bliss, Texas, from
pulled strings, but once again he
the Philippines.
'-
Before George
S.
Patton
left
Fort Riley he presented the
Mounted
Ser-
— 154
Junior Cavalry Officer
vice School with a cup to be
awarded annually
to the
his legacy
soon became a highly sought-after prize
had one and one-half minutes saber to penetrate twenty
In
summer
him back
nied
as the Patton
Cup,
which each contestant
in
complete a series of jumps and use his
to
dummies placed along
mid-September Patton reported
El Paso. After a
winner of a mounted
Known
saber competition for the Troop Officer's Class.
a difficult course."
which was located outside
to Fort Bliss,
holiday in Pride's Crossing, Beatrice had accompa-
to Fort Riley to help
pack and ship what by now had become
a very large household. Without asking his father he consigned everything horses, three dogs, and his household goods
Patton's stable of horses had
grown
was no small chore. Some years
was
great joke and used to
at the
about
it
to
Lake Vineyard,
and shipping
this
collect.
menagerie
he recalled with evident glee having
later
sent his father a telegram that "he tell
—
to eleven,
to
pay the
freight.
He thought this a He and Beatrice
California Club."^^
then drove from Fort Riley to Southern California.
The
was grueling
trip
and averaged barely twenty miles per hour on the mostly unpaved, dusty highways.
It
was
a feat of endurance,
weary and covered several
weeks
in
later
by
train,
separations.
When
they
left
company
for the latest of their
would be some months before
It
Lake Vineyard
Beatrice accompanied her husband as far as
Fort Bliss, where the two parted painful
and George and Beatrice arrived
dust and road grime.
the
many
family was
reunited.
When
Patton reported for duty he learned that most of the 8th Cavalry
had not yet arrived from the Philippines, only a small advance party being present.
Shocked when informed he was
to
be examined for promotion the
very day of his arrival, Patton explained his plight to the regimental executive officer
who
advised him to wire the
War Department, which immedi-
ately authorized a five-week postponement. Patton
had a brief reunion with
Major Marshall, who was visiting Fort Bliss en route to the Philippines and was delighted at the accomplishments of his young protege. Patton, in turn, went
all-out to impress Marshall's host, another future general,
dentally happened to be a
Capt.
Howard
member
who
coinci-
of his forthcoming promotion board,
R. Hickock. Patton also took pains to cultivate the president
of the board, his
new squadron commander, Maj. George
With only a few duties
to distract
him during
T. Langhorne.''
the first weeks, he studied
hard and, although he had worried about passing the examination, which
covered
tactics,
cavalry
drill,
and
field service regulations, apparently did so
with ease. The resulting certification from the board meant that Patton's
name was placed on no longer assigned
the
War Department promotion
a transfer to his former unit tenant's slot
list.^"
to the 15th Cavalry, Patton learned
opened up
Although he was
he was
still
subject to
whenever he was promoted and a
first lieu-
in the Philippines."
A Home Where *
the Buffalo
*
Roam"
155
*
El Paso, originally founded in 1682 as a Spanish mission,
tlement in Texas.
A "refuge
the Rio Grande.
men, the town
By 1915
it
was
the oldest set-
had become a small, Wild West border town on
for
Mexican jetsam, and hideout
relied heavily for existence
for western gun-
on the railroad and on the army
garrison at Fort Bliss," a treeless, arid military reservation on the northern outskirts of El Paso, overlooked tains.-*^
The
by the bare and forbidding Franklin Moun-
recently built fort contained stables that were firetraps and tiny,
poorly constructed quarters, news that was hardly music to Beatrice's ears.
how much he missed
Patton was lonely and frequently wrote
He ended one for dinner."
letter
Unassigned for several weeks, he assisted Major Langhorne
forming a polo team. To his
pony during
Beatrice.
by declaring, "can't send any kisses as we had onions
his first match.
utter disgust, Patton fell off his
in
borrowed cow
For once the only injury he suffered was
to his
pride.
For a short time he was acting commander of Troop that
trice
Throughout and when
seemed strange
it
his life Patton never failed to
his troop
was on guard
was a
spectator. "It
sabers [being used]. is
command
to
fine sight
detail
all
gives you a
It
a cavalry
and wrote Bea-
be moved by military reviews,
he attended a regimental parade as a
with sabers drawn and thrill
and
my
eyes
the call of ones ancestors and the glory of combat.
the
D
troop once again.
filled It
all
my
[Patton]
with tears ...
seems
head of a regiment of cavalry any thing would be possible.
to
me
it
that at
"^'^
Patton's assignment to border duty in 1915 coincided with a period of
increasingly turbulent relations between the United States and Mexico.
Many
times during his military career Patton found himself in the right
place at the right time.
The southwestern United
States in late 1915
was
such a place. Although most of the western United States had been settled
and tamed by the turn of the century, the Wild West pendent, violent
men
still
lived by the law of the
—where — would continue
colorful, inde-
gun
to
survive for another twenty years in such locales as southwest Texas. Into this still-untamed land
match made
in
heaven.
came George Smith
He had always
Patton.
It
was
to
prove a
fancied himself a warrior-hero in the
mold of King Arthur, standing alone in majestic opposition to an evil force. On the Mexican border during the next year he would again be provided with a unique opportunity to become that hero, and in the process to solidify his claim as a
"comer"
in the U.S.
Army
officer corps.
CHAPTER 12
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition I
want
to
go more than anyone
else. ~LT.
Since 1910 Mexico had been wracked by increasing hostility in
Mexican
affairs
instability,
GEORGE
S.
and by 1914 there was
Mexico toward Woodrow Wilson's
and inept handling of U.S. -Mexican
thirty-year dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz
there followed a period of revolution in
ended
in
PATTON
interference in
relations.
When
the
1910 with his overthrow,
which the fledgling democratic gov-
ernment of President Francisco Madero was overthrown in 1913 by a mili-
coup
tary
that installed
General Victoriano Huerta as president. Huerta was
believed to have murdered
Madero and
the vice president.
Wilson refused
to
recognize the Huerta regime, and an incident in Tampico and the occupation of Vera Cruz in 1914 by an American military force was an attempt by the president to persuade the
Mexican people
to replace yet another in a long
line of despots. Wilson's well-intentioned crusade to
fired
remove Huerta backin Mexico. The
and instead exacerbated the growing anti-Americanism
United States withheld recognition of the Huerta regime, and sent military supplies to his opponent, Venustiano Carranza, the governor of Coahuila, a
former senator and wealthy landowner, to rise
up and topple the new
revolutionary
Among
who was
dictator.
who
called for the
Mexican people
Unfortunately Carranza was a ruthless
hardly better than the
man
he was striving to replace.
Carranza's early supporters was a charismatic renegade from
Durango named Francisco
Villa,
who was
better
known
to his legion of fol-
-
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition
lowers as "Pancho." cans' love of
A
157
notorious bandit leader. Villa epitomized the Mexi-
macho and had become
the Latino version of
Robin Hood,
looting the rich, rustling their cattle, and giving to the poor. Villa
been a folk hero but he was also a cold-blooded
down
a
man
point-blank, showing no
on a bug."' As a military commander
way
hard
killer
who
may have
"could shoot
more emotion than if he were stepping was daring and, after learning the
Villa
the folly of the cavalry charge, possessed of a tactical boldness
that Patton himself
might have admired.
The bloody Vera Cruz
incident brought about the resignation of Huerta
and his replacement as president by Carranza. Breaking with Carranza, the
own
ambitious Villa formed his
rival
Conventionalist party and began
opposing his former cohort. The Mexican economy was instability
grew
as intrigue
and
in disarray
and lawlessness swept the nation. Pancho Villa
had counted on American support to obtain the presidency. Instead, when
Wilson recognized the new Carranza government Villa
swore revenge against the United
By
in
October 1915, an
irate
States.^
the end of 1915 not only had Villa and his pistoleros launched a
series of raids along the U.S. -Mexican border that frightened
New
ing in Texas,
were also engaged
Americans
liv-
Mexico, and Arizona border towns, but Carranza's forces in similar
burning and looting. Mexico was swept by vio-
lence as Villistas, Carranzistas, and several other factions turned the political climate into a state of virtual anarchy. Wilson,
Pancho
Villa,
now
regarded him as
Httle
more than
who had once supported a bandit who threatened
the security of the southwestern United States. Fighting appeared imminent,
Texas and
New Mexico
Pershing, then
commanding
and the War Department began deploying troops to
meet
to
this threat.
One
of those alerted was Brig. Gen. John
the 8th [Infantry] Brigade at the Presidio of
from marauding
ther trouble
Villistas
J.
San Francisco. Anticipating
possible punitive expedition against Mexico, the
War Department
sent Pershing and his troops to Fort Bliss in April 1914. Pershing in
command
fur-
and Carranzistas and the need for a hastily
was placed
of some five thousand troops guarding the U.S. -Mexican bor-
der from Arizona to a bleak outpost in the Sierra Blanca mountains ninety
miles southeast of El Paso.^ Pershing's career had advanced dramatically since he had been tagged
with the derisive nickname "Black Jack" in 1897
was one of
the
most unpopular
tactical officers
at
West
Point,
ever to serve
where he
at the military
in Montana with the all-black West Point he was sneeringly referred to behind
academy. (Pershing had served for two years 10th Cavalry Regiment. At his
back as "Nigger Jack,"
most highly respected
later
modified to "Black Jack.")^
fidence and respect of the inhabitants of El Paso, protector from Villa.
Now
one of the
officers in the army, Pershing quickly earned the con-
A
who viewed him
as their
tough, experienced veteran of the Indian wars and
Junior Cavalry Officer
158
Moro
was a no-nonsense disciwhen he was angry could instandy insdll fear into even the most veteran trooper. In his new assignment Pershing was constandy in modon, "sometimes by car, more often mounted, he trekked his
the
uprising in the PhiUppines, Pershing
whose
plinarian
domain with
He
flock."^
glacial stare
regularity
trained his
prepared to accede
On August when
at
—
a general [who] never lost control of his farthest
men
once
hard, sent
to
them on maneuvers, and confidently
an order to do battle with the Mexicans.
27, 1915, while he
was
in Texas, a terrible misfortune struck
Pershing's wife, Frankie, and three of their daughters died from suffo-
cation
when
a fire ravaged their quarters at the Presidio of
shortly before they
were
to depart for Fort Bliss.
tragedy, an anguished Pershing cried,
Among
When
San Francisco
informed of the
"My God! My God! Can
the outpouring of messages of condolence
it
be true?"
was one signed "Fran-
cisco Villa."^
In mid-October 1915 Patton had been at Fort Bliss barely a
A
Troops
and
D
were ordered
to the Sierra
month when
Blanca mountains, where the
army had established a chain of outposts to guard the border sector southThe trip took four days by horseback and wagon train under a blazing hot sun. The tiny town of Sierra Blanca was a whisUe stop on the railway line from El Paso and a violent holdover from the Old West, populated by cowboys and gunfighters of fearsome reputadon. Situated at an elevation of 4,500 feet in the rocky Sierra Blancas, the endre town consisted of east of El Paso.
approximately
and
D
fifty
were based
people, twenty houses, a saloon, and a hotel. Troops
at Sierra
A
Blanca, with one manning the outposts and the
other in reserve to protect the railroad and respond to any trouble along the
month they rotated with each other.** became acquainted with the locals, one of whom was the elderly Sierra Blanca town marshal, Dave Allison, whose white hair and cherubic face were the facade of a renowned gunman who had once slain a notorious bandit named Orasco and his gang. Impressed to be in the company of an illustrious gunfighter, Patton wrote to Beatrice. "He kills several Mexicans each month. He shot Orasco and his four men each in the head at sixty yards. He seemed much taken with me.'"^ The whiskey flowed copiborder.
Once
a
Patton soon
ously in the saloon, and on any given Saturday night the local pistoleros and cowhands entertained themselves by firing their weapons at targets both real
and imagined. Patton's profanity, his spending ways quickly
made him
a kindred
The
at the
saloon,
ability to
shoot a pistol, and his free-
where he delighted
a popular figure with the
in
buying beer for them,
rough-hewn Texans, who sensed
spirit.
first
task of Patton and his superior, 1st Lt. Daniel D. Tompkins, the
troop execuUve officer, was to inspect the two outposts situated at either end
of the Sierra Blanca mountain chain, a 100-mile, three-day
trip
by horseback
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition
159
over some of the most rugged terrain in the United States. There were few roads but "miles and miles of loose stone. ...
It is the most desolate country you ever saw. Rocks and these thorny bushes.""' The area was virtually
human
devoid of any
rough on the ground and
habitation. Patton slept
availed himself of the opportunity to shoot game. "Americans can't live there or
He
they do they don't live long."
if
damdest shot with a
pistol
My
fifteen yards while riding at a trot.
His elation
becoming
at
boasted to Beatrice
you ever saw
a crack shot
I
hit a
reputation as a
would soon
made
that, "I
jack rabbit running
suffer a
gun man major
the
about
at
made.""
is
reversal.
Patton ingenuously reported to Beatrice his pleasure at meeting a local
shows
cowgirl, "which
she
is
that
I
am
a social success though
One
easy of conquest. Very easy!"'-
post, called
scared"
from the
talk here
night, at the farthest cavalry outleft him "very him before being
Love's Ranch, he escaped potential injury that
when
a "crazy drunk" trooper pointed a pistol at
tackled from behind and disarmed by one of the
NCOs.
His adventures included guarding more than thirty miles of railroad
Although the duty was hard and involved no
track.
lessly dirty [but]
I
feel contented.
."'^ .
.
He
fighting, "I
passed his
am
hope-
thirtieth birthday in
the saddle, inspecting his outposts.
Hot Springs he bested a man with shoulder-length
In
match but
lost in a pistol competition.
He
also
hair in a rifle
met a remarkable panther
who regaled Patton with tales of his adventures, "which others said He was very dark [skinned] and commented on it. Saying 'Dam it a fellow took me for a Mex and I had to shoot him three times before he believed I was white.' This impressed me very much and I assured him that he was the whitest man I had ever seen."'^ hunter
were
true.
On
another occasion Patton was the senior officer in Sierra Blanca,
when he received an urgent telegram from Fort Bliss that a Mexican bandit named Chico Chano was en route, with a force of 200 men, to raid Sierra Blanca. Somewhat skeptical, Patton did nothing other than order his men to sleep with their
weapons handy. At
1 1
:00 P.M. three
more telegrams
arrived.
One was signed "John J. Pershing," and it shook Patton's complacency and made him pay serious heed to the threat. Over the next several days there was evidence of both
Villistas
and Carranzistas on both sides of the border,
but to his disappointment, there was no clash between the Mexicans and the
U.S. cavalry.'^
A
few days
later
he received another urgent telegram with an uncon-
firmed intelligence report that a large Mexican force was on the loose near Fort Quitman, a border outpost. Patton
which he interpreted
was ordered
as an order to "attack first
to "act
with vigor,"
and ask questions next. So
I
would make a saber charge. ... I thought I had a medal of honor sewed up and laid awake planning my report until one a.m." He and his men were spoiling for a fight, but after a thiry-two-mile trek
decided that
if
possible
I
160
Junior Cavalry Officer
across the wasteland in bright moonlight they arrived at Fort
found that all,
if
there
had been a force of Carranzistas,
a disappointed Patton
between
sixty
was
in the saddle for
and seventy miles. "The
last
it
Quitman and
had long since
left.
In
eleven hours and covered
17 miles
was awful. The dust
was so thick that you could not see the fence at the side of the road."'^ With only two hours' sleep in the previous two days, Patton felt fine but tired. He stolidly accepted that his first encounter with an enemy would have
to await another day: "I
would work but
how my
had great hopes of seeing
sabers
better luck next time."'^ Nevertheless, the incident provided
small but unmistakable clues to Patton's future aggressive behavior on the battlefield.
Soon
after this Beatrice
decided to
visit
her husband. She
the care of her parents and journeyed to El Paso,
left
the children in
where Patton met her and
they drove in the family auto to Sierra Blanca. For a brief time Major
Langhorne shared
their house. Patton
admired Langhome and
his splendid
came from wealth and had brought eight-cylinder Cadillac that was kept in an adobe
automobile. Like the Pattons, Langhorne to Sierra
Blanca an elegant
garage behind the house.'* Beatrice quickly
who
became
as well liked as her
husband by the townsfolk,
who knew all about was not pretentious. One of Beatrice's chief admirers was the sheriff (the town had both a sheriff and a marshal), who encouraged Patton to quit the army and become his partner in running a spa. Patton's first attempt at emulating a Wild Westerner was catastrophic. One evening the Pattons were having dinner with some local businessmen at the town's only hotel when suddenly a gun went off, the lights went out, and appreciated having in their midst an elegant lady
horses but
a pair of strong hands grabbed Beatrice and unceremoniously dragged her
under the
table.
Unable
to
determine the source of the gunfire, the group
The moonlight was exceptionally bright, but that did not prevent Patton from slamming the family auto head-on into a catde gate that was plainly visible. Beginning to sob, with tears running down his cheeks, he said to Beatrice accusingly: "God dammit, you don't give a damn about me! That was my pistol that went off; I might have been killed, and you didn't even say anything or ask me if I was alright!" When he finally
then nervously dispersed.
calmed down, Patton explained he had been emulating dress-up occasions by wearing his pistol in his trouser
how
it
had
fired
local
fly,
and
and shot a hole through his trouser leg into the
ton's future attempts to imitate
Wyatt Earp would be with
custom on that
some-
floor.'''
Pat-
his pistol bol-
stered in plain sight on his waist.
Beatrice was the glue that kept their long marriage together. Military wives
who
survived the frequent
moves
to distant posts, the
low pay, the often-
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition
161
squalid quarters, and being both mother and father to their children during
prolonged separations from their husbands (who were
in the field training or
war in some godforsaken place) were indeed a special breed of must have been especially difficult for Beatrice to make the tran-
off fighting a
women. sition
It
from
socialite to the wife of a
And while many of the
lowly second lieutenant.
income from Mr. Ayer enabled them
their unlimited
to enjoy
trappings of wealth, places hke Fort Sheridan and Sierra Blanca were
unavoidable for an ambitious young cavalry
officer.
Although Beatrice
rarely verbalized her private feelings about her husband's
one occasion her frustration erupted.
at least this
character of this remarkable
woman
chosen career, on
was a measure of
It
that she willingly
the
endured years of such
hardships out of love and respect for her husband's passion to be a career Nevertheless, after one of the frequent, brutal windstorms that
soldier.
plagued Sierra Blanca, Beatrice cried and told her husband she wished he
would resign from the army. Despite their brief sojourn there, the Pattons were so popular in Sierra
Blanca that when George was ordered back
to Fort Bliss,
most of the town
turned out for a farewell gala evening of barbecue, music, and square dancing.
Guns and
in blankets
liquor were surrendered at the door and babies were
and stacked
cordwood on a
like
The Pattons danced with everyone, and mutual.^"
When
large brass bed in a
wrapped
bedroom.
was
the regret at their departure
they returned to El Paso, Beatrice found that she liked Fort
Bliss and decided for post quarters,
was time
it
for the family to be reunited. Patton applied
and Beatrice returned to Massachusetts
to bring the family
west.
For a few all-too-brief months Beatrice's and George's ceptional,
and
it
seems
to
lives
have made for a welcome respite
were unex-
in their other-
wise hectic existence. Beatrice became a cavalryman's wife again, and
George played polo, hunted, and defended the saber
ment Board, now headed by
his
former superior
to the
officer,
Cavalry Equip-
Maj. Charles D.
Rhodes.
One was his was "a
of the usual number of visitors to the Patton household sister, Nita.
tall
blonde
at
Fort Bliss
Twenty-nine, very attractive, and as yet unmanied, Nita
Amazon
with enormous capabilities of love and loyalty
and great good sense. In every way she was, larger than life-size."
At one of Fort
like her only brother, slighdy
Bliss's frequent social events, Nita
was
introduced to Black Jack Pershing. Although the death of his wife and daughters
was
and she
fme was
still
a raw wound, Pershing
was immediately
attracted to Nita Patton
to him. Pershing's biographer writes that Nita possessed the
facial features as his late wife, and, sensitive to his hurt
instantly captivated
same
and sadness, she
by him. "She encouraged the general and they grew
closer than friends."-' Pershing
was a man who needed women
particularly for their attention
and
flattery.
in his life,
Nita and Black Jack Pershing
Junior Cavalry Officer
162
were strongly attracted
to
each
other.
Although
develop into a full-fledged love
tually
March by events
cut short in early
In early January 1916, Villa
United States because of sixteen
its
their relationship
affair, its early
would even-
progress was abrupdy
outside their control.
had begun exacting bloody revenge against the support of the Carranza regime. At Santa Ysabel
American mining engineers were kidnapped from
a train
and sum-
marily executed. Even though the United States was on a virtual war footing,
and despite considerable outrage
was
as yet
his
Washington over
in
this atrocity, there
Two months later, however. Villa and hundred men were on the move north
no order for intervention.
band of between four and
five
from
their bastion in the state of
their
wake they
left
a
trail
Sonora toward the U.S. -Mexican border. In
of pillage, kidnapping, and murder. The Villistas
kidnapped and held an American
woman
for nine days after slaughtering her
husband; others were raped and strangled." As Villa's force the United States,
word of
its
now removed.
lingering doubts about their intentions were Villa's target
and
in the early
was
moved toward
advance spread north of the border, and any
the small border
town of Columbus,
morning hours of March 9 he and
New
Mexico,
Colum-
his raiders struck
bus and began indiscriminate burning, looting, and
killing.
The
raid left
eighteen Americans dead. Although Mexican losses were very high. Villa
had achieved his aim of arousing the United
News
States.-^
of the raid did not reach Fort Bliss until March 10, and before
long a distraught Patton learned of the rumor that the 8th Cavalry was not included in Pershing's plans for a retaliatory raid against Villa. The Colum-
bus raid occurred just as Patton had been preparing to travel
expense
Rock
to
Island, Illinois, to defend his saber to the
at his
"damned
on the Cavalry Board, who were considering reverting back
to a
own
fools"
curved
1916 Patton's vision of the army of the future did not extend
saber. In
beyond the cavalry and his passionate belief in the importance of the cavalry sword. He had again written to Leonard Wood, this time to oppose any change
in the cavalry saber.
right. ...
will
at
Riley
is
Wood
again counseled patience: "You are quite
be a long step backward
However, there
tions.
gave
It
is
no use
in
if
we
revert to the old drill regula-
being discouraged. The instruction you
very valuable and will eventually count."-^ His fiery defense
of the saber was published in the Cavalry Journal.
Pancho dition
was
Villa's raid
immediately altered Patton's plans.
clearly imminent, and he
opportunity to see action. But
how
A punitive
had no intention of missing to gain
admission?
expe-
his first big
On March
12 Patton
learned that the 8th Cavalry would not participate in the punitive expedition,
and
silently
cursed the rotundity of his
commanding
officer,
which he held
responsible for the exclusion. Pershing insisted on a high state of physical fitness,
and the 8th Cavalry commander was the very
antithesis.
"There
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition
should be a law killing
day Patton would
colonels on sight," he complained.'^
fat
distrust
163
any
From
that
fat officer.
Patton concluded that being detailed to Pershing's staff was the best
means of participating
in the punitive expedition.
The
fact that there
were no
vacancies did not dissuade him from pleading with his regimental adjutant
He
for a recommendation.
also appealed to both Maj. John L. Hines, the
expedition's adjutant general, and to one of Pershing's aides, Lt. Martin C.
When
Shallenberger. to ask if
was
it
Pershing learned of Patton's inquiries, he telephoned
true that he
wanted
accompany
to
the expedition.
To
Patton's
excited yes, Pershing replied that he would see what he could do. Sensing
was merely
that this
lip
service and not a genuine
commitment, Patton
decided that he must personally persuade Pershing to include him.
That evening he arrived unannounced
at
Pershing's quarters and told the
how
general that he would perform any job, no matter at
one wants
to go.
"Because
I
Why
want
should
to
favor you?"
I
go more than anyone
else," replied Patton.
was "a cold look from
ing's biographer records, there
of a smile, no thawing of official pose, just a short do.'" Pershing telephoned
Patton,
how
his gear "I'll
be
long will
it
God Damned. You
Thus began life.
the In
him
the following
steely eyes,
last sentence:
morning and
said,
As
Persh-
no
flicker
'That will
"Lieutenant
take you to get ready?" Patton had already packed
and informed the
of Patton's
menial, and that he
handling newspaper correspondents. Pershing retorted: "'Every
was good
startled Pershing that right
away would be
fine:
are appointed Aide."-*'
most important and rewarding professional relationship
1924 he composed a small memoir of Pershing
in
which
he noted:
was
It
three years before
I
that in '98 Lieut. Pershing
was
that
no
learned from
was an
instructors should
go
him why he took me. It seems West Point. The policy
instructor at
to the [Spanish
American] war. Lieut.
Pershing used every normal means to secure an exception and finally
went A.W.O.L.
to
employed on him
Washington where, by a in
line
of talk similar to the one
Undoubtedly Patton had made
a favorable impression, but
it
would be
misleading not to consider that Pershing's growing attraction to his Nita,
may
rized)
I
1916, he secured the detail to Cuba.-^
sister,
employ an extra (unauthotime being Patton replaced Lt. James L. who was absent but due to rejoin the head-
also have contributed to his decision to
aide-de-camp. For the
Colhns, Pershing's other aide, quarters shortly.
Despite the euphoria that
at last
something was being done about
Villa,
Patton correctly perceived that chasing the Mexican would prove far more difficult than
some
thought:
Junior Cavalry Officer
164
we will have much more of Columbus fought well and
think that
I
men
las
at
.
for regular troops. There are first
100 miles.
If
we can
breaks up [his force]
our
They
rear.
it
.
a party than .
[Mexico
think as Vil-
very bad [terrain]
no roads and no maps and no water
induce him to fight
will
many
is]
it
be bad, especially
can't beat us but they will
for the
will be all right but if he if
kill
we have Carranza on a lot of us. Not me
though.-**
Under Pershing's whip hand things happened
in a hurry.
move
responsible for making the logistic arrangements to staff to
was
Patton
Pershing and his
Columbus, where thousands of troops were converging
to
form the
Punitive Expedition. His multitude of duties included organizing the daily
business of the headquarters, arranging the general's
accompanying him messages dictated tion,
to take notes, bearing
visit
to
messages, drafting
to him, establishing a censorship
program
units
and
letters
and
for the expedi-
developing supply estimates, and generally making himself such an
indispensable asset to Pershing that he unhesitatingly retained him after
Lieutenant Collins returned to duty, even though there was no official
billet
for a third aide.^"
Occasionally, during rare interludes
when Pershing found time
for
horseback rides into the wilderness, Patton would accompany him. The feisty general
saw a
young
great deal of himself in the eager
lieutenant:
Jack enjoyed his enthusiasm, his quiet adoration, his almost comical at
emulation.
A burning
tries
professionalism touched a kindred current in Per-
shing; he read Patton's frequent papers on tactics with interest and criti-
cized them carefully. Patton's effervescent nature brightened headquarters considerably, and his eagerness lightened the tions
were the key
close troop
to soldiering,
work of
inspections. Inspec-
and Jack taught Patton the virtues of
knowledge by example.'"
Patton thought Pershing "likes
me
almost too
much
for
I
have volunteered for fear of
my
Pershing's influence on young Patton cannot be overemphasized.
He
to take several
messages which he has refused
to let
me do
getting hurt."''
was
model of a military commander, whose ideas of duty and discipline meshed perfectly with Patton's own conception. Pershing would not the very
brook disorder or sloppiness of mind or person or superb organizer of troops. as Patton. In his
memoir of
Pershing he had
at last
whom
He even
billet,
and he was a
possessed the same short-fused temper
Pershing, Patton praised his professionalism. In
found the perfect example of a senior commander,
he would later successfully emulate, refining to his
dards what he had learned:
own
lofty stan-
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition
Under
the personal supervision of the General every unit
and every man was
mum, and mean work.
165
discipline
that .
.
jects in
.
fit;
weaklings had gone; baggage was
was
nebulous
perfect.
staff
When
control
General Pershing knew
so
to the
I
.
.
.
every horse the mini-
still at
speak of supervision
I
do not
connected with the
frequently
minutest detail each of the sub-
which he demanded practice and by
his physical presence
and
personal example and explanation insured himself that they were correctly carried out.^-
The expedition headquarters ran like a well-oiled machine, and to the who now saw his own ideas confirmed by the personal example of an officer he came to idolize, the kind of leadership Per-
impressionable Patton,
shing brought to the
AEF in
command of the Punitive Expedition and later to the many of his own strongest ideals of generalship. It
France embodied
was Pershing's "personal care which
gets the results and only this personal
was
care will," he inscribed in a small notebook.-- Here the merits of strong leadership.
The
clear affirmation of
fact that Pershing
was an was
leader only served to reinforce the graphic lessons Patton
absorbing. Years
later,
at the
autocratic gratefully
commencement of World War II, Pershing "I can always pick a fighting man and God
would proudly remind Patton: knows there are few of them."^^ One of the best examples of Pershing's leadership occurred when he arrived to find Columbus in a state of utter chaos. Trains, supplies, troops, and trucks were pouring into the tiny town, and there was no one There was neither chief quartermaster nor ordnance
officer,
supplies, tents, trucks, automotive parts, tires, radios,
were piling up and creating a major
logistical
in charge.
and medical
and other materiel
nightmare.
By
weight of his personality, Pershing quickly asserted his authority
the sheer at
Colum-
bus by assigning duties and bringing order out of what had been one hell of
mess when he
As his biographer writes, "General Pershing's some order from confusion," and he took steps to ensure that "the expedition would not be stalled by disorder at the start."^^ Pershing's arrival at Columbus came not a moment too soon. An order a
arrived.
glacial presence brought
from Washington ordered the Punitive Expedition later than
March
15, barely forty-eight
hours
later.
to cross the border
The
no
president's orders to
Pershing were typical of the guileless Wilsonian method: Pursue and punish Villa, but
do not upset the Carranza government by
troops (as
if Villistas
firing
on any of his
and Carranzistas would be wearing signs identifying
The futility of Wilson's edict was plain even before the expedicommenced, when the local Carranzista commander at nearby Palomas
themselves). tion
threatened to attack the Americans and only Pershing's insightful decision to hire the It
man
major incident.^^ Not only would Pershing pursue
as a guide averted a
would soon
get worse.
Villa, but
Junior Cavalry Officer
166
men would
Carranza and his
make
take advantage of Wilson's terms to
life
miserable for the Punitive Expedition. Within a matter of days the
list
Cananzista outrages grew, ranging from harassment
Amer-
to firefights with
of
government
ican troops. Attempts to set up negotiations with the Carranza
were rebuffed with contempt, and the two countries edged closer than ever to war."
Pershing's mandate to catch Villa was inception. Northern
and
is
Mexico
is
doomed
to failure
a vast wasteland of desert with
from
its
few towns,
dominated by the barren and rugged Sierra Madres, whose peaks
average ten to twelve thousand feet and are honeycombed with deep
canyons in dry
and
that offered Villa
roads were
little
men
excellent hiding places. The few which threw up huge clouds of dust quagmires in the rain. Villa's men had the his
better than dirt trails,
weather and turned into
advantage of being on familiar ground, leaving Pershing with the problem not only of entrapping the bandit and his followers but of coping with the
harsh desert, where food and water were at a premium. In military terms
Pershing was confronted with the enormous, almost insurmountable, logistical
problem of resupplying a large force
ther
from
its
Punitive Expedition employed a ally
each day would advance
far-
number of independent
forces that eventu-
operated on both sides of the Sierra Madres, the resupply problem
became even more severe. Added to Pershing's woes were self
that
source of supply in the United States. Moreover, since the
and
down
the poor
communications between him-
his forces, with ineffective radios that constantly
at crucial
moments. Since the
first flights at
Fort
seemed
Myer
break
to
in 1908, the
untested Signal Corps Aviation Service had possessed only a few crude craft.
was becoming popular
linking his widely scattered force. Although aviation
across the country and the sity,"
air-
Six were sent to Pershing and proved invaluable as the only means of
army had
identified
it
1913 as "a
in
parsimonious congressional appropriations had
dismal fourteenth
among
The inexperienced
left
the nations possessing aviation capability.
all
neces-
'^
Aero Squadron was equipped with the danger-
1st
ously unstable Curtiss JN-2 "Jennies." The gallant deathtraps were
vital
the United States a
pioneer aviators. Three of them
—
men who
flew these
—Carl Spaatz, Millard
Harmon, and Ralph Royce would become prominent commanders in the Army Air Corps during World War II. A number of other young lieutenants and captains assigned
to the Punitive
Expedition were also destined for high
rank: Courtney H. Hodges, William H.
Simpson
(Ration's fun-loving
Point classmate),
Kenyon A. Joyce
mentor), Lesley
McNair, and Brehon B. Somervell.''
The lost
J.
six Jennies lasted barely a
within the
first
week of
West
(Patton's future superior officer and
month before
all
had crashed.
Two were
the expedition. Despite the planes' brief partici-
Junior Cavalry Officer
168
pation, the need for aviation in a
modern war was affirmed. Although used
Expedition to carry mail and dispatches, their potential for
in the Punitive
and intelligence was not
aerial reconnaissance
lost
on the army leadership or
Congress, which soon raised the appropriation from three to eight hundred
thousand dollars/"
Among
the interested observers of this
who would
ton,
first ill-fated
but
ground force was George Pat-
gallant attempt to use aircraft in support of a
himself employ modern versions of small reconnaissance
aircraft during the great drive
by
his Third
Army
in
France
in the
summer of
1944.4.
new
In the
twentieth century of mechanization and
destruction, the days of the U.S. Cavalry were,
great
was
war raging
in
weapons of mass
by 1916, numbered. In the
Europe, the cavalry played only a very small
ideally suited for the Punitive Expedition. In fact, the cavalry
role, but
was
it
better
able to operate in the desolate mountains of Mexico, and horses turned out to
be far more reliable than the trucks used to resupply the expedition,
which frequently broke down;
all
of which contributed to the inescapable
conclusion that the United States was woefully unprepared to fight a modern war.
him as a courier whose exact whereabouts
In April Patton finally persuaded Pershing to use
deliver an urgent
to the 11th Cavalry,
were only vaguely known. "Almost a needle
the south
Patton.
message
"As
I
started the General
shook
careful, there are lots of Villiastas.'
remember, Patton,
was
if
in a haystack,"
to to
wrote
me warmly by the hand saying 'Be still holding my hand he said, 'But
Then
you don't deliver
that
message don't come back.'
It
delivered."^-
On
another occasion, after a motorcycle courier had turned back after
being fired on, Patton volunteered to carry an order to Maj. Frank Tompkins, the
commander of
a provisional squadron of the 13th Cavalry. Taking
advantage of an opportunity to be where there might be action, Patton
remained temporarily.
When
it
became evident
that
Tompkins seemed
to
be
misinterpreting Pershing's orders, Patton audaciously contradicted him. "I told
him
I
would take
the responsibility for
thought the order intended
complied.
It
we
moving
in the
way which
I
should go." Patton was right and Tompkins
was an example of Patton's willingness harm to his career if he were wrong.
to take risks that
might
result in great
At the commencement of the expedition, Patton began keeping a diary that provides
an important record of what he did as well as his thoughts
about military matters, and what he was absorbing by Pershing's example. Pershing established his alry Brigade,
Paso, near the
Pershing fifty
based
at
command
post with Col. George A. Dodd's 2d Cav-
Culbertson's Ranch, one hundred miles west of El
New Mexico-Arizona-Mexico
when Colonel Dodd's
border.^^ Patton
accompanied
cavalry crossed the border and advanced
miles into Mexico. Pershing was noted for eschewing the trappings of
Pershing and the Punitive Expedition rank, and the cold, rain, sleet, and
him from sleeping on
the
wind of the Sierra Madres did not prevent
ground from March
to
May
bling up with one of his aides for the additional blankets:
At daily
him
"No
least
motor
frost or
169
snow prevented
without a
tent,
dou-
warmth secured by two
his daily shave.
"^^
once Pershing went without sleep for two days. During his trips in
an open-topped Dodge touring
thirty to fifty miles ahead,
single blanket and a toilet
kit.
"Here he wrote his dispatches
car,
which often took
Pershing never carried anything more than a
His automobile became his
—
this
was G.H.Q."^^ The
command
post,
tiny staff, the crude
rations,
and the hardship voluntarily endured were unprecedented for a
modem
general.^^
Euphoric
at
being with Pershing, Patton so relished the
prospect of distinguishing himself in the pursuit of Villa that he did not even notice the hardships. His only disappointment
been permitted
to bring their (Patton) sabers
was
that the cavalry
had not
on the expedition.
The first night in Mexico, Patton's saddle blanket was stolen while he was eating dinner. Pershing lent him one of his, and Patton's diary records: "I stole another one for him."^^ The following day the expedition moved another fifty-eight miles south to Colonia Dublan, where Pershing established his permanent
command
post.
For once, the cavalry was the best
means of chasing Villa, and at Dublan Pershing began which he intended to catch the Mexican.
to plot the
means by
CHAPTER
The Bandit GEORGE
S.
13
Killer
PATTON SHOOTS VILLISTA CAPTAIN —PASADENA NEWS (MAY 25,
Pershing's penchant for motoring around
even
less
concern for his
call in the spring
biles
manned by
own
1916)
Mexico with minimal security and more than one hair-raising close
safety led to
of 1916. His entourage consisted of three open automo-
fifteen
men armed
only with nine
rifles.
Patton was in the
was traversing unmapped and "semi-hostile mountain and desert," when an armed Mexican suddenly appeared in the headlights. Nearby, what seemed to Patton "a veritable army seemed to lurk." With lead car, which
"halting Spanish and beating heart," Patton rushed forward, unsure whether the tion
Mexicans were friend or
foe,
and "prejudiced
my
hope of eternal salva-
by a valuable description of ourselves as the advance guard of an auto-
mobile regiment." Suddenly Pershing appeared, identified himself, and
demanded
know why
to
a massacre, "but the
in hell he was being stopped. Patton had visions of commanding presence of the General and his utter dis-
regard of danger over-awed the Mexicans and
we went
on, though person-
was more than a mile before I ceased feeling bullets entering my back." Two hours later a convoy of three trucks carrying airplane spare parts and gas was attacked by the same Mexicans, leaving Patton to muse over ally
the
.'
it
maxim attributed to Caesar that "Fortune favors the bold."' Rumors of Villa's whereabouts abounded, and though scattered
ments of
his
band were found and engaged, there was very
Villa himself
remained
era, the Punitive
at large.
To paraphrase
little
action,
a term used in the
Expedition was mostly "search" and very
little
ele-
and
Vietnam
"destroy."
Patton soon became bored with the inactivity. Other than a violent firefight
The Bandit at
Guerrero on March 30, when some
171
Killer
thirty Villistas
were
killed
by the 7th
Cavalry, led by the redoubtable Colonel Dodd, search operations continued
around Rubio, where the people were unfriendly and unwilling to
in the area
betray Villa.
Unknown
Americans, two days
to the
earlier,
during a battle
Remnow to
with Carranza forces. Villa's leg had been shattered by a bullet from a ington .44-caliber survive a ghastly
The
and the bandit leader's primary concern was
rifle,
wound
would have killed a lesser man. boredom were alleviated only by occasional duck
that
routine and the
hunting with pistols, and Patton's habit of taking target practice
on telephone
the green glass insulators used
Mexican peasants and viewed
for the plight of the gesture, but "if
50%
Taxes
the country
we
He
at rabbits
or
expressed sympathy
the intervention as a futile
leave ruin total and complete will follow. These people pay
and the other
to the state
we
poles.-
could
settle
it
50%
to the
ranch owner. ...
If
we
take
and these people would be happier and better
off."^
Several weeks earlier he had concluded, "I realy think that Villa bad as
he
and he
is,
unspeakable, was the
is
French Revolution gone wrong
.
.
.
man
for us to
but old Villa
is
have backed; he was the
Damed
hard to find."
Despite these views, Patton also gave vent to what would become an
almost violent streak of disdain and prejudice against what he clearly regarded as inferior peoples. Today but in Patton's time the case of the
left
it
was considered
would be
a blatantly racist attitude,
neither unusual nor unacceptable. In
Mexican peasants, Patton was put
and the behavior
tions
ing
it
off by their living condi-
spawns.
that poverty traditionally
"Now
there
they are so far behind that they will never catch up they are
noth-
much lower
than the Indians. They have absolutely no morals."^ Throughout his ton's response to the sort of poverty he Sicily
is
but for us to take the country and exterminate the present inhabitants
was defensive and
saw
antagonistic, as
if
in
life
Pat-
Mexico, North Africa, and
he could not bear to witness
squalor and destitution firsthand.
The ical
virtually all white, strongly
upper mid-
overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon Protestant, conservative
in its polit-
officer corps of Patton's era
dle class,
was
views, and tainted by an institutional anti-Semitism and racial bias.
Officers did not necessarily dislike Jews or blacks, they were simply
ent and therefore suspect. Like Patton,
black
man
as they
or a
became
Jew
many grew up
barely
—and those who did had formed opinions
adults.
The word "nigger" was an
clijfer-
knowing a
that
hardened
integral part of Patton's
vocabulary, and even though such terms are unacceptable in the late twentieth century, in 1916 officers
who
—and even much
later attained
high
later
command
—
the letters and diaries of
in
World War
II
many
contain frequent
such references to blacks and Jews. Their authors considered them to be routine vernacular, and that they
were
would have been surprised had they been informed The armed forces remained segregated until
racist epithets.
Junior Cavalry Officer
172 after
World War
II,
when
President Harry S.
Truman ordered
integration.
His biographer, David McCullough, writes that even Truman, whose
was admirable,
rights record that
privately "could
were the way one naturally referred
still
civil
speak of 'niggers,' as
if
to blacks."'
That Patton expressed anti-Semitic and antiblack values
beyond ques-
is
Like Truman, he was a product of
tion; that
he was a racist
his times
and clearly distrusted both blacks and Jews; the former were sim-
is less certain.
ply considered inferior, whereas their success. President
Jews were distrusted and often despised for
Theodore Roosevelt once invited Booker
T.
Wash-
ington to the White House, but privately viewed blacks "as a race" as "altogether inferior to the whites."
Among
the failures of the liberal, reform-
minded Woodrow Wilson was the reinstitution of segregation in the federal government which had been integrated for nearly fifty years.^ The military profession was socially isolated from the outside world,
—
encrusted in tradition, and extremely slow to adapt to or accept change.
Many
West
career officers were the second or third generation to attend
Point, to
which appointments came from white Anglo-Saxon Protestant con-
gressmen and senators. base of the Regular
It
was not
until after
Army broadened
World War
II
that the social
to include a larger percentage of offi-
The outlook
cers with lower-middle-class and working-class backgrounds.
of the 1980s and 1990s, which has produced a black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and
many
high-ranking black officers, simply did not exist in
the early part of this century.
who managed
even those few
Jews and blacks were viewed to gain entrance to
early years of the twentieth century
West
Point.
as outsiders,
Moreover, the
were a particularly virulent period of
worldwide anti-Semitism, fueled and exemplified by the Dreyfus France. In short, despite
its
isolation
from the
corps represented the views of the society from which
and
that society
was
largely segregationist
affair in
civilian populace, the officer its
members came,
and anti-Semitic. After
fifty
years
wounds of the great Civil War were only beginning to heal, and George Patton, whose only experience of blacks was limited to those he had seen
the S.
performing menial labor, tended to view them with dispassionate curiosity.
On the one hand he could and did admire the toughness and courage of the men of the segregated 10th Cavalry, while on the other disdaining them and their officers
One
because they were not part of his social order.
of Pancho Villa's most trusted subordinates was Gen. Julio Cardenas.
The commander of beheved
to
be
Villa's personal
bodyguard, the Dorados, Cardenas was
in hiding in the vicinity of
Rubio.
If
Pershing could not run
Villa to earth, then at least a big fish like Cardenas,
have participated tions west of
in the raid
Rubio were
who was
believed to
on Columbus, might be snared. Search opera-
intensified. Naturally Patton craved a role
and
pestered Pershing for an opportunity to participate in the manhunt for Car-
The Bandit
173
Killer
denas. Pershing finally relented, doubtless aware that there would be no
peace and quiet
in his
headquarters unless he acquiesced to his aide's inces-
sant exhortations. Patton
was temporarily attached
to 1st Lt. Innis
Palmer
Troop C, 13th Cavalry.'
Swift's
The search inevitably led them to San Miguelito Ranch, where Cardewas thought to be residing. The rancho had just been searched to no avail by the 16th Infantry, but the commander reported that several armed Mexicans had been seen departing in great haste for the sanctuary of the nearby mountains. A subsequent search by Troop C of both the rancho nas's family
and the surrounding area found no trace of Cardenas, but his wife and baby his uncle was located at a nearby rancho. According to "The uncle was a very brave man and nearly died before he would anything." Although there is no way to determine what his role
were discovered, and Patton: tell
me
might have been, the wording of his
suggests that the uncle was
letter
some days
unsuccessfully tortured for information about his nephew.^ For
afterward Patton remained privately suspicious that Cardenas was area and convinced that the presence of his family
him back
to
San
On May
tion to obtain a fresh supply of maize.
soldiers
command
The
Dodge
ciously large but
civilian guides,
was
dis-
touring automobiles.'" In Rubio he spotted a suspi-
unarmed group of some
named
of a foraging expedi-
party, consisting of Patton, ten
from the 6th Infantry Regiment, and two
an ex-Villista
in the
Miguelito.''
14 Pershing placed Patton in
persed in three
still
would eventually draw
E. L.
sixty
Mexicans. One of the guides,
Holmdahl, knew several of the men,
whom
Pat-
ton later described as "a bad lot." After purchasing a large supply of grain for the horses, Patton decided to test his premise about Cardenas by launch-
ing a raid on San Miguelito before there
Rubio
to
warn
was an opportunity
for
anyone
in
the bandit leader.
Expecting trouble, the entourage approached the uncle's rancho
at
Saltillo but
found no trace of Cardenas." Before approaching the Cardenas
hacienda
San Miguelito,
at
lined his plan, based dit leader,
six miles farther north, Patton
on a surprise
attack, to
stopped and out-
surround and flush out the ban-
trapping anyone inside.
Patton later wrote several accounts of what transpired
one to Beatrice
that
same
at
San Miguelito,
day, another for Pershing, and in 1928 yet another.
They vary not only in the level of detail but also in the sequence of events. They are here combined to recount, as closely as possible in Patton's own words, what occurred (appropriately enough) in
at
high noon on
May
what became a U.S. -Mexican version of the infamous shootout
14, 1916, at the
OK
Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Patton wrote:
About a mile and a half south of house.
And one
the house the ground
cannot be seen until topping
this rise.
is
lower than the
As soon
as
I
came
Junior Cavalry Officer
174 over four
this, I made my car go at full speed and went on past the house men were seen skinning a cow in the front. One of these men ran
.
went on with
the house and at once returned and
car northwest of the house and the other
carrying
my
rifle in
my
door leading into the
his work.
two southwest of
hand [and] hurried around
left
patio. ...
way to the gate. When I was fifteen yards from men dashed out on horseback, and started around the I
not to shoot, that
waited to see what would happen.
my men coming
saw
One
times.
not
on me.
my men came
Then
know who was from our
feet
.
way and
that
bullet threw gravel
jumped out
to the big arched
rounded the comer and walked about
I
half
So schooled was
.
back with
fired
my
all
pistol
right side. Just as
There were a I
lot
got around the
and
comer they
they got to the
turned back and
I
southeast comer.
merely drew
I
When
.
armed
the gate three
three shot at me.
my new
pistol five
around the comer and started to shoot.
in the house.
.
my
stopped
I
it. I
.
to
I
did
of windows only a few
comer
about seven feet from the ground and put adobe [chips]
three bullets hit
all
over me.
Patton had approached the hacienda at a run, bobbing and weaving in
case someone inside fired on him, and
when the three riders dashed out the As Patton, Holmdahl, and two sol-
gate he had hollered "Halt!" to no avail. diers
were reloading behind the safety of the north wall of the hacienda, the
three Mexicans, one of
whom was
wounded, were trapped inside the court-
yard, cut off by the presence of the troopers Patton
had ordered
to
cover the
only other two avenues of escape to the southeast and southwest:
my
reloaded
pistol
of me.
in front
I
had always said
started to shoot at
we
all hit
him.
I
to shoot at the horse of an escaping
broke the horse's hip.
He
fell
He crumpled
on
"I
saw a man on a horse come right him but remembered that Dave Allison
and started back when
his rider
and as
it
man and
I
did so, and
was only about
ten yards,
up."
In his 1928 version, Patton noted that, "impelled by misplaced notions
of chivalry,"
he "did not
fire
on the IVIexican
who was down
he had
until
disentangled himself and rose to fire." During the confusion a second Mexi-
somehow eluded
can had Villista
good
was nearly
his escape
the Americans.
when,
in a hail
of
rifle fire,
sand near a stone wall. Patton had shot
had four or Still
five of the soldiers.
uncertain
were some men
By
the time he
was
detected, the
a hundred yards east of the hacienda and about to
how many
in the patio
Two
at
he pitched forward dead
him
three times with his
of the three Mexicans were
Villistas
now
make in the
rifle,
as
dead.
were present, Patton, "thought there
and as the
they would climb up there and shoot us.
flat I
roof had a parapet
I
was
afraid
hated to climb up but hated worse
to, so took two men and told two others to watch the roof." Two soldiers propped a dead tree against the wall while Patton climbed onto the dirt roof
not
of the hacienda. Suddenly
it
gave way under his
feet,
plunging him through
The Bandit up
He might have been
to his armpits.
175
Killer
cut in half
if
had been anyone
there
inside the house with a saber, and with considerable urgency he quickly
managed
to pull
himself back atop the roof.
Meanwhile, the ex-Villista Holmdahl, who had been covering the front
man
door, spotted a
nearby
hand
in a
pistol
running from a gate in the southwest comer toward the
"He was dropped
fields.
at
about two hundred yards and held up his
token of surrender but as Holmdahl approached him he drew his
and fired
According
at
Holmdahl who then
killed him."
to Patton's account: "All this
time there had been four
men
They never looked at us at all," as if such events were perfectly commonplace. In reality they hoped by their passive reaction to avert being killed by what were clearly some very sinister American hombres who shot first and asked questions afterward. Patton was uncertain if out in front skinning a cow.
further danger lurked
inside
the
hacienda, and the four skinners were
rounded up as "we each got behind a
Mex
and went in"
conduct a room-
to
by-room search. In one room they encountered Cardenas's mother and wife, who was rocking her infant daughter in her arms. With hatred in their eyes, they stood
unmoving and
in
stony silence.
The search of the hacienda yielded no furimmovable heavy wooden door,
ther Villistas, but Patton did discover one
whose lock he promptly shot cowering
in
intruders.
One
and the
off. Inside
they found several elderly
the corner, fully expecting to be killed
saints
of them finally began to intone a prayer to
above
to save their souls
and
women
by these fearsome
to bring his
God the Father down upon
wrath
these evil Americanos.'-
During the gun
was one of
battle,
it
had been impossible
to
determine
the three killed.'^ In the aftermath, however, Patton
if
Cardenas
was able
to
determine that one of the horses was that of Julio Cardenas, complete with a
and a
silver saddle
Wounded by
saber.
His corpse was identified by the skinners.'^
Patton as the three riders were driven back into the courtyard,
he was the third
man
killed
several minutes later by
attempted to flee the hacienda.
An
revealed that the Villista leader had been dahl's
coup de grace and had
Holmdahl
as he
examination of his cartridge belts
wounded
four times before
HolmThe
fired thirty-five rounds before he died.
other two dead Mexicans were an
unnamed
Villista captain
After nearly doing himself significant anatomical
and a private.
damage with
a "hair trig-
ger" Colt .45 automatic pistol at Sierra Blanca the previous year, Patton had
exchanged revolver.'^
it
for
an ivory-handled Colt
To ensure
1873 single-action .45-caliber
would be no embarrassing repetition, Patton the gun and left the chamber opposite the hammer
that there
kept only five shells in blank.
As
they were preparing to depart, Patton spotted
some
fifty Villistas
176
Junior Cavalry Officer
heading toward them on horseback
Some
cue Cardenas.
shots
at full
speed, no doubt attempting to res-
were exchanged before the Americans beat a
hasty retreat toward Rubio, the three bloody corpses strapped across the blistering-hot
No men
one
hoods of the automobiles
like trophies of a hunt.
Pershing's headquarters had any idea where Patton and his
at
were, and had a bullet in the gas tank put his autos out of action, the
might well have been extremely unpleasant. Thus, as Patton put
result
"we withdrew
it,
gracefully" from San Miguelito ranch. Patton ordered the
telephone wires cut to prevent an ambush ahead. The convoy created con-
met with no adversity
as it passed through Rubio was nearly 4:00 P.M. when the convoy rolled into headquarters. It was a bizarre scene. Never before had Per-
siderable excitement but
with
grisly trophies.
its
Pershing's field
It
shing been presented with the corpses of his dead enemies. (For that matter, the experience proved to be unique in his career.) Nevertheless he
pleased that a key
at least
member
someone had enlivened
was
the hunt for Villa and taken out
of his band.
Pershing permitted Patton to keep the saddle and saber. But something to be done about burying the three bandits who were beginning to decompose disagreeably in the steamy late afternoon heat. It was decided to hold a quick, impromptu funeral. Against the backdrop of a blood-red sunset, graves were hastily dug, but no one seemed to know the words to the burial service. Finally a veteran sergeant spoke up and said he knew what to
had
do. Raising one hand, he intoned: "Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
won't bury you. Uncle
Sam
/ If
Villa
must.''
Patton's feat created an instant sensation in the press across the United States.
A Boston newspaper featured a photograph of Patton taken outside his
pipe in his mouth, under the headline MEXICAN BANDIT-KILLER WELL KNOWN IN BOSTON. The accompanying article proclaimed that "Patton and his men left the camp in their autos and fought the bandits from their tent, his
autos, that
is
to say, they sprang directly
the encounter in a class by itself."
account in the
New
The
from
report
their cars into the fight, putting
was
actually based
York Times by correspondent Frank Elser,
on a graphic
whom
Patton
had befriended. Pershing's biographer has written: "Newsmen caught some yearning touch of glory in the
look like John
J.
Pershing."'**
as the "Bandit Killer." Perhaps
had
initiated
reedy-voiced lieutenant
more important was
strove to
that, unwittingly,
What seems
actually killed
indisputable
is
that
"Patton
anyone has never been clearly he was responsible for wounding
Cardenas before he was killed by Holmdahl. Patton's killed a
who
motorized warfare in the U.S. Army."''^
Whether or not Patton established.
thin,
Overnight Patton became nationally acclaimed
rifle
shots
may have
second bandit but were part of a fusillade fired by himself and four or
five others at virtually the soldiers shot the first
same
instant.
And,
finally,
Patton and several of his
Mexican, whose horse he had killed
in the initial
The Bandit encounter. Again, his shots
What
vented
His
certain
is
all
the ones to have killed the
into the sanctuary of the nearby hills.
Beatrice after the Rubio affair
"As you have probably seen by ting into a fight. ...
I
man.
quick thinking and sound plan of attack pre-
from escaping
three Villistas
first letter to
may have been
that Patton's
is
177
Killer
the papers,
I
was
have
have always expected
to
surprisingly subdued.
at last
succeeded
in get-
be scared but was not nor
was I excited. I was afraid they would get away. I never heard a bullet but some say that you do not at such close range. I wondered a little at first that I was not hit, they were so close."-" Patton reveled in his newfound notoriety. After returning to what he termed "the windiest place in the world" where he killed two snakes outside his tent, Patton was teased because to
show
used a pistol instead of a saber the other day, but
I
that an officer should
be able to use
it
simply goes
arms, for being on foot
all
I
could not have used a saber. The Gen. has been very complimentary
some
telling
week.
He
wanted
officers that
calls
me
I
to take a try at, but
luck might change.
did
more
in half a
the "Bandit," there
.
.
.
is
he would not
You
are probably
got
let
The
incident at San Miguelito
me.
It is
wondering
me for killing a man it does not. I feel my sword fish, surprised at my luck.-'
hurts
day than the
1
3 Cav. did in a
another bandit near here that
about
was one of
it
just as well as if
my
I
my
conscience
just as
I
did
when
I
few highlights of the
the
Punitive Expedition. For the remainder of 1916 the hunt for Villa began to
wane and was replaced by the tedious routine of life in a temporary bivouac. Boredom spawned drunken shoot-outs between troops or with local Mexicans. Pershing initiated a tough new training regimen that included cavalry
men occupied and
Pancho
had gone
maneuvers
to
to ground,
and between the Carranza regime's growing intransigence and
keep
his
sharp, but
Villa
Wilson's restrictive guidance, nothing could change the fact that the Puni-
was doomed
tive Expedition
On May
to failure.
was at last promoted to first lieutenant, and after was no longer at the bottom of the army hierarchy. And while he daydreamed of going off to war, Beatrice was relieved that with his mandatory foreign service now being fulfilled in Mexico, Patton would 23, 1916, Patton
nearly seven years
avoid duty in the Philippines, and the family would remain together in El Paso, perhaps indefinitely.
But no end
to the expedition
was
in sight
when,
in June,
Dublan was
transformed into an enormous military encampment complete with a
head
that disgorged tons of supplies.
ordnance and
aircraft repair
A thousand
civilian
workers
rail-
built large
shops by day and brawled by night in the
Junior Cavalry Officer
178
saloons and whorehouses of what had once been a sleepy Mexican town.^^
Although Pershing kept up a perpetually
torrid pace,
it
work and lacked excitement. Despite constant training and which Patton participated, the monotony continued. "We going crazy from lack of occupation and there
is
no help
was garrison
inspections, in are
all
rapidly
in sight," Patton
wrote Papa in July. The Cavalry Equipment Board came to Mexico, and Patton spent
some of
his idle time preparing to testify.
He
spent
many hours
in
animated conversation with Pershing, discussing the saber, but the general
showed begun
little
at
interest in
it
as a
weapon. Patton also continued the habit
West Point of writing poetry on a variety of subjects
poems
Beatrice in July; "Tear
humor
titled
up."-^
to
One, a naughty and amusing attempt
at
I
"The Turds of the Scouts," was intended
Texans attached Life
them
to pass the
have composed," he wrote
time. "I inclose to [twoj disgusting
as tribute to the hardy
to the Punitive Expedition.-^
became so
routine that even Pershing craved diversion, and he
would occasionally accompany Patton and other members of hunt in the nearby
hills.
his staff to
For the unsuspecting the general's presence often
turned a leisurely hunt into a test of will and perseverance. Once, car
became mired
in
mud, Pershing dismounted and strode off
tion of Dublan, while
with the older man. plained in his diary.
their
behind him Patton and a guide struggled to keep up
"We It
when
in the direc-
did four miles in 50 minutes," Patton later
was
the "hardest walking
[I]
ever did. ...
[I
com-
wasl
stiff
for several days."-^
To remain with Pershing (who was not authorized to have a third aide he was promoted to major general later in 1916), Patton was attached
until
"on paper" to the 10th Cavalry, one of the oldest and proudest cavalry
ments
in the
Congress
in
U.S. Army.-^
One
regi-
of several black regiments authorized by
1866, and segregated until 1948, the 10th Cavalry was one of
the army's most decorated units.
Its
men had been given the nickname of who admired and respected
"Buffalo Soldiers" by the Cheyenne Indians, their
courage on the
Most of
battlefield.
the officers were white, and although he never formally served
with the 10th Cavalry, Patton was invited to attend a celebratory dinner marking
its
fifty-eighth anniversary.
He was impressed
with an elaborate ceremony
re-creating their battles and noted in his diary that they
were staged by Maj.
Charles Young, the third black officer to graduate from West Point, refused to
sit
down
at the table
sudden "illness" was a deliberate ploy
to
avoid offending his white counter-
parts in a segregated army.-^ Patton believed
As
"who
on the pretext he was not feeling well." Young's
tensions continued to rise between
Young's
Mexico and
act to
be chivalrous.
the United States, Patton
expected war and wrote Mr. Ayer that Beatrice ought to return to their care. "If
I
am wounded
she could get to the border before
I
could and
if I
am
'
The Bandit killed
—which
there
was more of
shant be
I
179
Killer
—she would be
better at home."-** Instead of war,
mud,
the same: dust, rain, wind,
flies, rats, tarantulas,
centipedes, rattlesnakes, and frequent intestinal problems from bad food and
He
water.
toyed briefly with the idea of resigning from the army to accept a
commission
at the
higher rank of major in a Southern California volunteer
unit being raised to fight in
against
Among them was
it.
approval, and Patton
was
Mexico, but for a number of reasons decided
would have
that his request
loath to bite the
hand
to merit Pershing's
"was good enough
that
to
me down here." Although the idea of becoming a major had appeal, common sense won out, and after some hesitation the offer was rejected.-'' Mr. Patton had decided to make a run for the U.S. Senate and won the bring
Democratic nomination. George repeatedly encouraged his father and
many
offered the sort of fatherly advice he himself had received for so years. "I
am
whoop
up and
it
glad you decided to run.
helped the army "I
on
would that
tell
them
all sorts
—which he has
like to
go
.
.
lies.
Don't go
at
it
I
might be able
how you can
in
any half way but
how much Wilson
Especially
has
Wilson and observed:
not." Patton despised
to hell so that
unspeakable ass Wilson
of
.
to shovel a
support him
is
few extra coals beyond me."-"
Patton was not only frustrated with the president's clumsy handling of American relations with Mexico, and his failure to declare war in the summer of 1916, he was also irritated by Wilson's claims that the United States was militarily prepared. "He has not the backbone of a jelly fish. This .
alledged preparadness
never have until
is
we have
.
.
a lie," he wrote Papa.
"We have no army and
Wilson has preserved peace. Peace of the jackall feasting on what the have is
killed.
will
universal service not [just universal] training.
.
.
.
lions
Peace with the American name a by word and a hissing. Oh! he
a great representative of a fine people."-
Although the Punitive Expedition spurred passage of the National Defense Act of 1916, which, among other provisions, gave the president
was
authority to federalize the National Guard, Patton States remained woefully unprepared for either lization in the
now
likely event that
it
Europe. However, the act succeeded
right:
The United
economic or military mobi-
would be drawn in crippling the
into the
war raging
in
War Department Gen-
which by the spring of 1917 comprised a mere nineteen officers. ^At the end of August Pershing decided to take a brief leave in Columbus and, perhaps to ensure that Nita would come, invited Patton to accompany
eral Staff,
him. For a
week
ing, dancing,
they forgot the hardships of
practical advice to her ironic that Pershing
wife. eral
On
Mexico
in a flurry
of riding, din-
and conversation during which the knowledgeable Nita offered
beau about the problems he faced
in
Mexico.
It
was
and Nita found themselves chaperoned by Patton and
the return trip to Dublan, Patton noticed that his
his
commanding gen-
was suddenly much more lively and peppering him with none-too-subtle sister. It was now abundantly clear that Black Jack Persh-
questions about his
180
Junior Cavalry Officer
ing had begun to
"A surprised staff found him witty, warm companion. What caused the change? Patton
hard for Nita Patton.
fall
humorous, laughing, a
knew
but kept quiet. Daily he heard Jack's recitation of Nita's fascinations and
reckoned friendship close
time talking about Miss Anne,'
to love. 'He's all the
George wrote Beatrice, and added with some envy, 'Nita may rank us yet.'""
With Vineyard
him
little
in
to
do
in El
September
Paso without her husband, Beatrice
to assist her father-in-law's
"Dear Senator," Patton's
as
left for
Lake
campaign. Addressing
aggressively exhorted his father to
letters
hold nothing back in the campaign against Hiram Johnson, the Republican
governor of California. "Don't hesitate sling
mud.
If
get the Sufferage vote.
show
the finals
.
.
.
You must
you must land
this so
political battle,
Remember
it."
rough stuff ...
at
Go
he does you sling rocks ...
this is
He
will probably
after his private life.
win. All your
life
has been a preparation for
Patton saw his father's destiny wrapped up in this
and he continued
to press
him
as he later
would
his troops.
In early October disaster again struck the accident-prone Patton. line
lamp
caught
in his tent
my
out side and put pital his face
That will
no practice game but the whole
The gaso-
fire,
severely burning his face and hair. "I ran
By
the time Patton reached a nearby field hos-
self out."
was "hurting Uke
hell."
He remained
in great pain for
some
days and could only subsist on a liquid diet ingested through a tube. Miracu-
his face
undamaged, and eventually the doctor predicted that would heal without permanent scarring. When Patton was finally fit
enough
to
lously his eyes were
pen a
letter to Beatrice,
old after-birth of a
Mexican cow.
been blinded because
I
he described himself as looking "like an ...
[I]
would have hated worst
to
have
could not have seen you."^^
was granted two weeks. His Beatrice met him in ColumLake Vineyard. She was obliged to
Patton's doctors advised sick leave, and he
face and hands were swathed in bandages bus. Together they traveled
by
train to
when
mangled face several times. "This made her sick to her stomach, which embarrassed her terribly. She felt it was wrong to have such a reac-
re-dress his
tion
—not
what
to
In
a bit like Florence Nightingale
do while she seemed
to
.
.
.
poor Georgie had
be 'pulling yards of skin off his
to tell her
face.'
"^^
Los Angeles he was treated by an uncle by marriage. Dr. Billy Wills.
Papa was
in the final stages
of his campaign for the Senate, and after being
granted a two-week extension of his leave by Pershing, Patton accompanied
him on
Even though his head was mummy's, Papa took his "hero son" to his clubs and favorite haunts, extolling him as the "bandit killer."^'^ Patton was at his father's side on election night when he was soundly a trip to California's Imperial Valley."
bandaged
like
a
defeated by Governor Johnson, in the era
who
ran a strongly antibusiness campaign,
of Upton Sinclair and his powerful muckraking novels. "He never
flinched and took
it
with a smile. Papa's efforts carried California for Wil-
The Bandit -
son
181
Killer
and secured the president's reelection.
[sic]
tried to get
Papa
On
the strength of this
I
push himself for secretary of war, but he was too high
to
souled to be a good advocate for him self and lost out.""'
George
Patton
S.
II
was a
kind, decent, and honorable
man, but
as a
campaigner he was too much the gentleman, lacking the passion and glib tongue of a successful politician. For the remainder of his
Woodrow Wilson
never forgive a debt
owed
his father. "This
magnificent secretary [of
Papa might have done
for failing to
was
war]."^*'
for his career
selfish side of Patton
had Wilson appointed him.
Although Pershing lauded him for and had
lost
none of
his role in the
his high regard for Patton,
young protege's single-mindedness and
Do
him a speedy
his intolerant
that
when we
that our first duty is
views of others. During
enter the
own
from Pershing
some
personal views.
army we do so with
that, in
forthright advice:
You must knowledge
the full
toward our government, entirely regardless of our
own views under any
given circumstances.
our personal views only to
recovery, contained
not be too insistent upon your
remember
Cardenas shoot-out,
he was disturbed by his
his convalescence Patton received a thoughtful letter
addition to wishing
son would
would have made a bemoaned what
a great calamity as he
The
life his
pay what Patton believed was
when
called
upon
We to
are at liberty to express
do so or
else confidentially
our friends, but always confidentially and with the complete under-
standing that they are in no sense to govern our actions.^'
Patton's future actions
would confirm his failure to heed Pershing's advice. an article commissioned by Pershing about cav-
He began composing
alry training. Their discussions
resumed, and one night Pershing
of course you are one of the broadest and best cavalrymen
said, I
"Why
know."
A
more I see of the man the better my opinion of his brains becomes."^' However, they quarreled at least once over the content of Patton's article.^- The bone of contention was Pershing's disdain for the saber and Patton's contention that it had a place in mounted action, along with the pistol. Both men stubbornly refused to budge until Patton became offended, picked up his papers saying, "Very good, sir," and began to leave the room but not too quickly, in case
delighted Patton returned the favor by writing to Beatrice, "the
—
Pershing changed his mind. "Just as saber. ... sir
not
To day he
at all'
regardless of
said, 'well
I
left
he called out to put in the
you got your way didn't you.'
and we both laughed. "^^ Pershing rarely gave its
I
in to
said
why
'no
anyone, and
trivial nature, it was an enormous moral victory sword on a point of honor.
seemingly
for the master of the
Despite the intellectual stimulation he received from Pershing, the long, dreary days in
Mexico
left
Patton questioning his circumstances and as
182
Junior Cavalry Officer
He became
uncertain as ever whether he would ever realize his dreams.
very
lonely and insecure, and unburdened himself to Beatrice.
If I
could only be sure of the future
sure that
would never be above
I
don't like the dirt and
all
would never be famous good time.
the hope of greatness.
think that
my
I
am
would
wish
I
damdest even when to
was
I
I
think
do and get
settle
down and
to spoil
not ambitious at
have not enough letter. I
I
get out. That
army
all I
your and
with you this and
all
knew
raise horses
only a dreamer. That
do. This job
Well
lazy.
I
that
love you with
Christmasses.
I
was
is if I
would that
for
I
I
and have a
my own happiness
for
some times
I
don't realy do
I
now have is not good as I much of a Christmas
this is not
hope you have a nice time and stay young.
I
If I
I
less ambitious, then too
you when you were eighteen except which would be a bore.
officer
except as a means to fame.
gamble
a great
It is
would
I
the average
I
wish
had married
I
baby B. would now be
all
my
love you.
fifteen
heart and wish that I
love you.
I
I
were
love you.
George.'''
Patton had ample time to take stock of himself and his military career
and concluded dead-end glasses,
that his father-in-law's prediction
He was now
career.
which he was
to use for the
since Beatrice had joined
him she wanted him
him
had come
true.
He was
in a
thirty-two years old and required reading
to resign.
remainder of his
life. It
Sierra Blanca and in a
at
As he
fit
had been a year of despair told
did during times of stress, Patton
turned to poetry in an attempt to atone for what Beatrice was obliged to
endure in his quest to
fulfill his destiny:
To Beatrice O! Loveliest of women What e 'er I gain or do Is
naught
if in
achieving
I bring not joy to you.
I
know I often
grieve you
—
All earthly folk are frail!
But
if this
grief I knowing wraught
My life's desire
would fail!
The mandates of stern duty Oft take us far apart
But space
is
impotent to check
The heart which
calls to heart.
The Bandit
183
Killer
Perhaps by future hidden
Some
greatness waits in store
hopes your praise
If so, the
Shall
make my
gain
to
efforts more.
For victory, apart from you. Would be an empty gain A laurel crown you could not share Would be reward in vain. You are
my
inspiration
Light of my brain and soul
Your guiding light by night and day
my
Will keep
valor whole.
was the source of some embarrassment within the famshowed his 1916 poems to Mr. Patton, who wrote back, "As for the 'Poems' the only possible excuse seems to be that they were I was afraid to show them to the family."^^ written in the hospital Patton's poetry
Beatrice had
ily.
—
Patton both feared and detested the prospect of aging.
need for glasses as merely one of the
you as
to get old,"
young
as
he wrote Beatrice
you did when
I
went
we have
the twenties. Since
in
to
lost a
should not age." Ruth Ellen noted
January 1917.
West
Point, but
form
He
"It is true I
he could
still
year of each other,
get into
had conquered Gaul when he was
known world
ble one he
he
won
at
had
in his 30's;
left
was
Ma
Waterloo.
He
it.
On
Beatrice
was
far too
in his 30's;
try
pretty girl
I
on
his cadet uni-
he refused to
were over; Caesar
at 50; the
only possi-
Duke of Wellington who was about 53 when finally got him out of bed by persuading him that
the
busy
to
it.
worry much about aging.
in her late 40's," writes
Ruth Ellen,
wrong, she wailed, 'Oh, no one that ever sees hair because she
we
Alexander had conquered
Napoleon was finished
ing bitterly in front of her dressing table mirror.
what a
just
worried about losing his
his 50th birthday,
he had been 50 for a whole year without knowing
once when she was
almost seems
it
get out of bed, as he said his chances of being a hero
the
and also for
you look
hate to have us out of
worried about losing his figure, and used to
to see if
interpreted his
later:
Getting older was always a worry to Georgie. hair.
He
signs. "I hate to get old
"I
"I
only remember
found her weep-
When I asked her what was me now would ever know
was.' She didn't wear makeup, and she refused to tint her
had a
great, if concealed,
referred to as 'mutton dressed as lamb.'"^^
contempt for
women whom
she
184
Junior Cavalry Officer *
*
*
Pancho
In January 1917 the ill-fated attempt to capture
from Mexico of the Punitive Expedition. The
recall
was palpable. "We
much excitement
are
all
dead
tired
of
The only other
word
ended with the by everyone
Patton wrote Beatrice. "There
is
here as to our withdrawal."^^ optimistic
news was
examination for promotion to captain pass the
it,"
Villa
relief felt
that Nita
in
he was ordered to take the
that
March. Pershing asked Patton
to
should be told of the probable dates of their return to
Columbus. On January 27 the first of 10,690 men and 9,307 horses embarked for Columbus. It took a week to assemble the full expeditionary force, which proudly rode across the border with Black Jack Pershing at its head. Not far behind him was 1st Lt. George S. Patton, Jr.^-'
The budding romance between troubling dilemma for Patton: Georgie loved his
way
his sister
sister dearly,
and
his
commanding
and General Pershing was
things were building up between
that
Georgie Patton had climbed
oh, he did
to
want
a
his idol, but the
if
the
romance
blos-
rank and influence on the
Commanding Officer. He wanted be his own man!
coattails of his
was
them disturbed him very much. He
had visions of what would be said about himself,
somed;
general
Nita to be happy, but,
to
In the aftermath of the Punitive Expedition, Pershing's courtship of Nita
Patton continued with newfound ardor.
When
Maj. Gen. Frederick Funston
died suddenly in February 1917, Pershing was chosen to succeed him as
commanding ton, in ful
week with
Sam Hous-
general of the Southern Department, based at Fort
San Antonio.
In
March, Pershing journeyed
the Patton clan at
to
Lake Vineyard, and
Los Angeles
to
for a joy-
ask for Nita's hand in
marriage. Patton had been reassigned to the 7th Cavalry at Fort Bliss, and
when Pershing stopped
for a visit en route to
San Antonio, he remained
ambivalent about whether or not he wanted his idol to become his brother-inlaw. Equally plagued
by serious doubts was Mr. Patton, who kept
ings largely to himself. His
was
was twenty-seven years older than mature twenty-nine, very much mination to
wed John
of love conquering
all,
J.
life
his
in love,
who
beloved daughter. Yet Nita was a
and not
to
be dissuaded
Pershing. Beatrice, ever the romantic,
in her deter-
was
in favor
and by the time Pershing departed for Texas there was
a tacit understanding that they
a
his misgiv-
the natural protective distrust of a suitor
would one day wed. However,
their
dreams of
together were soon to be dashed in the quagmire of a world war.
PART
V
World War
I
(1917-1918) The most that
colossal, murderous,
mismanaged butchery
has ever taken place on earth. —ERNEST HEMINGWAY
was such a carnage and waste: a million and young men died, and they have statues in White... to the fuckwits who engineered Haig and all
Flanders
a
half
hall
those old bastards up on
it.
their horses.
CHAPTER 14
"Over There: The Yanks Are Coming" The United States Enters
World War am
I
I
a sort of "Pooh-Bah" and do everything no one
else does.
— PATTON
In the spring of 1917 the United States
become
was drawn
his secretary of state,
what was destined
Although
officially neutral, the
supporting the Allied powers
hardware and loans neutrality
—
from war by refusing
was a charade
that fooled
and Russia
Sarajevo of Archduke
naive
no one,
minor event
in
least
of
all
June 1914
—with
military
America's so-called
the
— Franz Ferdinand of Austria — a
to the
to prepare for
United States had for some time been
Britain, France,
that totaled nearly a billion dollars.
What had begun with
to
Both Wilson and
William Jennings Bryan, had subscribed
belief that "a nation could remain aloof it."'
into
the bloodiest conflict in the history of mankind.
Germans.
the assassination in
had, by virtue of the
complicated linkage of treaties and alliances, escalated into a war of such
dimensions that until
it
engulfed not only Europe but the Middle East.
By
waiting
1917 the United States avoided bloodbaths such as Gallipoli, Ypres,
World War
188 Arras, Passchendaele, and the
Somme
—
I
horrific testimony to the carnage
World War I. When one side or the other did launch an results had become predictable. On a single day July 1,
that characterized
offensive, the
1916
—
—
the British
Army
sustained fifty-seven thousand casualties, including
more than nineteen thousand dead, lipoli British
frenzy.-
As
in the Battle
German armies racked up
one million casualties during the bloodiest the Western Front
evolved into a stalemate
to the
—a war of
that ran
from the
attrition in
which trench warfare had
the norm.
win a military victory on the
become evident
On
nearly
Swiss border, and the war had
At the outset of the war there had been genuine attempts by the ents to
Gal-
battle in the history of warfare.
had become a grotesque scar
North Sea across northern France
become
at
an eight-month killing
in
appalling as these battles were, they were dwarfed by the 1916
siege of Verdun, in which the French and
By 1917
Somme, while
of the
and French forces fought the Turks
belliger-
by the end of 1915
it
had
that the tactical use of their armies could not be achieved.
the Western Front there
sought by
battlefield, but
attrition,
emerged new
own were
assets faster than one's
in
tactics,
by wearing out the other
which victory was
side's troops
and
its
military
being consumed.^ The result was that the
became cannon fodder for their generals.'* The Central Powers (Germany, Austria, and Turkey) were wary of
infantry literally
the
United States but did not refrain from the provocation of unlimited submarine warfare,
which by early 1917 culminated
in the indiscriminate sinking
it was this more than anything else that goaded Woodrow Wilson into seeking a declaration of war from Congress against the Central Powers, and Congress
of Allied and neutral ships wherever they were found. In the end policy
duly complied.*
Having entered the war, the United
States faced the daunting prospect of
December 1916 the strength of the army was a paltry 108,399 officers and men, whose fundamental weaknesses had been exposed during the Punitive Expedition. Not only was America a slummobilization on a massive scale. In
bering giant, but neither
its
military establishment,
its
people, nor
its
civilian
was prepared for a major war to be fought more than three thousand miles from its shores. Thus, as historian Russell F. Weigley notes, "the help that America could offer in 1917 was mostly a promise."^ A token force of four infantry regiments was hastily formed into the 1st Division, which was to earn immortality in this and subsequent wars as perindustry
haps the best
known
of
all
U.S.
Army
in Paris
battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment, fresh
campaign "les
hats,
Red One. A token 4, when a single from Mexico and still in their
formations, the Big
show of American commitment occurred
marched proudly through the
on July
streets
hommes au chapeau de cow-hoy. Among the many varied and complex problems
of Paris to the cheers of
to
be resolved were the
"Over There: The Yanks Are Coming"
189
production and supply of weapons, uniforms, and vehicles of
all sorts;
the
purchase of more than three hundred thousand horses and mules; the cre-
new weapons
that
modem
and the development and manufacture of
ation of training facilities;
would permit
Army
the U.S.
to
compete with the German
Army.'*
The decision
to institute a Selective Service
System
men aged
to draft
eighteen to thirty-five (later raised to forty-five) had by the end of the war in
1918 registered 24 million American million.'^
War
men and caused
fever swiftly gripped the United States.
teer in droves
the drafting of 2.75
Men
rushed to volun-
and posters appeared, the best known of which depicted
"Uncle Sam" pointing and proclaiming:
I
WANT YOU FOR
U.S.
ARMY.
Patrio-
tism in the form of slogans and songs swept the nation. In addition to forming a large military force, millions of Americans the factories
needed
The decision
proven courage and resolution
The
new
selection fell to the
mand, and the
J.
Pershing, the
officer
who
could be found, an officer of
secretary of war,
who had
Newton D. Baker, and
fide candidate for the appointment:
commanding
general of the Southern
summoned
Expedition. Pershing was
Com-
without public complaint faithfully imple-
mented a policy of which he did not personally approve during to
the Punitive
Washington and when he
was not disappointed. "At
Secretary Baker
man
to carry out the exceptionally difficult task
from the outset there was only one bona Maj. Gen. John
to
send an American Expeditionary Force to France
to
required the ablest commander-in-chief
ahead.
would be required
produce war materiel.
to
fifty-six,
arrived.
Pershing was an impos-
ing figure, tanned, ramrod-straight, and meticulously groomed. This
had presence, and he was
all
man
soldier."
Secretary Baker gave Pershing a signed order from Wilson and a virtual carte blanche to create an
American Expeditionary Force.
"I shall give
you
only two orders," said Baker. "One to go and one to return." Pershing was
charged with one of the most challenging tasks ever given to an American military
commander:
to create
and
train a fighting force
from a
time army that was ill-equipped to fight any kind of war, against the formidable
German Army.
tiny peace-
much
In 1917 the United States
less
Army
one pos-
rifles, 544 three-inch field guns, and suffimere nine-hour bombardment. The shortage of basic weapons was so dire that the troops of the 89th Division were obliged to whittle mock weapons from pieces of wood. Of the fifty-five planes in the
sessed only 285,000 Springfield cient
ammunition
for a
fledghng Flying Service, 93 percent were obsolete, and the remaining four
were obsolescent." Punch, the renowned humor magazine, would shortly provide a British version of the arrival of the AEF. In a cartoon meant to refer
upon the British Expeditionary Force in 1914, was shown beseeching Kaiser Wilhelm: "For Gott's sake, careful this time don't call the American army 'contemptible!'"
crown
to the slurs cast
the
prince
Father, be
—
World War
190
*
*
Thanks
mer
to Pershing,
George
New
*
remained
S. Patton
unit departed for duty in
I
Troop A, 7th Cavalry, an excellent assignment
was
filling a captain's slot. It
promotion
He
to captain.
of
for a junior first Ueutenant
new
March, the competitive examination
new
was again featured
who wished
disputing those
his for-
command
also found time to write about cavalry matters,
including his opinion on a proposed shing. In April he
when
a hectic time for Patton, with not only his
duties but studying for and passing, in for
Fort Bliss
at
Mexico. He was given
cavalry saddle requested by Per-
in the
Cavalry Journal
in
an
article
curved saber. The argument was
to introduce a
when the commandant of the Mounted Service School recommended to the War Department the retention of the Patton saber. Clearly it was Patton's passionate defense of his saber that saved the day before the Cavalry Board, which had shown every intention of abolishing it. To culminate a brief but satisfying interval, Patton's rating officer cited him as "profinally settled
and an excellent troop commander."'^
gressive, active, zealous,
Once again he had
anticipated events, and several
weeks before war
was formally declared on Germany, Patton had solicited three letters of recommendation for a commission in what was certain to be a large volunteer army raised for service in France. Again, there was the prospect of attaining the rank of major or even lieutenant colonel in such a force for an officer of his reputation
and experience. One of the
new
ever, the passage of the
volunteer forces; thus,
have
to
remain
Patton intended to participate in the war he would
if
in the army.
Then came
the
summons
urgent
was from Pershing." How-
letters
Selective Service Act ruled out the raising of
news
that
Mr. Ayer was
ill
with pneumonia and an
was
for Beatrice to return to Pride's Crossing. Patton
granted a thirty-day leave and wrote Pershing that he was sorry to give up his
new command,
shape
my
.
.
.
"as
was doing well with
I
[however] as the Seventh
promotion
in
it
and
if I
do not
I
is
now
it
full
shall try to get
Boston so Mrs. Patton can be near her parents.
from
Nita.
ders as
if it
She
talks in a
were a thing
and had the horses of captains
...
I
I
doubt
get
some regiment nearer have just had a
most warlike way and speaks of fighting assured."'^
in fine if I
letter
in Flan-
At Pershing's request Patton enclosed a
copy of his diary of the Punitive Expedition.
When
the Pattons arrived at Pride's Crossing, they not only found
ninety-year-old Frederick Ayer gravely Ellie also in
bed with two nurses
and with Kay Ayer about
to
ill
and unlikely
in attendance.
Then
to recover fully, but
Beatrice, too, fell
ill,
be married, Patton found the chaos almost more
than he could bear. Ostensibly the Ayer family troubles soon brought Patton to
Washington
in search of a
new assignment.
"Beatrice will have to be
here," he wrote Pershing, "as her parents are too sick to be left alone. ... All the people here are
war mad and every one
I
know
is
either
becoming a
— "Over There: The Yanks Are Coming" reserve officer or explaining
why
he cant." However,
191
was
it
the prospect of
obtaining a war assignment for himself that really lured Patton to Washington.
"Of course,
be with
me
if
we go
France
to
it
will be all right as in that case she cant
any way and could stay here as well as any where
else."'^
Patton learned unofficially from a friend (and a future chief of staff of
Army), Capt. Malin Craig,
the U.S.
that Pershing
had directed
that the
mat-
He should
of any assignment for him be placed in temporary abeyance.
ter
not have been surprised, for Pershing had hinted in a recent letter that something
was brewing.
command
Initially
a division
—
the
Pershing had only been directed to form and
AEF
appointment would come a few days
and Patton had indeed been placed on a select to
form
later
of officers he had chosen
his headquarters.
The and
list
war profoundly depressed Mr.
declaration of
Patton,
who was
unwell
anguished over his stinging loss to Hiram Johnson the previous
still
November. He missed Georgie dreadfully, and on April 30, on Washington, where
had been made clear
it
that
his return
from
he would not be offered an
important presidential appointment in the second Wilson administration, he wrote: "I do not feel at
all
desirous to take
some second
class job."
He
under-
stood that his son wanted to be a part of the forthcoming AEF. "I hate to think
of your going
On May to report
I
would hate you
to
be passed over
if
you want
to go."*
18 a telegram arrived from the adjutant general ordering Patton
immediately to Pershing in Washington.'" Patton telephoned Papa,
who was to travel
—but
in
Washington, and was told to have Beatrice
—accompany him. While changing
trains in
—now well enough
New
York the follow-
ing morning, Patton and Beatrice learned in a newspaper of Pershing's
command
AEF. Mr. Patton met them at Washington's would soon be embarking for France. Just how soon, Patton learned from Pershing's new aide, Capt. Nelson Margetts; they would be leaving the following Wednesday, a mere appointment to
Union
the
Station and informed his son that Pershing
four days hence. Beatrice telegraphed Fort Bliss for her husband's striker to
hasten to Washington with his uniforms. In the interim Patton ordered a
new
tailor-made uniform and wore a borrowed one belonging to a West Point
classmate
who would become one
of his closest friends, Everett S. Hughes.^"
Patton was also delighted to learn that he had been promoted to captain in
mid-May. However, as he soon discovered,
least for the time being,
his
new
captain's bars had, at
earned him the pedestrian task of supervising
sixty-five enlisted orderlies, chauffeurs, engineers, medical
corpsmen, and
who were to accomthese men were properly
signal personnel of Pershing's advance headquarters,
pany him
to France.
It
was
his job to see that
clothed and smartly turned out each day and carried out their duties efficiently.
It
was
detail
work and
if it
was somewhat unglamorous, Patton was
He was content merely to be a He had long ago ascertained that
not bothered.
playing a part in this great
adventure.^'
the first step
on the path
to
World War
192
I
success was to get one's foot in the door. There would be ample time to
arrange for an assignment that would actually get him into combat. Offi-
would
cially Patton
for
some time be
carried on the rolls of the
quarters as "attached"; unofficially, he
was
AEF
commander of
the
Head-
the head-
quarters troop.
Beatrice and his parents remained in Washington, and Patton saw them
only infrequently. Papa introduced him to his friend. Secretary of the Inte-
who observed: "That boy of yours is all wool and a am no judge," which greatly pleased the elder Patton.-- When delayed his departure by five days, both men used the precious
rior Franklin K. Lane,
yard wide or Pershing
I
extra time to visit their loved ones. Mr. and Mrs. Patton hosted a large din-
ner in honor of Pershing, and the caption under a photograph that later
appeared
Washington newspaper publicized the prevailing rumor
in a
Black Jack and Nita would one day marry.-^
engagement had been leaked
Some weeks
earlier
that
news of the
Los Angeles papers. Although
their
engagement was now public knowledge, the wedding was put on hold
until
Daughter Ruth Ellen never learned the identity of the
after the war.
but believes still
to the
it
was not a member of
culprit
the immediate family, "as there
were
grave doubts in several minds."-^
Then,
family,
too quickly,
all
and some of
his
came
men journeyed
the to
moment
New
of bittersweet parting. Patton
York by
where they joined Aunt Nannie. He had
would keep
for the remainder of the war,
of his family was one of near despair shing's entourage on the steamer
and
at the
in
it
left
his
diary that he
he recorded that the
mood
HMS Baltic for Liverpool. May
28, 1917.
Mar-
had already been separated for more than two of
ried for seven years, they
a record of their parting, but
less than very painful.
new
forthcoming departure of Per-
Patton bade farewell to Beatrice on the morning of
them. Neither
accompanied by
train,
started a
it
cannot have been anything
Both knew and understood the
reality of
what lay
ahead, and neither was under any illusion that American intervention would
somehow
magically bring about an end to a bitter war that had been raging
since 1914.
Mr. Patton accompanied his son to Lower Manhattan, where "he told
me good by
with a smile," as he boarded a ferry for Governor's Island.-' Mr.
and Mrs. Patton returned trice returned to
war.
to California; Nita joined the
Red
Cross, and Bea-
Avalon, where she would remain for the duration of the
She would not see her husband again
for nearly
In a dense fog the Baltic slipped out of
New
two
years.
York Harbor and
into the
Atlantic for the ten-day trip to Liverpool. Boat drills, French lessons, inoculations for the
many
diseases that plagued soldiers in France, lectures on the
threat of venereal disease,
and grim jokes about the very
occupied Patton's time during the voyage.
real
U-boat threat
'Over There: The Yanks Are
Coming"
Pershing and his party of nearly two hundred
dockside reception the local
in
193
men were
given a gala
Liverpool by the Lord Mayor, the admiral of the port,
army commander and
company of Royal Welch
a
com-
Fusiliers,
plete with regimental mascot, "a formidable-looking goat." All stood stiffly at attention
and saluted as the regimental band played both "The Star-Span-
gled Banner" and train at
"God Save
When
the King."
the
Americans arrived by
London's Huston Station, they were again formally greeted by the
Lord Mayor of London and the commander of the British
don
for a grand reception
ourable Artillery
who
Company
by the members of the (called a
"company,"
it
Home
Forces,
1st
Tower of LonBattalion, the Hon-
was
in fact a regiment),
was taken
Field Marshal Viscount John French. Patton
to the
lined the walks of the historic courtyard and cheered.
with excitement, as he met a book at Buckingham Palace, was wined and dined at the exclusive White's Club the world's oldest and taken to the theater, after which, "I was stopped 20 times by women of the street." In the Honourable Artillery Company mess in the Tower, Patton dined with and was toasted by the regimental commander, who noted that the regiment "would take pride in our success and look upon us as adopted children. There was much cheering."'^ During their five days in England, Pershing met everyone from King George V to Prime Minister David Lloyd George; South Africa's Gen. Jan Patton's
first
days in England were
filled
host of dignitaries, signed the king's guest
—
.
.
—
.
sea lord. Admiral John Jellicoe; and even the
Christian Smuts; the
first
munitions minister, a
man named Winston
S. Churchill.
One of
Pershing's
young staff officers wrote: "The two groups of men who would have to work together in war looked each other over and tried to determine who
knew what, who could be At chested
Paris's
trusted
and how
far
one could extend
that trust."-^
Gare du Nord, a group of dignitaries headed by the
commander
in chief
barrel-
and hero of the Marne, Marshal Joseph
and the minister of war, Paul Painleve, repeated the by-now standard reception given Pershing.
He
Joffre,
warm
established a small headquarters on the rue
Constantine, near Les Invalides, and quickly
made himself popular with
the
French by visiting Napoleon's tomb and kissing his sword. The French saw
AEF as the saviors of France and, as its head, Pershing was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in the solemn atmosphere of Les Invalides. Americans were suddenly enormously popular in France, with everyone from delegates, who stood and cheered Patton in the Chamber of
the
Deputies, to the average Parisian,
who showered
the
waved small American from the Gare du Nord to
men
of the
AEF
with
flowers and enthusiastically
flags.
journey through the streets
the Hotel Continental
For Patton the
"was the most inspiring drive 1 ever took."-* Patton's diary and his frequent letters to Beatrice recorded the gala events of life in one of the most exciting cities of the world. He was immediwhere he was
billeted,
World War
194
up
ately caught
had too
in the social life
of the French capital, but complained that he
He accompanied Pershing
to do.
little
I
during a
visit to
an aerodrome
where four hundred planes were assembled, and was awed by the last
have been up
I
in
"At
sight.
an aeroplane," he wrote excitedly to Beatrice. "I had
it is quite different from what you would was going about a hundred miles an hour I hardly be moving at all. The country looks beautiful just like a huge map
always expected to be scared but suppose
seemed
.
.
to
though
.
I
and one can distinguish things much better than
had thought
1
possible.'"'^
Several days later Patton again flew, this time with his friend the flamboyant Col. Billy Mitchell,
When George
whom
he had met in Mexico the previous year.
and Beatrice parted
Patton to get settled in France and,
in
when
New
York, their plan had been for
was
the time
right, for Beatrice to
would join her whenever he could get leave or a pass from the front. "We are just as safe here as you are at Avalon," he assured her. "It is hard to think that war is going on so ." Perhaps she might come in August and bring daughter Bea, but he near. thought Paris too difficult a place for little Ruth Ellen. It meant that they would have to run the dangerous gauntlet of the Atlantic. Patton naively take up residence in Paris, where he
.
.
suggested purchasing "some sort of rubber garment which server" because of the U-boat threat.
not
seem
to
The very
have entered into Patton's thinking.
diary on June 24 records that Pershing told
a
life
should have, for his
It
him
is
pre-
danger to his family does
real
that for that
week
own
alone,
German U-boats had sunk more than four hundred thousand tons of Allied shipping and that unless a way was found to stop such losses, "we would never get over 500,000 men to France."^" Despite his whirlwind schedule, Pershing occasionally found time for Patton and inevitably their talk turned to their loved ones. "It
most intense case
I
is
have ever seen," Patton dutifully reported
certainly the to Beatrice.
Black Jack deeply missed Nita and was desperate for her company but accepted that his duties
made
impossible for her to join him in Paris,
it
which would have made a precedent-setting bad impression.^' Patton's plans to reunite
the
with Beatrice in Paris were soon dashed
War Department
to issue
when Pershing persuaded
an order banning wives from France. Pershing
had done so because of the chaos
who were unable to back 60,000 women who came the majority,
would create and the morale factor for it. "You see the British had to send over," George informed Beatrice. It was it
afford
time to pull strings:
Now the only
thing to
do
is
to put pressure to
work on
of state so you can come. Not as a nurse but straight out. done. ...
I
am
the secretary
know
I
it
can be
sure that with [brother-in-law] Freddie [Ayer] ... Pa and
every one else the thing can be done. The sooner you do the restrictions will probably get
more and more
severe.
it I
the better as
disapprove your
'
"Over There: The Yanks Are Coming"
coming
as a red cross nurse for
never meet.
.
you can get
.
.
There
own
Patton used his
.
we would be
.
we could
so far apart
not the least doubt that with proper influence
is
pas[s]ports.
.
195
Use
the influence."
contacts in France to help bring this about.
spoke with Maj. Robert Bacon, a former secretary of
who
1909, under Theodore Roosevelt, succeeding Elihu Root),
briefly in
assured him
that, "If
Pa gets a diplomatic job you could come
secretary or his interpreter and he could leave
Or you could come
He
(Bacon served
state
either as his
you when he went home
.
.
.
as Paris correspondent for the [Boston] Transcript."-
Patton considered trying to get Beatrice to England but gave up the idea
She attempted to gain approval from the War Department and was confident enough of success to have booked passage on a steamer, only to be informed that a passport would not be issued. The rejection left her in as impractical.
tears of frustration. "This
disappointment was so unexpected
wrote Aunt Nannie. "And poor Georgie in Paris.
I
wouldn't care so
tried so hard to go.
as
I
can, so help
Well
—
me God.
I
much
didn't
if I
is
know how he
a hard time on
equates
fill
of
all
my
cruel," she
to
how
and gendemen from Washington, D.C. had driven out
mentality that infected the North. "People
this
was no
women were
respond helplessly
that,
to
I
am
change the course of world
to
come
"Poor Beat!
dissapointment. ...
I
to
Europe."'-
would empower Beatrice
in their
feel as
history,
Patton could only
badly for your sorrow as for
so sorry."^^
Typically neither gave up hope and continued to seek that
the
remembered
of Bull Run. General Pershing, aware that
war
party war, but the
ordered that no
my own
first battle
still
of
that
War
ladies
I
us."^^
early-Civil
carriages to watch the
And
feeling.
is
place here as well
motivation
Patton's
&
apartment for us two
his little
behave and
will try to
This
Daughter Ruth Ellen
—with
to join
some loophole
her husband, including using his
father's influence to gain the ear of Wilson's confidant. Col.
Edward M.
House, and ultimately even Wilson himself. Patton admitted that Pershing
would be "awfully angry" when he learned of his off in time.
I
have never used but
I
In the end their attempts to pull strings
all sorts
came
to naught.
Europe would look of innuendoes would be started in
career, so, with an aching heart, she
Even with
J.
wear
which
I
could in that particular case.""
persuaded that her arriving ence, and
duplicity, but "It will
have as you know a rather unfair advantage over
his imperfect
"Ma was
like favoritism that
finally
and
influ-
might hurt Georgie's
abandoned her plan."
command
of French, Patton found himself Although he was quite comfortable in the Hotel Continental, where he had cultivated the headwaiter, Patton soon
very
much
at
home
in Paris.
arranged to share a spacious three-bedroom apartment off the ChampsElysees with a French interpreter and an American ambulance driver. The
World War
196
idea of living where only French
I
was spoken appealed
to him.
His
letters
were a steady stream of reassurances that he was in no danger. "One thing is sure with my present job I am bound to live long even if I am not happy. Don't picture
me
going to a drunkards grave for
have drunk very
I
and never buy over half a bottle [of wine]." Nevertheless, the good
who
Paris soon bored Patton,
much
not having very I
to
do
I
am
would bust him but
time
job
shall get a real
I
.
trying to .
.
by now so should be
lunatic
became enough
chafed for something more exciting.
infact if a sergeant could not
do the best
AEF
can.
were not here
Still if I
patient."^*
a badge of prestige in the
I
To
I
do .
.
all I .
little
life
have
of
am
"I
to
do
Perhaps some
would be a raving
rate the use of
an automobile
headquarters, and there were never
go around. Occasionally Patton became the butt of anger, when
to
he could not produce one for very confining.
I
am
does," he lamented.
When
major or colonel. "The work
this or that
a sort of 'Pooh-Bah'
is
and do everything no one else
^'^
Beatrice worried that he might be killed, Patton wrote to reassure
her he was "a
lot safer
here than
I
usually
am
home because
at
I
don't play
polo or race or jump or do any other interesting thing.
was deceptively
Life in Paris
men were it
was
living
and dying
unreal,
when
less than sixty miles
in the trenches of the
a time to enjoy the social life of a
gentleman
to
which he was accus-
tomed, even as he thirsted to find a suitable posting that would soldier.
away
Western Front. For Patton
test
him
as a
His desire for a challenging assignment was moderated only by the
would be many months before the AEF was committed to duties was to investigate how a military police system might be instituted in France to help control a massive number of American doughboys when the AEF expanded to what would eventually be a strength of some 2 million.^' Patton may not have cared for his job, but most of the time it kept him busy. In late August he wrote of "catching hell" attempting to arrange transport for VIPs and staff officers on short notice. "If it does not make me quite crazy it will perhaps develop in me a placid disposition. At least it is getting me out of the habit which you so justly object to of my saying things can't be done. For here there is no such word. The day before yesterday I disrupted three governments and was damned by all three."^^ knowledge
that
it
One of his many
battle.
Although he continued that, "I
only don't resign
it
to describe his
because
I
think
I
job as "a rotter" and complain will get a better
one some day,"
somehow purchase a He paid the astounding
Patton took advantage of his wife's great wealth to twelve-cylinder, five-passenger Packard automobile.
sum of
$4,386, the 1992 equivalent of more than $50,000. "I hope you
approve," he told Beatrice his use in his tarily
when he wrote asking her
Los Angeles bank. Those
in the
AEF
endowed undoubtedly resented a very junior
to deposit the funds for
headquarters less mone-
captain parading about in
"Over There: The Yanks Are Coming"
such an extravagant luxury merely to
commute
the
197
few blocks between
his
apartment and his office/-
Mail was censored, but jobs,
kissing
marks off for fear
know
mean them anyway.
I
censor.
that
and not thinking of you for
.
it
Don't think that
.
.
not so. Paris
is
is
I
am
having a roaring time
a stupid place with out [you]
heaven would be under the same conditions.'""
just as
pomp and ceremony was rewarded on
Patton's love of
when down
was one of Patton's many mundane However, "I have been leaving the they might be interpreted as cipher but you
this too
own
and he acted as his
thirty
Day
Bastille
thousand French poilus representing 260 regiments paraded
From fine seats in the stands, "it was a very knew he was looking at men who had been through ten officers with out a wound chevron and many of
the Champs-Elysees.
impressive sight for one the test.
did not see
I
them were beardless
From time
boys."^^
to time, Patton
20 was fortunate enough British
bright
commander
young
to
be
fill
in this
capacity
in chief. Field
military attache,
route Pershing
would
when Black Jack
7,
visited the
Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. Patton and a
George Quekemeyer, were ordered
would take from
Late on the afternoon of July
and on July
in as Pershing's aide
to plan the
Paris to Haig's headquarters at Montreuil.
Patton and
Quekemeyer
set out
on a journey
them through Picardy and Flanders and bleak scenes of what war had done to western France. With their headlights reduced for security purthat took
poses to tiny
slits that
marish landscape of animals.
When
emitted scant
muddy
light,
they barely crawled along a night-
tracks alive with marching troops, vehicles, and
they arrived at Haig's
command
post nearly six hours
they were met by his chief of intelligence, Gen. John Charteris,
impressed by his
first
contact with American officers.
for Pershing to visit Haig, Patton staff car that read "U.S.
At Montreuil and
No
When
later,
who was
the day
came
had installed a plate on the front of his
1."''
later at his
spacious villa in Saint-Omer, Patton was
introduced not only to Haig but to a number of other prominent officers,
Hugh
including Gen. to
have dined
in
Trenchard, a pioneer of British aviation.
He was
thrilled
such august company and discussed the virtues of the saber
with Haig, fishing with Maj. Sir Philip Sassoon, and tactics with Gen. Sir
Hubert Gough, the British Fifth Beatrice, time. ...
Army commander. As he
proudly reported to
my
shoulder for some
"Gough walked around with I
went
to five lunches
his
hand on
and four dinners and never
than a Brigadier General, usually a major General. "^^ For the
was exposed
And
to the details of the
time Patton
enormity of waging war on a massive
he clearly made an impression on Sir Douglas Haig,
diary of Patton that "The A.D.C.
sat next to less first
is
who
wrote
a fire-eater! [who] longs for the
scale. in his
fray."^**
To an Ayer family friend Patton reported that he had just returned "from a most interesting trip where I saw the working of over a million men from
World War
198 the inside. is.
It is
Of course
stupendous and
or later and the party
fine.
The more one
few deaths but
there are a
I
sees of
war
the 'parishoots' used
it
worth the price of admission."^'' Their inspection of
is
"George Patton
British facilities and units included observation balloons.
happily tagging along
the better
of us must 'pay the piper' sooner
all
.
.
.
gawked
balloons awhile, then marveled at
at the
by the intrepid men who swung
gondolas that so attracted German In July the U.S. 1st Division
in those stationary
fighters."'"
began arriving
in France. Several
of the division staff stopped off in Paris en route to their
Gondrecourt, in Lorraine, and were met
new
members
training area at
Gare d'Orsay by Patton. One
at the
of them was the division operations officer (G-3), Capt. George C. Marshall,
many
years
that helped guide Patton to high
com-
and though there was nothing special about
would be the hand
later Marshall's
mand and As
the fulfillment of his lifelong dream.^'
summer of 1917 wore
the
their first meeting,
fied errand
boy
on, Patton continued to chafe at being a glori-
many
for the headquarters staff,
cers and thus to be scorned as
unworthy of
of
whom
were reserve
their uniforms.
offi-
"They ought
never make them higher than lieutenants the majors are insufferable."
began I
to fence every
enjoy
it
hugely
.
.
go broke, or rather "To look
.
if
at Paris
morning.
and
it
is
you do,
"My
fencing
about the only thing I
me
putting
is
doing much. ...
like
I
in fine shape.
He .
.
.
If I
can always teach fencing.
one would never know
that
was
it
at
war," he wrote to
Mr. Ayer. "All the people seem gay and spend a large part of their time being run over by our automobiles or else running over us." His job was "stinking" but "at least
devoid of monotony
it is
.
.
chewing an oak "George give
him
is
and so
.
Patton worked long hours at unfulfilling
work
far
I
have made a go of
him
that left
tree" but in a letter to Papa, Pershing assured
eager to get to the front
his chance."'^ Patton
member you must be
a cavalry
when
the time comes,
and
man who
never rides and
came
to cheer him. "I can't see for the life of
war personally but
my luck will
hold
I
Pershing realized he could no longer
when most of
his troops
September he relocated intrigue, to
Chaumont,
shall
who
him
that,
of course
were training
his headquarters
the capital of the
me where I am suppose.
never goes with
hints that he
be moving with Pershing to a new, unspecified location. Even
in this
I
and two others jokingly formed a club; "to be a
in fourteen iniles of the trenches." Finally, there
little
it.""
feeling "like a rat
this
going to do
much
."^"^ .
.
command
the
AEF
in eastern France,
from
would soon prospect did
from Paris
and
in early
Paris, with its distractions
and
Haute-Marne department, a small,
pleasant city of sixteen thousand in the mountainous, forested southeastern
Patton accompanied him, and in the months that followed he would suddenly find himself catapulted from obscure taxi overseer and de facto headquarters commandant into the limelight of command.
corner of Lorraine.
CHAPTER 15
Tank Officer I
will
have
to
grow and grow a
lot.
But
I
will.
Here
my
is
chance.
— PATTON
From was
most pressing problem
the time of his arrival in France, Pershing's
the incessant attempts
by both the British and the French
to gain opera-
AEF. Wilson had previously informed his new allies that the AEF would fight only as an independent army under American command. However, Pershing soon found himself pressured from all sides to assign American troops to British and French units as replacements. The
tional control of the
French claimed the situation was so desperate
ment force was
required.
Pershing
not
that at least a
only
token replace-
adamantly refused such
AEF
would be an independent force whose May 1918, and that it would simply not fight until it was properly equipped and trained. To the end of the war, Pershing remained unbending, although at times the intrigue to sway
entreaties but reiterated that the size
must be a minimum of one million men by
him reached the level of opera bouffe.' The troops of the AEF arriving in France were raw and untrained, and Pershing's first priority was to prepare them for the ordeal ahead. He had already observed firsthand the appalling conditions at the front, which soon resulted in outright mutiny in the dispirited French
Army. Assisted by the num-
French, Pershing instituted a tough training program by establishing a
ber of schools to train American officers and
men
in virtually
every aspect
of warfare, and to redress what a private in the 9th Division called their
woeful ignorance of the basic principles of the lege
was established
at
soldier.'
A General
Staff Col-
Langres, and scattered throughout eastern France
^
World War
200 were other schools
that taught
I
everyone from chaplains to artillerymen,
quartermasters to cooks. After touring the French and British battlefields and consulting with the other Allied commanders, Pershing
American army
In addition to the large
schools
to the conclusion that for
an
would be required, and he American Army will be those of West number of specialty schools, there were
decreed: "The standards for the Point.
came
to succeed, intensive training
all designed to weld the AEF into would not be committed to battle until he army ready to fight. Although Pershing's training meth-
army, corps, and division level,
at
a cohesive fighting force that
deemed
the entire
ods have been criticized as too elaborate, the decision to turn raine into a vast staging and training area
As he had during comer of
inspected every
Punitive
the
was soon
much
of Lor-
to benefit Patton.''
Pershing
Expedition,
relentlessly
growing domain. He would turn up unexpect-
his
edly anywhere American troops were based, and nothing seemed to escape
An artillery commander of the 42d Rainbow Division was descending from a hayloft when he encountered the commander in chief, who demanded to know what he had done to prepare himself to be a colonel commanding a regiment of artillery.^ No one was immune from Pershing's sharp eye and scathing condemnation if he was found wanting. The complacent or neglectful were soon dismissed or court-martialed. While Pershing drove himself at a pace that would kill an ordinary man, his personal attention.
Patton remained in charge of the headquarters enlisted men, and was also the post adjutant and, temporarily, the provost marshal, "and any other
thing that people think about giving me. ... flunkey.
shall
I
be glad to get back
The
the spring."
early days of the
I
am
and
to the line again
AEF
at
will try to
Chaumont were
I
would
defenses.
rather be. .
.
.
let .
.
.
them I
yell. ... I
am
You know how
do so
in
chaotic, "hun-
dreds of clearks rushing about and officers shouting for a place to
could do nothing so
little
nothing but a hired
stay,
we
can think of about one million things
also in charge of Passes and anti air craft I
hate to telephone. Well
I
live at the
end of
one now."' Claiming he was, "too much of a savage for
city life," Patton
he actually preferred Chaumont to Paris, yet the place "bores His
billet
and mess were
Pershing's large nearby house.
at
found that
me to death." "My room is
small but cheerful over looking the garden and park," and the countryside offered numerous interesting places where he could ride his horses.** Social life in
Chaumont
the nearby "I
consisted of a weekly movie and an occasional dance at
American
hospital. Patton attended
have never seen such a
tons of brick.
I
don't think
people out of ones
own
lot I
class
His frustration mounted
of horrors in
shall
go again
who when
my
it is
one and wrote of the nurses: life
too
.
.
.
and they dance
much work dancing
like
with
are not dressed up.'"' officers less qualified than himself
began
201
Tank Officer
was number 113 on
receiving promotions. Patton
were being promoted
cers
the
list
of captains of cav-
promotion, and he was outraged that unqualified senior
alry eligible for
months' training, while
after three
were
years' experience, like himself,
still
men
offi-
with nine
captains.'" Nevertheless he admit-
good fortune and despite missing Beatrice dreadfully, "if I were there [there] would probably be no living with me. Every one says I have the best position of any young Cavalry ."" He wrote proudly to Mr. Ayer (who had recovered from his bout man. ted that he should be thankful for his
.
.
of pneumonia but was increasingly
frail):
We run railroads and build them. Build docks, charter ships, houses, We buy coal, wood, movable houses. Horses, Automo-
hotels, factories. biles.
Aeroplanes. Clothes.
every other sort of
human
Move
office space for all our clearks
town it is
will not hold another
We
telegraph lines and almost
have a
of a time finding
hell
Each day we think
officers.
then ten more
come and we
that the
tuck them in
very exciting.''
Although Patton performed
who
that, for a soldier
would be
we
and
man
Make
troops.
occupation.
a lot
will be at
it
more
his duties with great efficiency,
craved action, they were of the wrong
interesting if
we
a long time yet before
it
was simply "This war
sort.
could have some fighting but ...
we do any
I
fear
killing."'^
Patton's separation from Beatrice was painful and seemed to remind him of his own mortality and his dread of growing old. "B you don't know how much I love you ... try not to worry too much and get grey hair. I
don't like them.
keep
my
put tonic on
I
managed
to
produced miserable days.
tell
me
that
head every day and take exercises so as
He hoped
to
each day and usually
to write
average one every second day. The loneliness and his dyslexia
still
October
my
youthful appearance."'^
I
amounted
would give
"I
to a lot
a lot to have
even when
know
I
I
you consol me and
don't," he wrote
on
8.
Toward
the
end of September, Patton's
interest
was aroused by
talk
around the headquarters of the creation of a new branch of the army: There
is
a lot of talk about "Tanks" here
can see no future that
is lots
safe as
in
my
present job.
I
will
in this war. It will
We
even have a chance
get killed but also too nothing.'"^
now and I am
interested as
Tanks
casualties in the
is
high
of them get smashed but the people in them are pretty safe as
we can be
have any so don't get worried. before
The
much
to
be a long long time yet before we
will see
to apply.
each other and talk
I
be willing to
love you too sit
on
my
much
tail
it
over
to try to
and do
I
World War
202
I
Early in the war the stalemate in France brought about attempts by the British to create an
armored vehicle
that
could be used to crush the deadly
barbed wire, climb up and over trenches, and advance across no-man's land
and into the German trench works, thereby creating a breach exploited by the infantry.
If
turn the tide in favor of the Allies.
brought to the attention of the
Among asm
for any
The idea
War
for an
it
could be
just
might
armored vehicle was
Office in October
first
9 1 4 by a war corre-
1
Lt. Col.
Ernest D. Swinton,
who had
caterpillar tractor
"which could climb
like the devil."
spondent with the BEF,
American Holt
that
such a vehicle could be developed,
learned of an
was scant enthusimonOne exception, however, was the inde-
the traditionalists in the British military there
form of
original thinking, particularly for a mechanical
strosity that then did not
even
exist.
pendent-minded Winston Churchill. In 1915 Churchill had been the
first
lord of the Admiralty, and the idea held spontaneous appeal to his resourceful
imagination, particularly
if
the
development of an armored vehicle might
enable the navy to get in on the action in France by piloting armored "landcruisers." Churchill ordered his staff to get busy.'^
The War Office was only spurred to action in 1915, when it learned that was independently engaged in developing a land cruiser. A joint army-navy committee was formed, and when Swinton returned to duty in the War Office, he emerged from an interview with the secretary, calling the effort, "the most extraordinary thing I have ever seen. The Director of Naval Construction appears to be making land battle-ships for the Army, who have never asked for them and are doing nothing to help. You have nothing but naval ratings doing all your work. What are you? Are you a the Admiralty
mechanic or a chauffeur?"'^
By (later
by the
1916, a design breakthrough occurred, and a tank called "Mother"
"Big Willie") became the British.'**
first
operational armored vehicle produced
The machine was equipped with
small turret on each side, and four machine Officially designated the
"Big Willies" participated
Mark
on September
I,
in the Battle of the
There was as yet no doctrine for
their
a six-pounder
gun inside a
guns.'''
15,
Somme,
1916, forty-nine
with mixed results.
employment, and instead of massing,
Moving forward in the became hopelessly stuck in the mud before arriving at the start line for the attack, which commenced at dawn. Although mud and mechanical breakdown claimed most of the "Big
they were employed individually across the front.
black of night, seventeen broke
down
or
Willies," nevertheless, several of these ungainly iron monsters ularly successful
town of
Flers, south of Arras,
cheers of the trench
were spectac-
and terrorized the Germans. One led the assault on the
New
which was taken without a single loss, to the who followed it. Another straddled a
Zealand infantry
work and captured three hundred German prisoners, while German artillery battery before being knocked
another attacked a
still
out.
203
Tank Officer
According first
to the
German
press, the panic created in the front lines
tanks on the battlefield
The
was
"The
reflected in cries of:
British painted their tanks in a variety of
devil
is
by these
coming!"
rainbow colors, and
may have looked comical, they created very real alarm in the German High Command. "Secret and urgent orders were issued to the German troops to hold their ground at all costs and fight to the last man against these new and monstrous engines of war, which they although these incredible machines
complained were both cruel and effective."™ Flawed though of the
first
armored vehicles on a
battlefield forever
was, the use
it
changed the course of
modern warfare. During
this
own
time the French had also been developing their
version
of the tank, which was designed as an infantry personnel carrier. But after
observing the success of the British, they redesigned their machine to
become an
artillery
weapon
to support the
advancing
infantry.-'
The French
Renaults were lightly armored and far more mobile than the heavier British
"Big Willies" and were employed for the U.S.
Army
officers
first
time in the spring of 1917.
from the American Military Mission had been
inter-
ested spectators to these events, and although their reports to the
War
Department were disparaging of the future of the tank as a weapon of war, they generated considerable interest in Washington,
It
was
inevitable that
one of these reports would eventually land on the desk of John
A joint
Anglo-French tank board had been created
members ued
failed to agree
on either
tactics or
propound the doctrine of using
to
J.
Pershing.
but, not surprisingly,
its
equipment. The British contin-
heavy tanks independently,
their
while the French were in favor of close cooperation between the light
Renault tanks and the infantry." Despite reports of design deficiencies and rampant mechanical break-
downs, Pershing was quick erable potential that
to grasp that here
was worth another
look.
was
He
a
new weapon
established an
of consid-
AEF
tank
board
to investigate further.
The' board's report favored American use of
tanks,
which were "destined
to
become an important element
in this war,"
and recommended the immediate creation of a Tank Department
ment a plan thousand
to
manufacture and
light tanks,
field a force of
modeled on
officer initially appointed
the British
to imple-
two hundred heavy and two
Mark VI and
the Renault.-^
by Pershing was Patton's mentor,
Lt. Col.
The
LeRoy
Eltinge.
In mid-October Patton contracted jaundice after
what he later termed "an was hospitalized with "a fine cavalry yellow all over."-^ His stomach was pumped daily and he was placed on an all-milk diet. To his daughter Bee he wrote, "I am like you now I drink milk and as I don't like it I take a long time over it the same as you do but I hope now that you eat better."'' Patton remained a sickly shade of yellow for sevattack of excessive fish-eating" and
World War
204
weeks and was kept
eral
bemoaning
in the hospital
most stupid disease imaginable.
.
.
."
I
being promoted to major in the near future. "I before they are hatched but
I
feel sure
his condition as "the
He was cheered by
am
During his hospitalization Patton began
fault."-^
my own
two
Patton shared a hospital
feet then if
room with
ment
major when Colonel
as an Infantry
chickens
to realize that
he could not con-
am
going to get away
I
make
can't
Col.
a
go of
to
new
seek a
Eltinge-** visited to
my
and con with
resolution to the contrary .
.
.
I
said yes. But
I
the
assign-
say that a tank
school was soon to open in the nearby town of Langres and "would Inspite of
my
it it is
Fox Conner and although
had about decided
officers discussed tanks, Patton
my
of being a major very soon."-^
tinue indefinitely using his influence with Pershing. "I
from him and stand on
the expectation of
counting
take
I
kept discussing
it
it.
pro
Connor and again decided on Inft."-' Another version of this was that Eltinge had put it to him: "Patton, we want to
event, written in 1928, start
a
Tank School,
to get
you are the
risks, I think
anything out of tanks one must be reckless and take
sort
of darned fool
October Patton entered
In early
me
of September Col. Eltinge asked
who
will
in his diary:
wanted
if I
yes and also talked the matter over with Col.
do
it."^"
"Some time about to
be a Tank
McCoy who
advised
write a letter asking that in the event of Tanks being organized that
be considered
I
did
Riley" and
when I
said
me
to
my name
school, which "is exactly like what
a British colonel
wrote: "His chief point
batim what
I
Patton had briefly toyed with the idea of asking for
so."^'
new bayonet
an assignment to a
end
the
officer.
came
I
did at
on the bayonet, Patton
to lecture
was physocoligy of war. His words were almost verat Riley and for saying which people thought me
used to say
brutal."^^
The idea of tanks proved more appealing, and he wasted no time ing directly to Pershing that he wished to be considered for
new tank
force. Referring to the duties of tanks as
formed by cavalry
command
writin the
analogous to those per-
which he had considerable experience, he
in war, for
wrote:
I
have run Gas Engines
biles since 1905. ...
I
.
.
.
and have used and repaired Gas Automo-
speak and read French better than
95%
can officers so could get information from the French Direct.
been to school 1
believe
Also
I
I
in
have quick judgement and
two years
at the
arousing the aggressive
ever
have also
France and have always gotten on well with frenchmen. that
I
am
willing to take chances.
enemy and have taught Mounted Service School where I had success in
have always believed
this for
of AmeriI
in getting close to the
spirit in the students.
He also reminded Pershing that he was made an attack in a motor vehicle.""
"the only
American who has
205
Tank Officer
The more he thought about
more Patton came
the
it,
to the realization
Colonel Eltinge had offered him a unique opportunity,
that
with
my
early
November.
usual luck
have again fallen on
I
my
feet,"
my name
so apparently a thing of destiny that ...
It is
will start in before
1
am
thirty two.
Here
is
'i believe that
he wrote to Papa
is in
the sporting side of
and
it.
[I]
There
will
be hundred[s] of Majors of Infantry but only one of Light T[anks].
The
T. are
only used in attacks so
able.
Of course
at all
but
if
there
about a
they do they will
As Patton began
do and the war
and
lasts
I
Here
like hell.
is
will run the school. 2 then they
I
command
a brigade
work
the golden dream."
it
3.
Then
if
make good and
I
With the same
will get the first regiment. 4.
make
"IF" as before they will
you are comfort-
the rest of the time
percent chance that they wont
"1st.
it:
will
I
all
fifty
work
to envision
will organize a battalion
the T.
is
in
and
will get the star."^^ Patton's
I
prophecy was, with one minor exception, amazingly accurate.
A decade in Paris the
to a
later
Patton admitted his enthusiasm for tanks had not existed
previous
summer when he was
French Officer
.
.
.
introduced
[who] was a Tank enthusiast
who
several hours with lurid tales of the value of his pet
means of winning
my
remarks
in the
the war. In the report
I
regaled
hobby
submitted ...
said,
I
me
couching
euphemistic jargon appropriate to official correspon-
dence, that the Frenchman was crazy and the Tank not worth a damn.
November following
the 17th of
for
as a certain
I
was
detailed as the
On
officer in the
first
Tank Corps.
November 10, 1917, became the new Tank Corps. Patton's Langres, France, and report to the Com-
Patton passed muster with Pershing and on first
Army
U.S.
orders directed
soldier to be assigned to the
him
"to proceed to
mandant of the Army Schools for the purpose of establishing the First Army Tank School."^^ He was provided with one assistant, a young artillery officer,
1st
Lt.
November
Elgin Braine, previously assigned to the 18 the entire U.S.
Army Tank Corps
Division.
1st
On
consisted of Patton and
Braine.
The news cannot have reassured filled
Beatrice,
whose recent
letters
with sadness and apprehension that perhaps George was
and had not informed
her. "I hate to have you feel sad makes you worry and worrying makes you feel old,
all
worry."" Shortly before his thirty-second birthday, on
November
wrote, "It
is
sixteen years ago next July since
have been together about
five."-^
I
were
at the front
the time for
etc.
it
Hence don't 11,
he
decided to marry you and
we
Nor were her
spirits raised
by a
letter a
World War
206
month
which Patton wrote
later in
I
that he
"my
had just had
usual yearly
accident," returning to Paris from a visit to the British front near Amiens,
where he had met Colonel thinker and second in
J. F.
command
C. Fuller, the brilliant and eccentric military
of the British tank force. Patton had viewed
The automobile
"the tlash of guns and the trench rockets going up."
in
which he was riding rammed a closed railroad gate, and the impact thrust Patton's head through the windshield, cutting open an artery in his temple and gouging a hole
which required
point of his
in the
five stitches at the
jaw an inch long and an inch deep,
American
hospital at Neuilly, "missed the
carroted [carotid] artery and jugular and facial nerve about an 1/8 of an inch if
had gotten them
it
shocked
In early that is
a
would probably have cashed
he wrote his
in,"
November
Patton told her of his transfer to tanks, reiterating
was a gamble he had been mulling over for a month. "The light tank new invention and may not work at all. If it does not I can still go to an it
infantry Battalion
and would have
lost
my time [but] if it works I my life so far."^" AEF headquarters troop comman-
only
.
.
.
have pulled one of the biggest coups of
will
To
the
der, Patton
his
I
wife.-'
end of
assignment as the
his
remained a
command
stickler for discipline.
Although he was
to
hand over
the following day, he had observed a lapse of saluting and
sloppy dress by officers assigned to Chaumont, and unhesitatingly wrote directly to the failure of
commander
good order and
in chief to point out
what he considered was a
discipline within Pershing's
own
Patton ruthlessly enforced uniform regulations and there
headquarters.^'
is little
doubt that
Pershing's influence had hardened his resolve not to tolerate sloppiness,
even
if
meant correcting
his superiors.
There were many sins an officer
could commit, but from the time he was a cadet demerits for such infractions, very high on his
West Point handing out was anyone who failed to
at
list
display the highest standards of military dress and demeanor. In his diary he
tains
on
noted that he had been obliged to "cuss out a
and majors for not saluting." He invited Pershing
that final
lot
of cap-
review his troop
to
morning and two hours before the general's appearance Patton
inspected his men. Six were found to have dirty uniforms and were summarily
banished to
KP and
Paris and a future that
fatigue duty.^-
Two
would take him
hours later Patton was en route to
to the heights
of his profession.
Before the newly designated chief could organize the
School he
first
had
to learn
something about tanks. By
AEF
his
own
Light Tank admission,
November 1917 was limited to his dismissive and cursory investigation the previous July. He had already visited Langres, where the new school would be, but could not begin his own training and Patton's
knowledge
prior to
familiarization until permission
was obtained from
tation visit to their light tank training center at
the French for an orien-
Chamlieu,
in the forest
of
207
Tank Officer
Compiegne. There, for two weeks, he famiharized himself with the French Hght tank. Patton drove a Renault, fired its gun, and pronounced himself by the experience.
thrilled
see
easy to do after an auto and quite comfort-
"It is
you can see nothing
able though
them go down. They
head with perfect immunity.
their
funny
at all. ... It is
are noisy
.
.
.
.
.
The
and
mess with French
artillery officers ("they fight all the
authority to help
facility,
began
trans-
and met with the head of the French tank force. In the
how
evening Patton crawled into a Renault to learn his hosts with so
cavalry,
time as to whether or not
they should use trenches."), inspected the maintenance lating lesson plans
on
thing will do the damdest things
imaginable."^^ Patton discussed tactics in the infantry,
and
to hit small trees
[and] rear up like a horse or stand
.
many
them
it
worked and inundated
questions that they were obliged to bring
satisfy his thirst for information.^^
week he was joined by Lieutenant Renault tank factory to learn
how
in
an
During the second
Braine, and the two officers toured the
the tank
was designed and made.^'
In Braine, Patton had been assigned an officer of outstanding mechani-
and innate
cal ability
common
architects of the U.S. tank force
sense whose contributions as one of the
have never received
their full due. In 1918,
while Patton spearheaded the establishment and training of the
first
tank
brigade in France, Braine acted as his liaison officer in the United States,
and helped
to guide the production of the
American
light tank
through a
bureaucratic minefield.
While Patton was undergoing
his crash course in tanks, the British
launched the largest tank attack yet mounted,
at
Cambrai, on November 20,
1917. Five infantry divisions spearheaded by most of the 324 tanks of the British
Tank Corps attacked
named
for Field
the
Hindenburg Line
(the principal front line, so
Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, chief of the German General
en masse across a seven-mile-wide front and caught the Germans
Staff)
flat-
footed. In six hours they penetrated ten thousand yards to the fourth level of the
German defenses and overran two
prisoners. In a
the one
mere
divisions, capturing eight thousand
had taken more ground than had
six hours British tanks
hundred thousand troops of Gen. Sir Hubert Gough's Fifth
during the massive and costly Third Battle of Ypres
The problem with Cambrai was
that there
breakthrough of such proportions. Nearly attack,
most
to
mechanical
failure,
more astounded
—
in their line.
the British,
Army
July 1917.
was no plan
for exploiting a
80 tanks broke down during the
and without them the infantry failed
seize the initiative, thus enabling the
plug the gaping hole
1
in
Germans
to
to rush reinforcements to
Cambrai begged the question of who was
who
never envisioned or prepared for a deci-
Germans, who were stunned by the British offenTactics for tank use had yet to be devised, and at the time only a few
sive penetration, or the sive.^^
men
grasped the significance of Cambrai, which had conclusively proven
that tanks
were a deadly weapon
that could play a vital role
on the modern
World War
208 battlefield
I
and were fully capable of penetrating and crushing an entrenched
enemy position. Among was not present, George
men were J. F. C. Fuller and, even though he who informed Beatrice that his timing in
these
S. Patton,
joining the Tank Corps could not have been better. "Lots of people have
suddenly discovered that
in the tanks they
command
express a desire to accept the to
it
by about four days
wonder
if I
can do
... the job
there
all
to
is
.
.
have always had
faith
of them but fortunately .
do but
[ahead] I
is
suppose
huge I
.
can.
.
I
.
I
and now
beat them
Some
times
I
always have so
far."^^
After Chamlieu, Patton visited Colonel Fuller to learn firsthand about the
month Patton had immersed himself
Battle of Cambrai.*** For a solid
and the extent of what he learned was promptly put
in tanks,
to the test. After render-
ing a verbal report of his experience to Colonel Eltinge, Patton's
first real
challenge was to consolidate his newfound knowledge into specific recom-
mendations for the new American tank force. With Braine's assistance, Patton began to
distill his
the Chief of the
thoughts into what became a fifty-eight-page
Tank Service,
titled
memo
to
Light Tanks. The paper outlined in clear
language his proposed organization and rationale for what Patton himself
many
years later wrote on his copy, "was and
Corps.
think
I
appraisal
it
is
the best Technical Paper
was unerring
—
was a masterpiece of
became
originality
recommendations for the organization,
new American tive
tank force.
the Basis of the U.S.
Tank
I
ever wrote." Patton's
self-
the paper outlined in clear language his proposed
organization of and rationale for what report
is
It
the U.S.
Tank Corps. Patton's
and clear thinking tactics,
that spelled out his
equipment and training of the
presented both a historical and technical perspec-
of the Renault tank, and efficiently analyzed the successes and failures of
both French and British tanks and tactics to the present moment.
Tanks
failed,
he noted, whenever they got ahead of the infantry, thus
losing the benefit of their natural and mutual support. tion of the light tank activity
is
as a heavily
soldier,
with equal
and greater destructive and resistant powers." Patton also provided a
forecast of the future role of
armor and of the philosophy by which he was
become famous when he added,
to
"The proper concep-
armored infantry
"If resistance
is
broken and the
line
pierced the tank must and will assume the role of pursuit cavalry and 'ride
enemy to death.' "^^ Coming from someone whose knowledge of tanks was little more than month old, his memo was an astonishing reflection of the visionary aspect
the
a
of Patton's mind.
had
to
tools
How
difficult
be worked out to
think not
it
the effort? Very. For every single detail
fulfill all
and spare parts down
nothing to base
was
to
conceivable conditions. Even a
and including extra wire and
on but a general knowledge of
many men could have combined
string
.
list .
.
of
and
soldiering. Honestly
I
the exact mechanical knowl-
209
Tank Officer
edge with the general Tactical and organizational knowledge think
I
did a good job. ...
I
but starting with nothing but
I
will
make
a go of
it
is
hope
I
I
can make a success of
Now
hard.
I
feel helpless
do
to
it.
But
business
this
and almost beaten
or bust.
To Aunt Nannie he wrote that he had "worked up a pretty good report on The proof is in the eating tanks. It was [as] interesting as it was original. .
and we are getting ready for
During the felt,
"sort of like a Rat without a tail just
none.
don't
I
something
know where
fast
and
to
go or what
now
to
sail into
do yet
To
feel that
when
was
there are
should be doing
I
partly the natural appre-
uncharted waters. But there was also the
was already
ever-present dyslexia to complicate what lenge.
post he explained that he
running tanks
furious."^' Patton's anxiety
hension of one about to
.
new
days before taking up his
final
.
dinner.'"^''
a formidable chal-
beloved confidante, Beatrice, he confided his fears and his
his
determination to succeed:
Tomorrow
start
I
on
my way
I
I
go off and be the
"Funk"
for there
is
last
word
by myself.
all
nothing but
me
to
to a
new
do
.
in a .
.
it all.
machine
Actually
I
...
am
it is
to copy.
Here
it is
all
original
and
all to
hard
in quite a
Starting the Fencing
School was a similar experience but vastly smaller and then too
model
place
feel unusually small in self esteem.
have been so long a small but important cog
to
go
again. All alone to
and organize the Light Tank Service.
I
had a
be conceived and accom-
The most cheering thing is that Gen. Harbord, Col. Eltinge and Malone all seem confident I can do it. I wish I were as sanguine. I
plished.
Col. >4
am
sure
I
will
do
grow and grow
my
fault. I
a
it
but just
lot.
But
I
at this
will.
won't even have you
As 1917 drew
moment
Here
is
my
don't see how.
1
chance.
If
I
fail
I
it
will
have
to
will be only
to pick on."
to a close, Patton could look
back on a year
that
had
taken him from the hot, dusty plains of Mexico to the freezing cold of France, where he was destined to play an important role in the Great War. In a blizzard he drove from his
new
quarters in Langres to
Christmas dinner with Pershing and several of his closest shing presented Patton with a cigarette holder.
Together Christmas 1918.""
"We
Chaumont
for
staff officers. Per-
all
drank
to
being
CHAPTER
16
"Great Oaks from
Little
Acorns Grow" I
am
getting a hell of a reputation.
— PATTON
In
December 1917 Lt. Col. LeRoy Eltinge was replaced as AEF Tank Corps by Col. Samuel D. Rockenbach,
the temporary
head of the
cer and 1889
VMI
a cavalry offi-
who had been given the thankless task of overTank Corps. He later recalled reporting to Eltinge,
graduate
seeing the creation of the
who opened his desk and presented him "Here's all we know about Tanks, go after
with a bundle of papers, saying:
them."
For a time the entire Tank Corps consisted of Patton, Braine, and Rock-
From the time of December 1917, Patton was uneasy around Rocken-
enbach. Patton and Rockenbach were complete opposites. their first
meeting
bach and conveyed
me
but
my
in
to Beatrice that "I guess
theory that
if
he does not care a whole
you do your best no one can hurt you
lot for
will be put to
the proof.'"
Whereas Patton was aggressive and
restless,
wealth of experience and maturity to his post as
Rockenbach "brought a
commander of
the tank
force and principal tank adviser to General Pershing. Hardly an original thinker, even-tempered, lacking a sense of to fixed,
humor, and displaying a tendency
narrow opinions, Rockenbach was able
to balance Ration's head-
strong enthusiasm and channel his creativity."- Patton's daughter,
Rockenbach "famous for
after the
war
at
his razor-edged
Camp Meade,
who knew
Maryland, has described him as
tongue and his martinet-ship. His wife,
Emma,
"Great Oaks from
was a breezy
why on
Little
Acorns Grow"
When
and a notable horsewoman.
aristocrat,
earth she had married 'Rocky,' she replied,
211 she was asked
married him for his
'I
conformation, of course. Did you ever see a finer piece of man-flesh?"'
Rockenbach and Patton managed their
to coexist
VMI
mutual cavalry connection and
even came
to
remarkably well because of
Rockenbach
roots. Eventually
admire Patton, but the young captain
found
still
it
difficult to
deal with his superior and never fully trusted him.
Col. R.
most contrary old cuss
the
is
you suggest any thing he opposes
my way for me for I
but
at a great
have
to
completely done up.
made
keep 1
him
self.
It is
good
my
same
I
manding
at
AEF
officer. In the still
So
in the
long run
discipline
Still
I
feel
he was trying to have
ought not be too hard on
I
however
temper. At the end of each argument
Rockenbach was not only responsible and the Tank Corps
ever worked with as soon as
thing
the
guess he does too.
a Lieut Colonel so
I
but after about an hours argument
waste of breath.
comes round and proposes get
[it]
me
him."*
for everything to
do with tanks
com-
headquarters, but also acted as Patton's
ambiguous and primitive
state
France, Patton soon found that virtually every aspect of his
of the tank
in
new assignment
came under Rockenbach's purview. Thus, even though they were uncomfortable bedfellows, both officers
were exemplars of
their profession
who
put the task at hand ahead of their personal feelings.^ Patton's reaction to
Rockenbach was mercurial. At times he would
when frustrated would roundly criticize Rockenbach in his Beatrice. When, by the summer of 1918, Patton had yet to receive
praise him, but letters to
American
"The more I see of Gen. R. him he is nothing but a good hearted wind bag. I truly believe others would have pushed this show along much better."" What Patton failed to appreciate was how well Rockenbach managed to isolate him from the red tape and the endless wrangling with the British and French, whose cooperation and assistance were essential. Rockenbach ensured that Patton was left free to concentrate on organizing the new tank center and deliberately kept him outside the policy battles that raged in the corridors of the AEF and in the Supreme War Council, where Rockenbach spoke for Pershing on tank matters.^ For some time British and French coop-
his first
the less
eration
I
on tank matters did not extend
can force.
If the
and manufacture to
tank, he wrote in annoyance,
think of
have been
all
AEF its
wanted
to furnishing tanks to the
tanks, the United States
own. The task was monumental and
but impossible in the short time. With
pie in both France and the United States, for the
new Ameri-
would have
army
to design
in hindsight
many to
seems
fingers in the
have agreed on a
design, geared up the necessary manufacturing capability, and produced and
shipped to France the hundreds of tanks the
AEF required was
fantasy.
— World War
212
As was
I
used his frequent
his longtime custom, Patton
means of expressing
and, occasionally, his father as a
letters to his
and impatience. His criticism of others
ousies, frustrations,
temporaries or superior officers
who were
wife
his ideas, fears, jeal-
—be they con-
either too slow or timid or, in his
opinion, had achieved an undeserved promotion or coveted assignment
was usually
Sometimes in a fit of pique he would condemn modify his opinion in a subsequent letter. Mostly
scathing.
another, only to retract or
he was driven by frustration. In 1918 the most frequent object of his
was
ire
Rockenbach. In
mid-December Patton
Roman
arrived in the ancient walled
Langres, high in the Haute Marne, and rented the
first
chateau-hotel, which he and Braine temporarily called
Countess d'Aulan, preferred living
in Paris
a hotel for nearly three hundred years. ^
home. The owner, the
and the place had not seen use as
had no gas or
It
city of
abandoned
floor of an
and the
electricity,
came from oil lamps. When Patton asked the rental agent about the owner, he was told the count was a hero who had died in the war. Assuming it to have been in World War I, Patton asked what battle. Oh no, only light
replied the agent, the count had died in the twelfth century during the Sec-
ond
Crusade!'^
An
woman and
old
her two daughters were hired as cook and maids.
commented on how chilly him to keep him warm. and would be quite happy to have
After Patton visited another officer's quarters and
maids offered
the place was, one of the
to sleep with
Patton demurred, saying he was too old the fire stoked
up
instead.'"
Langres was a dark and cold place able location in the
town
December, and there was no
in
for the tank school.
With Braine
in Paris
suit-
working
on tank procurement, the dismal winter days and the daunting prospect of ever getting the school successfully launched
He had no
staff,
no
left
him moody and
uncertain.
no equipment, and none of the other myriad compo-
site,
nents required to start such an enterprise from scratch. "Sometimes
depressed over ever getting a school started.
can deliver the goods but
.
.
.
it
is
If I
ever get the staff
a hell of a job. Fortunately
I
I
I
feel
know
have no
I
stu-
dents so far.""
He wrote
notes about the school and several
"bum" poems, which he
sent to Beatrice.
Another day nearvous very seeing
how
done and yet no tank school
is
much
so feeling that
to precede.
would see something not even explor the d
some one inality
.
.
else does .
may
be
I
to
I
am
I
is
going.
hate the feeling. Perhaps
if I
country.
shall get
is
.
.
.
am
getting
had more brains
do but the roads are so slipperly
your thinking
I
lazy and worthless and yet not
Having been on a
that
I
one can
staff
where
quite plesant but bad for one's orig-
some back bone.
It is
one of the few times
"Great Oaks frOm
ever
I
is
felt
lacked
I
it
but
seem
I
to or
213
Acorns Grow"
Little
maybe
it is
just the situation.
But
it
most unpleasant.
Patton continued both to reassure Beatrice and justify to her his reasons
To continue
for leaving Pershing's staff.
I
would have been simply an
blood and murder and could never look tively safe. I
ought
top.
I
to
am
.
.
.
my
am
office boy. ...
self in the face if
The Tanks were
it
as
I
mechanical knowledge. ation and the
man on
the
have been right either longer[. BJesides
I
.
to
I
was
I
men one
.
.
Tanks
of the two or three
J.
much more
will be
ground floor
me.
at the
important than avi-
will reap the benefit.
[Pershing] or myself to have
was loosing
my
of cows and chickens but
it
It
would not
hung on any
independence of thought and a
a nothing of
In the nearby village of Bourg, Patton
full
I
a staff officer and compara-
truly believe a great opportunity for
little
me."
and Braine found a
Bourg
for the tank school. Patton later described
cliff
have always talked
have imagination and daring and exceptional
more of it would have made
world
I
looked on as an advocate of close up fighting.
be one of the high ranking fitted for
there:
site suitable
as "the dirtiest place in the
has a fine view being on the edge of a
Among
over a long and beautiful valley."'^
its
advantages were ade-
quate terrain for training, two excellent access roads, and a railhead for his tanks.
However, getting the French
to provide the land
required time-consuming negotiations. stalling,
to the
a fool.
and when they refused outright a request for the
"He
it much." They were "d "You would think we were doing them a
did not like
for them. ...
I
will get the
ground or
acquired and became the official
G. S. Patton,
Jr.,
bust.
.
new home of
.
site,
whom
French headquarters commandant, a colonel
to Beatrice.
tain
proved
difficult
and
Patton thought the French were
he paid a
fools," he
complained
hell of a favor to fight
."" Eventually the site
the
visit
he politely called
Army Tank
was
School, Cap-
Director.
The days now became
a blur of activity.
plans and requirements, Patton
bach around the proposed
was on
site,
When
the
he wasn't developing course
move, one day escorting Rocken-
another accompanying him to the Renault
tank works or to Chamlieu for meetings with their French counterparts.
Other journeys took him to the British Tank Corps held further discussions with Fuller and Gen.
at
Hugh
Bernecourt, where he Files, their celebrated
commander, who had personally led the Cambrai attack. Organizing the school consumed hours of his time. He and Braine spent two days drawing up a list of spare parts for the tank. "It takes an awful lot of stuff to kill a German," he mused.
World War
214
The temporary sort of roving
I
move
return of Braine, himself constantly on the
as a
ambassador of the Tank Corps, brought badly needed admin-
most part Patton was on
istrative help, but for the
his
own. He spent a great
Chaumont, reviewing with Rockenbach plans for the school organization of the Tank Corps. With the first American tank barely
deal of time in
and the
on the drawing board, many months away from construction and
was
the primary problem
the acquisition of tanks with
which
delivery,
to train Pat-
ton's students.
As word
new tank
of the
begun volunteering. The Artillery
force spread throughout the to arrive in early
first
and by midmonth Patton had eighteen
lieutenants,
assigned to the school,
who were immediately
training in other military skills.
who were
unsuitable.
AEF, men had
January were ten Coast
When two
sent to other
AEF
officers
schools for
At once Patton began weeding out those of the
new
lieutenants (both former
NCOs)
did not perform well and thus had to be reduced to their original ranks,
"They broke down and cried
like babies. To see old strong men cry is not was nothing to do. War is not run on sentiment." From the first day Patton became notorious as an unbending disciplinarian who set high standards and would brook no nonsense. Woe to the officer or NCO who was found deficient in dress or military courtesy: "I am getting a hell of a reputation for a skunk when officers don't salute me I stop them and make them do it. I also reported a reserve lieutenant to day for profanity." Noting that King Louis XI of France ate only eggs to avoid being poisoned, Patton wrote with some pride: "I expect some of them would like to
pleasant but there
poison me."'^ His
memorandum
first
dealt with soldierly appearance
and
deportment. Shoes and brass would be highly polished and hair cut short, "so that they look like soldiers and not like poets.
.
.
There
is
a
wide
spread and regrettable habit in our service of ducking the head to meet the
hand
rendering a salute. This will not be tolerated." Saluting would be
in
carried out with precision and smartness."
Patton himself spared no expense to ensure that his dress exceeded that
of his charges. "I have just gotten a
high cost tion."'^
[in Paris]
On
new
another occasion, Patton, in a harbinger of an incident that nearly
destroyed his career a quarter of a century saluting
me
the General
long
I
to
*For one instance
who
bet the
way
later,
"cussed a reserve officer for
with his hands in his pockets ... he said that he demanded to be
treated like an officer.
limit.
pair of very nice boots at a very
but one must look well in order to hold peoples atten-
go
I
almost
hit
cussed him good.
Tank Corps to
make an
who wrote
was decidedly
will
him but compromised by taking him
Some
have discipline
army."^"
if
The vengeful
poetry himself most of his
poor.
to
of these officers are the end of the
life,
nothing else lieutenant
.
was
.
.
We
have a
the billeting
Patton 's choice of simile in this
"Great Oaks from officer in Langres,
215
Acorns Grow"
Little
and he subsequently hounded Patton by twice ordering
him out of quarters he had
just
moved
commanding
into, until the
general
intervened.-'
During a
new patch
for the tanks: "I
thing constructive.
power of
82d Infantry Division, Patton had noted with great
visit to the
shoulder patches and he enjoined his
interest their
insignia.
So
it
We
officers to create a
one evening
was
fire-
it
must have
red, yellow,
many hours
of
and
G. Robinson and another officer
that 1st Lt. Will
spent that night with paper and a set of crayons, attempting to Patton's wishes. After
some-
to
claim to have the
mobility of cavalry, and the ability to hold ground of
whatever you come up with
the infantry, so
own
officers to devote
want a shoulder
I
artillery, the
blue in it.""
want you
trial
and error they
comply with on a
finally settled
red-yellow-and-blue triangle that to this day remains the shape of the
armored divisions of the U.S. Army. Their "pyramid of
insignia of the
power" design delighted Patton, who approved hundred-dollar
bill
from
his pocket,
it
he handed
with orders to find someone in Langres to
make
on the it
spot. Pulling a one-
to Lieutenant
Robinson
the patches that day.
The
Robinson soon returned with three hundred patches. Even
enterprising
this early stage,
at
Patton was attempting to provide the Tank Corps with an
As Robinson later wrote: "If there was anything he wanted, it was Tank Corps tougher than the Marines and more spectacular than the Matterhorn. That triangle was the first step.""-* No detail was too small to escape Patton's attention. He drew up designs for a Tank Corps brassard (a distinctive band worn around the upper sleeve of the uniform) and an ornament to be worn on the uniform collar.-'* During the summer of 1918, when he delivered a series of lectures to offiidentity.
to
make
the
cers of the
AEF
mission of the
"Tanks
in
infantry,
General Staff School, Patton offered reassurance that the
new Tank Corps was
common
on
whom
with
all
means of aiding
the fate of battle ever rests, to drive their bayonets into
the bellies of the enemy.
Hence tanks when operating
always conform to the needs and
No
to assist, not to supplant, the infantry.
other auxiliary arms are but a
one escaped his
frailties
in
numbers must
of the infantry," he declared.-'
critical eye. All officers
were ordered
to synchro-
nize their watches with those of the adjutant at each morning's mess.
Even
the medical officer endured the wrath of Patton's temper for not keeping his
heels together while at attention during an inspection.
scared of is
quite
me
that
amusing
he giggles when If
I
I
speak to him and
ever get to be an 'old general'
is I
"The poor Dr.
is
almost incoherent fear that Blea] Jr
so it
&
R[uth] E[llen] will have fiew suitors."-^ Patton's insistence on discipline and attention to detail extended to his family, and even
from a distance of 3,500 miles he could not
Beatrice advice that often sounded like a
command. After
resist
giving
receiving
some
Christmas photographs, he complained that baby Ruth Ellen's hair "looks
World War
216
Why
awful.
don't you cut
your hair for
to "die
He
it."
when
her to be "the same age
I
also informed Beatrice that he expected
when
get back as
I
don't like gray hair at
I
left,"
I
and instructed her
(When an
all."-^
man
enlisted
mistook him for a second lieutenant, Patton was secretly delighted because
On
junior lieutenants were not "old looking.")
"The
from the children are very cute but
letters
given to posing and
one does but her
me
for saying
it
don't think
I
style of expression
for
I
suppose
Without the necessary trating
much
am
I
it.
fear that [litdel
Of course
seems a
to train with,
proud of so
to be
If
ever do feel that
I
far. I
am
I
mad
at
was hard and
frus-
AEF
man he
schools complimented him for "taking hold better than any
never do.
little
the head of the
it
when
Patton thought that "the rest must be pretty poor for
done much
a
is
forced. Don't get
little
grow." Yet, even
I
B
she loves you every
wrong."-**
and tanks
site
work, but "by degrees
of
another occasion he noted: I
don't feel that
earning
my
I
pay
I
am I
had,"
certainly have not
doing
my
best. ...
must realy begin
I
to get
some where."
He
Chaumont, where he delivered a superb
traveled to
group of
to a
AEF
colonels and generals,
still
lecture
on tanks
without benefit of an actual
tank.
But Patton seemed incapable of giving himself credit or accepting
there
were circumstances over which he had no
am
tanks. "I
that
control, such as the absent
am
feeling very low," he wrote only hours after his lecture. "I
disgusted with the whole business."''^
Despite a nonstop schedule of appointments,
visits,
and the writing of
plans and lectures, Patton's desire for action and his high level of frustration all I
too often
will
my
left
him angry and
go crazy for
A
mood
few days
informed Beatrice simply
know by
When
after
to
I
get
some Tanks soon
looking
at
it is
getting
alternated between acute doldrums and
on
near
complaining of going "crazy" he proudly
think
that, "I
I
am more
an engine
all
or less of a mechanical genius for
about
it.""
Patton learned that he had been promoted to major on January
26, 1918, he decided to pin
had yet
disillusioned. "Unless
have done nothing since november and
nerves."^" Patton's
euphoria.
I
I
on the insignia of
his
be formally notified of his promotion.
but that does not bother
me
at all as there are
so
new
rank, even though he
"I feel sort
many
militia
of like a thief
majors around
here that one must have leaves to keep ones self respect." Never bothered by
such protocol as
official orders, Patton did the
inspection trip to the little
recent action.
tical officer,
1
st
The
Charles
same thing
in 1943.^^
Pershing invited Patton to accompany him on an
In early March,
P.
Division in a sector of the front line that had seen
division
commander was
his former
West Point
Summerall, and, as usual, Patton was anxious
tac-
to get
as close to the front at possible to observe an artillery barrage scheduled for
shortly after midnight.
Although Summerall had given
his blessing for Pat-
ton to visit an observation post close to the front, Pershing noticed
him
"Great Oaks from strapping on his helmet and growled:
had
Little
"Where
him, and Pershing "forbade
to tell
217
Acorns Grow" in hell are
you going?" Patton
Although normally not so pro-
it."^^
tective of his officers, in Patton's case Pershing
seemed
no hurry
in
to
expose his protege to unnecessary danger. Patton's limited social life
was never
dull,
however. His dinner guests
ranged from the local sous-prefet, "a funny old chap, past eleven with the
most shocking
who
regaled us
till
half
no Ameri-
stories about ladies [which]
can of his age and rank would dare to talk about as he did," to visiting senior officers. Unable to spell correctly the
name of a French baroness who
him to tea in her nearby chateau, he wrote that it was "Madame La Baronne Pig and Sheep," who was, he reassured Beatrice, "quite nice and invited
safely old."''
to command the first two tank battalions to be who was recommended for promotion to lieutenant colonel: "I will have about 1400 men under me by May if every thing works out well." For a time former secretary of war Henry L. Stimson, now a lieu-
Rockenbach's obvious choice organized was Patton,
tenant colonel, joined his mess, and the
two renewed
of untold benefit to Patton in World
While awaiting ton put his
new
his first
officers to
War
begun at would prove to be
the friendship
Fort Myer. Their reunion, while insignificant at the time, II.''
shipment of training tanks from the French, Pat-
work
in a variety of tasks
water lines to converting farm stables and
lofts
ranging from laying
almost overnight into the
liv-
would make up the new school. When his first two companies of troops arrived on February 17, they found a hot meal awaiting them and "a nice latrine all dug. I think the villagers thought ing accommodations and shops that
we were
digging for gold as they came out and watched the operation." Pat-
ton expressed pleasure with his "good and efficient" officers and praised the quality of his fine
new
troops, all of
whom
bunch of men much above the
am
tary career, "I to ask
the absolute boss and
any one any thing
Drills
were
draftees.
ordinary."''' it
"They
For the
first
seems strange
are really a very
time in his mili-
at first
and exercises commenced only
of manure that littered the
new
after the
men removed
arm
signal, touch, or
the heaps
training area. Foot drills simulated
they would later do aboard their tanks, and various forms of
how
not to have
at all.""
what
command by
sound were learned and practiced. Patton taught them
tanks would be employed on the battlefield and personally met the
high standards he demanded. They learned engines.
They were
camouflage, reconnaissance,
There were short courses
weapons, [their]
at
map other
.
.
.
that
to troubleshoot gasoline
reading, and reading aerial photographs.
AEF
schools on
under
all
machme guns and
other
weapons would be so instilled in conditions their use would be automatic and
to ensure "that the use of these
minds
how
lectured on a variety of military subjects, including
World War
218
I
deadly."^** There were also unpleasant but mandatory gas drills, necessitated by the German use of deadly chlorine and mustard gas, starting in 1915 at Ypres. Patton was unconcerned, believing gas would prove mainly a nui-
sance for his tankers.
Although he was generally pleased with the progress of both
and men, Patton returned enbach
and angry from a
tired
trip to
his officers
England with Rock-
new British tank, complaining that things seemed to go when he was present. "We have a stupendous job and little time
to inspect a
well only
my
and none of
officers are
every thing under heaven
.
.
reconnaissance.
signaling,
worth a damn.
I
have
to instruct all of
them
in
maping, Visual training. Aiming, gas Engines,
.
and some other things
Intelligence,
cant
I
recall."^^
He
"When
on using a single bed for both of us
haps more than one reason for
me
modisty will allow
to
have
to
go
bed
to
this,
mention
is
that
I
this
at the
am
and empty bed
cially of getting into a large
will
war is over I am going same time. There is perbut the only one which the censor and
found time to miss Beatrice.
still
to insist
tired
of being cold and espe-
of cold sheets. Hence you
full
first."^"
Patton was aware that his letters were sometimes hurtful and that he was
man
not the same
managed
usually
without her calming influence and
keep his volatile personality
to
Without your advice
which shows
you with letters.
.
that
I
I
.
am
my many
I
am
apt to
make mistakes of judgment.
did a good thing by marrying you even
'respect' as .
you say or rather
I
don't in one of your
I
.
shortcomings
I
can but feel sorry for
.
.
Gen
P.
served by
I
do
men
I."*'
March 1918 Frederick Ayer died life filled
after a
long
ending a
illness, thus
with both material and spiritual success. Notified by a
telegram from Ellie Ayer that "our great
Commander
once penned one of the most compassionate and loving his wife. Mr.
All of
don't treat
with out question a very superior soldier and yet realize as
worse than
flamboyant
infer
if I
am sorry I have treated you that way for you are one of When 1 realize man or woman for whom I have any.
Well
few people
the
In
that
common sense, which He confessed:
in check.
Ayer was "the most perfect mortal
I
has gone," Patton letters
know.
.
.
.
at
he ever wrote
Beatrice Jr and
Ruth Ellen should be wonderful children with such a grandfather. It is futile to attempt to comfort you. Words, especially written words, are totally inadequate to consol for such a that the
My
human
loss. ...
soul can suffer.
.
.
.
I
know
Beaty
poor Darling Please take comfort
Darling that you are suffering
my if
whole heart you can.
is at
your
May God
feet.
all .
.
.
help and
strengthen you."
Beatrice Patton had been suffering for
some time from an unspecified
"Great Oaks from ailment, and, as later Ellen
turned out, her ordeal was only beginning.
it
to suggest that Ellen's death, despite her
broken
health,
ill
(It is
not
was due
the final straw to destroy the Pattons' efforts to
reunite in France or England. Patton wrote that he
present to help Beatrice
when
You would have
me
to
think that Ellie
is
"it
It
to
be
What
could not be.
your not having come
so terribly to have been away.
felt
had always hoped
her parents died, but
has happened has quite reconciled
I
Two weeks
arrived.
heart.)
The Ayers' death was
to say but
219
Acorns Grow"
Banning Ayer died and yet another sad telegram
mere conjecture to a
Little
to France.
seems a heartless thing
happier than she would have been to have con-
They were as nearly one as is possible to I do not think I would care much about keeping on if you were gone. Because if you were not around to admire what I did what the rest thought would make little difference. tinued on with out your father.
be
—
one as we
as nearly as
are.
Patton would later write in a brief history of the tank school that his objective
had been thorough training "in the highest ideals of discipline, neatness,
devotion to duty and esprit de corps. These results were produced by vigor-
ous attention to close order
drill,
by the enforcement of great personal neat-
ness on the part of the officers and
men
men and by
the necessity for the ends sought. "^^
called
lectures pointing out to the
The key was
"instant, cheerful, unhesitating obedience.
it
foolish thing,
is
it
not a demeaning thing,
it
is
.
.
discipline. Patton
Discipline
.
not a
is
a vital thing." Like a coach
exhorting a football team, he cautioned his officers:
means
Lack of
discipline at play
pline in
war means death or
for a
game
freedom. in
arms
as
we
.
is
is .
.
the loss of a
defeat,
.
We
done. But
is
few yards. Lack of
disci-
worse than death. The prize
nothing. The prize for this war is the greatest of all prizes The reason the Bosch has survived so long against a world
because he
is
disciplined. Since 1805 he
breed speed in horses; but he
tee ..
which
cannot wait
we
until
is
had bred
this quality
neither the inventor nor the paten-
A.D. 2018
to breed discipline as they
are as intelligent as football players, far
Romans or the Persians when we the quarterbacks
more
have
intelligent
than the Greeks or the
or the Gauls of two thou-
sand years ago
give the signal of
.
.
.
death in the near day of battle, you will not think and then
and
if
your
you
will, think later
efforts, all
heroism
—
after the war.
your patriotism,
is futile.
You
shall not
It is
in vain.
life
or
but will act
by discipline alone
have been
will die for nothing.
act,
that all
Without
it
With DISCIPLINE you are
IRRESISTIBLE.^ For Patton a major factor
was his near-obsessive qua non of his long-held
in attaining discipline
insistence on spit and polish.
It
was
the sine
220
World War
I
conviction that to attain success on the battlefield a soldier had to be focused, and only by establishing and enforcing the very highest standards
of discipline could he be taught to react efficiently and instinctively in the
midst of chaos.
What had begun without Braine would, in
enormous
little
The comment
by March 1919 into
to an
hundred tanks and five thousand
offi-
a year, evolve
training center of four
cers and men.
and with only himself and
a single tank
more than
that "great
oaks from
little
acorns grow"
applied to Patton's philosophy of training. Men's lives often depended on split-second reactions. Only a trained and well-disciplined soldier was capable of this. Patton's "field of dreams" was built on the bedrock of hard, thorough training and discipline that began the first day and never let up. Throughout his long military career Patton never once lowered his standards or his microscopic attention to the smallest detail. Many did not like it, and more epithets were directed at Patton than perhaps any soldier in modern military history, but most of the men in his also
charge flourished, and
it
was the
commander
secret to his success as a
and trainer of troops. Patton's tankers soon began to evince a sense of pride in their
new-
found, razor-sharp military bearing. Saluting became so smartly executed
byword became, "Give 'em a George Patton. "^^ He himself was somewhat in awe of what he was accomplishing. "I don't see why they like me as I curse them freely on all occasions." Someone wrote a song about Patton "which is most complimentary and says that 'We will follow the that the
Colonel through hell and out the other Patton had instructed the students,
side.'"^^
One
corporal recalled
"Why you God damned
do you think the Marines are tough? Well you
just wait until
with you. Being tough will save lives." Another enlisted the
Tank Corps "we had
officers to be
proud
drill,
and
athletics,
cer under the age of thirty-five policed.
man
I
get through
noted that in
of."^^
Patton's drills for both officers and enlisted
close-order
how
sons of bitches,
men
included saluting,
games, and calisthenics from which no
offi-
was exempt. The area was kept scrupulously
Bourg may have been manure-ridden but under his aegis the cleantown itself became part of the "police" details carried out by his The mud notwithstanding, "I make the chauffeurs wash their
liness of the
troops.
machines
after the last trip each night no matter what the hour."^** Through two world wars, Patton was never seduced by the lure of weapons of war as cure-alls that would defeat a resilient enemy such as the
German army. The later
fighting
man was
the
key
to
winning, and fifteen years
he wrote:
When Samson
took the fresh jawbone of an ass and slew a thousand
therewith he probably started such a vogue for the
weapon
.
.
.
men
that for
"Great Oaks from
Little
years no prudent donkey dared to bray. less other instances last
word
—
.
.
the key to victory
—
yet each in
Today
is
replete with count-
its
day heralded as the
History
.
of military implements each in
but inconspicuous niche.
221
Acorns Grow"
its
turn subsiding to
its
useful
1933] machines hold the place for-
[in
merly occupied by the jawbone, the elephant, armor, the long bow, gun powder, and
The
submarine. They too shall pass.^"
latterly, the
emphasized was not new weaponry, no matter how useful
secret he
"be they the tank or the tomahawk but they are
who
won by men.
.
.
wars may be fought with weapons,
.
the spirit of the
It is
leads that gains the victory."^"
men who
Bourg was the
first
follow and the
man
place in which Patton
was able to articulate his philosophy to a large and receptive audience that became ingrained with his philosophy of war. Since his commissioning, Patton's problems had been not philosophical
new and
but physical, in the form of his unfortunate tendency to attempt
innovative methods of accidentally killing himself. In February 1918, for
example, he was slicked
an accident
in
highway
when
was driving
as he
his
to a
automobile skidded on a rain-
nearby railway
station.
This time
only the vehicle sustained damage, but Patton had to walk three miles rain
and missed his
this
time with his
own
car,
horse Sylvia Green was injury."
"We
have been
we wear some flesh
are
same on
I
V
be sent to Paris for repairs. His
on our
arm
six
for each
could get one."''
left
sleeves to
months. ...
wound.
When
I
If
we
would
show that we get wounded
like to
be
hit in
an acquaintance received a
wrote to Aunt Nannie
wound chevron and "pose
how
he envied any
man
as a hero." Beatrice undoubt-
at the prospect.
The days were long and on which
a gold
the right
in his leg, Patton
permitted to wear a edly shuddered
to
zone of the armies for
nice fat part so
wound
which had
in the
yet another fender-bender,
by a truck, but neither horse nor rider sustained
hit
now wearing
in the
the
March 1918 he had
train. ^' In
strenuous. Because of the limited equipment
to train, the students
Monday through
worked
in relays
from
six A.M. to six P.M.,
Saturday. Sundays were reserved for inspections.'^
To
harden the troops each company ran double-time in formation each morning for one kilometer.
amusement that they to
keep
it
go
available.
A newly opened YMCA canteen was about the only "The only advantage is that they are working so hard
right to bed.
out
.
.
.
it is
tions." In response to
have no [venereal] 'disease' here now and hope
I
easy
if
the
men
will only take the available precau-
what he knew would have been Beatrice's disap-
proval of anything but abstinence, Patton noted,
your remidy would be but killed are entitled to
One of nates at
I
men who
what pleasures they can get.'"' was respected by virtually
the reasons Patton
Bourg was
"Of course
don't approve of that as
that
all
I
know what
are apt to be
of his subordi-
he taught by example and was never afraid to get his
World War
222
I
own hands dirty. One morning he was inspecting the underside of a tank when "about a pint of oil got in my face." He shrugged it off. During a class in map reading when some of his students could not visualize a contour line on
map. Patton made a miniature
a
make
hill
out of a potato and cut slices out of
it
was something Captain Marshall had taught him at Fort Sheridan and, "then as now it worked." His secret was preparation and a superb memory. "Some times it seems to me that all I have ever done has
to
been
his point.
It
in preparation for
Napolion put
it
is
my
simply a
present job."
memory
he thought that "genius as
Still,
of detail.
have a
I
hell
memory
of a
for
poetry and war."'^
At Bourg there was no shortage of mud, of which "there
is
certainly a
magnificent supply." Patton was issued a truck, motorcycle and an automo-
Although he would now have
bile.
might "unduly develop boots."
my
He looked forward
thought and
still
legs
more strongly think
He managed
he worried that walking
less,
it
II
will]
not look so well in
to the longer days, noting that "I
that of taking things too easily
more."
"hoof
to
and hence
that
when
the days get longer
to find time to ride
have always
our chief fault as an army has been
one of
I
can work them
his horses. "Riding ten miles
on Miss Green daily has improved her disposition and
my
health vastly.""
The school was running smoothly, which was not lost on Rockenbach, who was duly impressed during a visit to Bourg. The average commander, on learning of the imminent arrival of a superior officer to inspect,
is
Hkely to
oveiTeact with a flurry of activity designed to present a near-perfect impression. Not Patton. When Rockenbach made an unannounced visit in midMarch and declared himself well pleased, Patton, in an expression of supreme confidence, wrote that he was "glad as I had not known he was coming so things were just as they usually are."^** Secretary of War Newton Baker also visited in mid-March, and Patton observed: "He is a little rat but very smart."'^'
Applications were pouring in from quality volunteers throughout the
AEF. out
"a Tank Corps without tanks
Still,
girls.
"'^'"
He knew
is
quite as exciting as a dance with-
they were en route but did not
know when
actually arrive and
champed
"like an expectant
mother waiting the advent of a child
at
train load of tanks but thus far there
When
shape of a
the first ten of twenty-five Renault light tanks finally arrived
on March 23, Patton was awakened by
who
excitedly informed
him
that
his orderly, Pfc.
he was needed
he soon drove each tank off the
flatcars.
the only
by
Joseph Angelo,
at the railroad siding,
He was
to drive a tank."^ This handful of tanks
used by the American tank force
months
in the
have been no premonitory symptoms."^'
train
how
they would
the bit in anticipation, grumbling that he felt
where
one who knew
were the only training vehicles
until shortly before their first
combat
six
later.
The Renault was a crude machine with commander, who also doubled as
the tank
a
two-man crew,
the
the driver
and
37-mm
can-
gunner for the
"Great Oaks from
non.
It
Little
was capable of speeds of only four
less their arrival
223
Acorns Grow" to five miles per hour.
Neverthe-
who now had something
thoroughly excited Patton,
better
than a beat-up old truck to simulate a tank.^^
The tanks of 1918 contained none of today's
hi-tech instruments for
communication between tanks or between members of the crew. Since no
lights inside, the
and
its
crews became proficient by learning
by means of a
to start forward; a
turn; a kick
As one of the original tankers (and Semmes, relates: "A kick in the back told
series of kicks.
Patton's lifelong friend), Harry
was
had
guns blindfolded. The commander could only signal instructions to
his driver
him
it
to operate the tank
kick on the right or
on the head was the signal
left
shoulder told the driver to
to stop; repeated kicks
the signal to back."""* Thus, striking an enlisted
martial offense in the U.S.
on the head
man, normally a court-
Army, became an accepted means of operating a
tank.
Not
until
mid-September were there
sufficient tanks for both Patton's
tank battalions to train in simultaneously. his
crews
was
He
arranged with the French for
to practice driving at their trench-mortar school.
littered
The
firing
with shell craters and his crews practiced driving across
range
this ter-
what they would soon encounter on a real battlefield. The was made more difficult by what seemed to be incessant rains and snow that lasted until well into spring. Rarely was there a day of sunshine. Before long the school had outgrown the facility at Bourg and Patton
rain to simulate
training
was obliged
to seek an
overflow
nearby Brennes.
facility at
students continued to arrive in droves. "I
am
And
new
still
having a hard time putting
them away but so far have managed to do it but it is like a sardine factory. Still I got a compliment out of it for Col R. told his adjutant that he could send them to me as I had never kicked yet. It is the old thing of the willing horse being ridden to death. "''^ To his intense
relief,
Patton began to acquire
from men of engineering and mechanical experience, such as Capt. G. D. Sturdavent, who was the president of the Grant Six Automobile assistance
Company. Although not permanently assigned considerable help to Patton during his brief
to
Bourg, Sturdavent was of
visit to the
school
in April.
After
several attempts Patton also succeeding in arranging for the transfer to the
Tank Corps of Capt. Serano Brett, a Regular Infantry officer, whose specialty was the machine gun. Brett would soon become one of Patton's key subordinates and the
commander of one of
his tank
companies, and
later
of
a battalion.
Rare
is
the military unit that can claim
organization or facility and never
made
it
never bartered with another
a "midnight requisition" for
needed
supplies or equipment that were unavailable through the supply system. rate at
The which the tank center was burgeoning made bartering and "midnight
requisitions" a virtual necessity, and, tive of this sort, the
if
he did not actively encourage
initia-
pragmatic Patton turned a blind eye to such activities by
World War
224 his staff. In
some Pipe
I
mid-June he noted
I
he was "in a Httle trouble
that
and the Inspector General
is
coming down
am
only guilty of too
much
initiative.
self
mad
to investigate the affair
probably get repramanded for cutting red tape but I
my
Center here. The Engineers are very
'stole' for the
Which
over here. Don't worry about me. The inspector
is
ought not to hurt
it
is
over
me
at
will
I
me
as
a quality often missing
Olmstead who lived next
to us at [Fort] Myer."^^
Patton perceived that
new
tlefield,
The
if
British tactics of
new Tank Corps was
the
would have
tactics
to
to
succeed on the bat-
be developed, observing:
Cambrai were no longer applicable
we
...
rightly
contended that since Tanks were a supporting arm they should conform the normal formations of Infantry
should conform to to
appeal.
theirs. ...
An
and not demand
investigation of French tanks also failed
The method they advocated placed
infantry reserve battalions in
the
it
tanks behind the
which position they followed placidly
the necessity for their intervention arose. In theory this practice
to
that the Infantry
was
all
until
right but in
demonstrated that a period of from one to two hours often
elapsed between the need for the employment of the tanks and the time of their arrival.
.
.
Under
.
the circumstances
tem of our own. This we did and while
What
it
it
seemed best
was
far
to devise a sys-
from perfect
it
worked.^^
new doctrine whereby two of new light tank battalion were placed in the assault echelon and the remaining company in reserve. During the spring and summer of 1918 he taught these new tactics until each tanker thoroughly understood what the tanks were to do and how they were to function the three
with the
By
Patton did was to create and teach a
companies of tanks
in the
infantry.^**
April, Patton felt confident
and demonstrations
to test
enough
to risk a series of field exercises
both the training of his officers and
operation of tanks in direct support of the infantry. theories, he held the first of a series of ally
On
men and
the
April 16, to test his
maneuvers, each of which he person-
choreographed from directives he himself had written. Five days
later
ten Renault tanks participated in a simulated battle in support of an infantry battalion
on a mock
battlefield.
General Staff School exercise.
He
two hundred
order to attend his
officers. Patton
own
exercise.
ing a gold chain sent to blisters
commandant of
the
Army
To ensure they understood what was occurring, he assembled
package of maps, diagrams, and a nearly
invited the
nearby Langres to send his students to observe the
at
him by
by overmedicating
might have been due to
it
fact sheet
a
about the tank for each of
checked himself out of the hospital
in
(He had developed a skin rash from wearhis mother,
and had infected the rash with
with iodine. Later he thought that the rash
nervousness.''''
"Great Oaks from
Little
225
Acorns Grow"
Despite a driving rain the exercise was a stunning success. Although
one tank
a shell hole, Patton
fell into
had kept one
which was
in reserve,
immediately thrust into the attack and "everything went on fine." passed his
some of
first
He had
major hurdle with flying colors, and the only casualties were
the visiting officers,
who were thrown from
their horses,
which
reacted with terror to the noise of artillery fire and simulated grenades.
"They certainly are rotten on a memorandum:
US Army."
held in
"I It
is
tlefield.
It
light tank
was
later inscribed a note
Tank Maneuver ever
argue with his conclusion that the
difficult to
demonstration had convinced a great
and future value of the
He
the first
riders," Patton chortled.
ran this show.
many AEF
officers of the importance
on what would soon be an American bat-
To Beatrice he wrote with
justifiable pride: "I
was
realy
more than
pleased."™
He had been promoted and five days first
to lieutenant colonel at the
after the successful exercise he
beginning of April,
was appointed
U.S. light tank battalion, appropriately designated the
to
command
1st
the
Light Tank
The advance from junior first lieutenant the previous May to lieuwas a remarkable one. "I feel more or less of a fool being a colonel. How do you feel being a Mrs. Colonel," he asked Beatrice.^' Behind the promotion was the hand of Pershing. "General P. had a hell of time getting me promoted as they said I was too young but he finally put it over." Even before his promotion came through, Patton's dyslexia-driven need to put himself down clashed with what he knew to be his virtues. "If I am a It Col. I have surely gone some and feel like an imposter though danBattalion.
tenant colonel .
.
.
gerous modesty
is
not one of
my many
faults.""
But becoming a lieutenant colonel was by no means the end of Patton's dramatic
rise.
By
the time of his first battle
some months
be commanding more than a mere battalion
Meuse-Argonne. At long test.
last the
Patton
in his date
name was
to
later,
Patton would
with destiny in the
be put to the ultimate
CHAPTER
Baptism
17
of Fire
The Saint-Mihiel Offensive Do ever in all things our damdest And never oh never retreat.
— PATTON'
The great
thing about
war
is
that
shows up
it
character.
—JOHN MORTIMERS
By
the
summer
of 1918 Patton despaired of ever receiving enough tanks in
time to fight with the
AEF when
year ago to day," he wrote on June
we
reached Paris
full
was
it 1
at last
committed
to battle.
"One
3,
of desire to
kill
Germans.
We
are
still full
of desire
some times I deeply regret that I did not take the infantry last November instead of the tanks. The regiment I had the chance to join has been at it now for five months. Of course I have done a lot but I keep dreading lest the war should finish before I can realy do any fighting. That would destroy my military career or at least give it a great set back ... the unknown is always full of terrors and I wake up at night in a sweat fearing but
.
.
.
that the
good
show
d
for
I
But unless
keep I
at
it
is
over. ...
I
trust that
it is
doing
inspite of constant difficulties
get into a fight or
two
it is
all
wasted
my
character a lot of
and discouragements.
effort.^
Baptism
On May front,
was given permission by Rockenbach
19 he
French
to visit the
and although there was no prospect of imminent combat. Patton had
own
been contemplating his him, Patton penned a death.
227
of Fire
He
entrusted
tank commanders.^
letter
mortality. In the event anything did
Beatrice
to Capt.
it
was
open only
to
Joseph W. Viner, one of his
happen
to
event of his
in the
(and finest)
first
read:
It
May
20, 1918
Darling Beat:
am
I
leaving this letter with Capt Viner
feels well assured
course
if I
am
I
have been killed
reported killed
I
may
am
if I
who
will
send
it
to
you
not you will never see
if it.
he
Of
have been Captured so don't be
still
too worried.
have not the
I
foolish writing
would that
like
it.
.
.
.
premonition that
least
you
this letter but
Beatrice there
is
if
going to be hurt and
the thing
no advice
could suggest that you would not
I
am
1
perhaps
I
know
feel
happened you
can give you and nothing better than
I.
Few men can
be so fortunate as to have such a wife.
also
All
my
my
pistol the silver
property
is
yours though
one
I
it is
not much.
My
sword
will give [the horses] Sylvia to
is
yours
Gen. Per-
shing and Simalarity to Viner. if you should fall in love you should marry again 1 would The only regret I have in our marriage is that it was not sooner and that I was mean to you at first. ... It is futile to tell you how
think that
I
approve.
much
and of
.
.
love you.
I
If
.
I
go
my
I
Words
trust that
it
are as inadequate as will be in a
love for a person like you. as to be
worthy of you
ideals.
Kiss Beatrice Jr and Ruth Ellen for
very
is
manner such
much and
that
I
know
me and
tell
them
that
1
love them
they will be good.
Beat
I
love you infinitely.
George'
For nearly two weeks Patton sampled the front lines, learning
Even
how
life in a
French tank unit near
tanks were employed. "I wrote
it
all
down."^
away "you can hear the guns all the time but it is simply a as there are so many guns you can't distinguish any seperate
six miles
con-stant roar
explosion. ...
you how
it
matically,
I
feels
hope
when
to get it is
and he voiced
up closer for a day or two and can then
hitting nearer."^
his admiration for
tell
His French had improved dra-
Frenchmen
as soldiers. "Per-
World War
228 sonally
them much
like
I
I
do
better than the British possibly because they
not drink Tea," which Patton described as "a most hellish and wasteful practice."**
With increasing frequency
am
"When we
going to drink a gallon of black coffee so
make idle
love to you. Oh! Beaty
and have more time
to think. ...
another he admitted that "all In fact
my
towards you
attitude
do
try to
I
will stay
I
is
for the effect
more
is
it
love you with
I
felt
had
are together again
miss you terribly and feel
I
he
his letters articulated the void
been created by his separation from Beatrice.
my
all
it
I
awake and can more when I am
will
heart."^ In
have on you.
that of a lover uncertain of his
chances than of a husband."'" After several days leave in Paris in early June he wrote of his disgust
"When
being so safe and sound:
doing
hate
little, I
my
self that
I
see
I
am
all
at
the officers hanging round Paris
not in the
for
inft.
now we would be in He recovered the
action and at least doing something to stop the 'Bosch.'"
150-mm
fragment from a German piece of
it
cut out by a soldier in a
May
side and the date
30, 18
having a gold chain put on
own
idea.
I
hope you
it
had
shell that
Tank
on the back. To day for a bracelet.
will like
for
it
it
fallen nearby
He
repair unit. I
took
it
and "had a
name on one
to 'Cartier'
and
be realy unique and
will
It
put your
is
am my
might have made you a widow.""
Patton concluded his letter with a hilarious account of a British officer
and his wife
I
room next
in the
know
I
to his in the Hotel
should not have listened but
most amusing. They talked utes
would stop and
kiss.
in a
At
Meurice.
lonesome so
felt
I
I
did.
It
was
most impersonal way and every few min-
last curiosity
got the better of
me
and
I
looked through the key hole. They were both very properly clad in gray dressing crackers.
was
gowns and were sitting quite a ways apart eating They had been separated only five months but she .
.
.
years.
.
.
.
I
said
Well they went to bed she
in a nitie as thick as sail cloth
he in canton
flannel and in twin beds. At this point the thought occured to me,
wonder
Bosch beat
the
however he asked her that
the British
if
she was
feared for a
moment
much squeaking
time there was into hers. sleep.
.
.
.
Then
But soon
It is
shocked
my
all
tired.
Foolish question! she said no but
that he
at once.
had clogged
was not
his soul but
at all tired at the
same
assured he had gotten
of beds and
I
felt
grew quiet again and
I
feared that they had gone to
ears told
me
that
I
was
sort of
funny but verges on the
my
I
at
'No
they are that cold blooded.' Soon
that the cracker dirt
was reasured on hearing him say
bed.
if
he must be and that he should go to sleep I
it
could not help thinking of us.
conduct. ...
in error.
love you with
use twin beds or canton flannel pajamas
.
tragic. ... I all
when
my I
.
.
Here
I
went
to
hope you are not too
heart and will never
see you.''
Baptism
By August 1918
229
of Fire
Washington had twice changed the
the staff gods in
now commanded
designation of the school. Patton
Tank
the 1st Brigade,
Corps, consisting of the 344th and 345th Tank Battalions." Patton's twenty-five training Renaults were mechanical nightmares, and his
maintenance shop worked twenty-four-hour days
attempt to keep them running.
were as many as ten tanks time."* Patton
staff
in service,
taught his
men
well,
night marches exactly as he had laid
Dale Wilson points out
rian
in his
ing had reached the point where
an often vain
in
could count their blessings
enough
began emphasizing night
He had
cessful.
The
to train
training,
there
if
two platoons
at
and they responded by conducting
them out
in his directives. But, as histo-
landmark study of the Tank Corps, it
one
which proved highly suc-
had become so repetitive
train-
men
that the
in
danger of losing the edge Patton had so carefully been honing. The
training
had hardened his 950 troops (50 officers and 900 enlisted men),
were
who were now
spoiling to put
the victim of his
own
it
to the test of
success, for his
battle.'''
men were
place to go" and no tanks to take them there.
When
In a sense Patton
"all
four of his officers were
women, Patton grumbled: "'We think much of it. The French do
arrested for drinking in public with ting full of virtue here.
please so
why
I
don't
was
dressed up with no
are getas they
not we."'^
Patton submitted to Rockenbach a paper he thought so "revolutionary" that
it
would modify U.S. tank tactics, but although it was innovative it was wrong moment. This was not the time to introduce
proffered at precisely the
another
new
set
of tactics that would require more training, but rather a time
out what had already been well learned.
to try
intended as such, Rockenbach's reply accept
—was a
politely
Somehow
Whether or not
— which Patton had
the
worded reproof to leave well enough
was
it
good sense
Patton and three of his senior officers found time to attend
the twelve-week course at the General Staff School in nearby Langres.
who was
course was particularly demanding on Patton, night to Bourg to supervise his slightest interest in eral Staff
Among
becoming
own
The
obliged to return
at
school. Although he did not have the
a staff officer, he correctly perceived the
Gen-
School as a training ground that might enrich his experience.
those attending were his West Point classmate Maj. William H.
Simpson; Maj. John Shirley Wood, a 1912 graduate
become one of later gain
fame
in
Burma
Academy
destined to
the year Patton entered
were
who had
and would
The school staff and become famous for their
as "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell."'
men who would among them were: Maj. Adna
the visiting speakers
achievements;
who was
Patton's closest friends; and Capt. Joseph Stilwell,
graduated from the Military
chard,
to
alone.
all
later
R. Chaffee, Gen.
Major Alexander M. "Sandy" Patch, and
Lt. Col.
George
Hugh
Tren-
Catlett
Mar-
shall.'^
Despite the rigors of burning the candle
at
both ends, Patton miracu-
World War
230
I
lously found time to continue pouring out notes, directives, and lectures.
One
delivered to the
informed him that civilian. ...
I
AEF
"it
was
Line School was so well received that one officer the best lecture he had ever heard
by soldier or
feel quite elated."-"
Without warning the great wait suddenly came
August 20 Patton was
still at
an end.
to
the General Staff School
On
morning of
the
when he was handed
a tersely worded note reading: "You will report at once to the Chief of Tank Corps accompanied by your Reconnaissance officer and equipped
the for
field service."-'
For more than a year Pershing had been forging the
AEF
into a fighting
force that by the end of August 1918 exceeded 1,300,000 men. Troops were
pouring into France
summer of
of 10,000 per day. During the
at the rate
1918, Pershing had been injecting American units into the front lines to gain
combat experience. The great German offensive
in late
May was
thwarted
barely fifty miles from Paris, at Chateau-Thierry on the Marne, by the U.S.
2d and 3d Divisions. At Cantigny the
1st
Division
won
a small but impor-
tant victory.
The Marine Brigade fought magnificently French were beginning
to fall
at
Belleau Wood, where the
back under intense German pressure.
became
there that several immortal phrases
part of military lore.
It
was
When
a
French officer ordered a marine officer to withdraw his unit he was bluntly informed: "Retreat, eral
days
hell,
on June
later
we just
6,
got here." Instead the marines attacked sev-
One platoon was led by two-time Medal of Dan Daly, who exhorted his men with words
1918.
Honor winner Gunnery Sgt. would be repeated twenty-six years
that
later at
another place in France,
"Come on, you sons of bitches. Do you want to live forever?"" Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry became landmarks in the history of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps. The First Battle of the Marne in the summer of 1914 had left a large called
Omaha
Beach:
bulge in the form of a triangle some twenty-four miles wide and fourteen miles deep in the Allied front line between the
was centered on Saint-Mihiel,
a
town
situated
twenty-five miles southeast of Verdun.
It
v/as the ideal place to baptize
It
by
On August its
headquarters
eight miles
as the Saint-Mihiel salient.
Verdun and a nagging and
in the Allied side.
10 Pershing assumed at
command
of the U.S. First Army, with
Neufchateau. Pershing and the French chief of
shal Ferdinand Foch, agreed that the proper place to in the
It
an untested American army and in
the process eliminate a long-standing threat to
dangerous thorn
Rivers.
Meuse, about
and then northeast to a point on
was known fire
in the
The bulge commenced
east of Verdun, ran south to Saint-Mihiel.
the Moselle near Pont-a-Mousson.
Meuse and Moselle on a bend
Meuse-Argonne
employ
First
staff.
Mar-
Army was
sector of western Lorraine, located to the west of
Baptism
231
of Fire
Verdun. They also concurred that the Saint-Mihiel salient must inated.
Where they
violently disagreed
Army be fragmented and much
First
was over Foch's
of
command.
placed under French
it
Once again Pershing vehemently declined
to break
be elim-
first
insistence that the
up an American force
to
support a French attack in the Aisne sector, west of Verdun, but did accept
come
Foch's taunt that the time had their promises. In early
for the
Americans
September he would prove
it
make good on
to
by launching an offen-
sive to crush the Saint-Mihiel salient.
At the end of August the Saint-Mihiel sector was to become Pershing's
By World War I standards it had been relatively quiet since when the French had suffered nearly sixty thousand casualties in a failed attempt to recapture the salient. The front lines were about a half mile apart, and although there was little infantry action, there were frequent
responsibility.
April 1915.
gas attacks and artillery bombardments. American troops had replaced the
French and early on learned the perils of the deadly poison gas. The salient itself
Meuse
consisted of forested heights along the eastern banks of the
that
descended into the Woevre Plain, which contained a number of small lakes,
swamps, and woods. Through
the salient flowed only one river of any con-
sequence, the Rupt de Mad, a tributary of the Moselle.-^
Among Patton's
the units scheduled to participate in the offensive
program was so bogged down yet been manufactured to
in a
fill
French had promised but had yet
maze of bureaucracy
the brigade's needs. to deliver
ton's requirements. In addition, three
that
S.
in
all
three Allied tank brigades
one heavy U.S. brigade, one French Brigade. If
all
went according
June the
in
144 Renaults. enough to
American heavy tank
150 British Mark Vs), then training
no tanks had
Instead,
fill
Pat-
battalions (using
England, were being relocated to
France to add punch to the offensive, along with a French ment. In
was George
newly formed tank brigade. The trouble was. the American tank
would be
light tank regi-
participating in the battle:
and Patton's 1st Tank would be more than 555 Allied
light brigade,
to plan, there
tanks in support of the Saint-Mihiel offensive.'^
Patton left the tank center in the capable hands of newly promoted Major Viner. while he and his reconnaissance officer, 1st Lt. Maurice H. Knowles, traveled with Rockenbach and his chief of staff, Lt. Col. Daniel D. Pullen, to Neufchateau. Pullen
mixed Anglo-French
would command
force, while Patton's 1st
the 3d
Tank Brigade,
Tank Brigade was
of the 344th and 345th Tank Battalions, plus twenty-four Schneider
medium
Groupement [regiment]. At the last minute leaving an enormous void in Rockenbach's plans.-'
tanks of the French IV British
backed
out.
Because the Saint-Mihiel
salient consisted
movement of
himself the nature of the
terrain.
the
mainly of a lowland plain of
clay soil that, after prolonged rains, turned into a virtual seriously inhibit the
a
to consist
tanks, Patton
swamp
went forward
that
would
to learn for
During the night of August 21-22 he
— World War
232 accompanied a French patrol as
into
"most interesting" but "not
mile they
came
to the
I
no-man's land, describing the experience
at all exciting."
German
After crawling for well over a
outer wires where "the
Bosch whistled
at
us
and we whistled back and having seen what we wanted went home." For
some
Beatrice, Patton "picked
them when
I
get back. ...
I
dasies for you in the bosch wire and will send
rather
hoped we would have
a patrol encounter
but nothing happened."-"
His firsthand report contradicted Rockenbach, the area in early 1918 and concluded
it
was
who had
reconnoitered
suitable only for very limited
tank use. Patton disagreed, arguing that unless there were heavy rains, he
was
certain that his tanks could get the job done. Patton's findings
trip to the front
rest
his
of his military career: the "absolute necessity for a tank officer to per-
was
sonally see the ground" on which he
beyond the ate,
on
evolved into a cardinal principle he was to employ for the
front line to survey the
and returned
satisfied that the
He
to fight.-^
German
front
made
again
forays
on which he would oper-
ground would support
his tanks
if the.
rains held off.
The
original plan
was
for Patton's brigade to support the
from the northern corner of the ning, he
salient.
was suddenly summoned
informed that his brigade would
However,
after
V
to the headquarters of the
now be
Corps attack
days of detailed plan-
IV Corps and
in support of the 1st Division (the
Big Red One) and the 42d (Rainbow) Division.
Time was desperately short, and Patton had to scrap his plans and not new tactical battle plan but devise new logistical arrangements to get his tanks to railheads near the IV Corps front and establish fuel dumps near the front line. Although Patton managed to establish a tenthousand-gallon fuel dump, he was denied vital oil and lubricants. Unfamiliarity with the Tank Corps resulted in extensive problems with staff officers only develop a
in higher headquarters
who had no
concept of the unusual needs of the
"One fatuous staff officer said that the French mud tanks' tracks."-** The 42d Division had never trained with
fledgling armored force.
would
lubricate the
tanks;
its
commanders, while receptive
received only the barest of briefings. laid
on
to the idea
When
of tank support, had
Patton requested that
smoke be
from would have
as part of the preparatory artillery barrages to protect his tanks
German
antitank guns, the
42d Division G-3 refused because
meant amending and reissuing
the division fire plan.
it
A furious
Patton wrote
"The biggest fool remark I ever heard showing just what an is]." It took Rockenbach's personal intervention to compel the
in his diary:
S.O.B. [he
42d Division
to
honor Patton's
request.-''
Patton's Renaults did not begin arriving at
had
to
Bourg
until
August 24, and
be serviced and prepared for the forthcoming offensive. With com-
munications between tanks so tenuous, Patton designed an ingenious system of identifying each tank with markings in the form of playing-card
suits:
Baptism
233
of Fire
spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. There were four platoons in each tank
company, and each platoon was identified by one of the four
suits. Each of was given both a suit and a number. Thus, "hearts" platoon of C Company, 344th Tank Battalion,
the five tanks within a platoon the fifth tank in the
became known as the Five of Hearts.^" To prepare, move, and join men and tanks
at
the right time and place
exceptionally difficult under the best of conditions. before, and Patton's problems
is
had never been done
It
were increased by the necessity of moving
his
tanks the relatively short distance from Bourg to the front via the French railways. Although the offensive
was postponed
tank did not detrain until two hours before
moved
to spare they
into position,
H
September
until
hour.
12, the last
With barely ten minutes
where they were greeted by Patton. Even
though most had been without sleep for two nights, the tankers' concern was not sleep but whether or not they
Some
we be
"Will
would miss out on the coming battle. you make them wait for us?" And,
cried out, "Oh, Colonel, can't in time?"^'
Patton's custom of writing letters to raise the morale of his troops began at
Saint-Mihiel, where he issued his final order, in which he exhorted his
champion
tankers to
the future of the
Tank Corps by accomplishing
their
mission on the battlefield. To those familiar with Patton's later career, his
words bore a close resemblance
War
II.
"No
reminded
tank
is
to
to his
speeches to his troops during World
be surrendered or abandoned to the enemy," he
men:
his
enemy keep shooting. If your gun enemy with your tracks remember that you are the first American tanks. You must establish the fact that AMERICAN TANKS DO NOT SURRENDER. ... As long as one tank is able to move it must go forward. Its presence will save the This is our BIG lives of hundreds of infantry and kill many Germans. MAKE IT WORTHCHANCE; WHAT WE HAVE WORKED FOR. If
you are
is
disabled use your pistols and squash the
left
alone in the midst of the
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
WHILE.*^
The dreaded
rainy season had
commenced on September
8,
and by
had been raining incessantly for nearly four days. Beginning four hours before
German rent.
lines
When
H
D
day
it
:00 A.M.,
—just as the rains turned into a
ground attack commenced
a hillside overlooking the front line.
some doubts about
1
hour. 2.800 Allied guns began hurling shells into the
and lighting up the skies
the
at
at
5:00 a.m., Patton was
"When
the advisability of sticking
the shelling first started
my
tor-
sitting I
on
had
head over the parapet, but
Hke taking a cold bath, once you get in it it is all right. And I soon got out and sat on the parapet."'^ Ahead of him lay the pandemonium of the it
is
just
battlefield.
World War
234
I
Although Patton had planned down
to the smallest detail what each of would do on September 12, Murphy's law the first rule of warfare quickly came into play. At Saint-Mihiel the lack of training and cooperation between tanks and infantry led to untold problems. Less than thirty minutes after H hour, Major Brett's tanks, whose mission was to lead the 1st Division infantry, had advanced so fast that the infantry was
—
his tanks
—
nowhere to be seen. On the right flank, Capt. Ranulf Compton's 345th Tank Battalion was to follow closely behind the infantry of the 42d Division and then lead the attack on the villages of Essey and Pannes. Instead Compton's tanks encountered great difficulty breaching the main German trench line. The trench works were fourteen feet wide in places and the rain-soaked muddy banks surrounding them were insurmountable barriers for the majority of the battalion's tanks. Two tanks were knocked out by direct hits from the heavy German shell fire that pounded the 345th Tank Battalion and the lead brigade of the Rainbow Division. By approximately 9:30 A.M., when Patton arrived, only five had managed to reach the outskirts
of Essey.
Patton was intensely disappointed
much of
put up
gerous place from ground and sive, the
when
German
the
infantry failed to
a fight, but the battlefield nevertheless remained a very danartillery fire. In anticipation
Germans had decided
withdraw
to
to the area
of an Allied offen-
behind the Woevre
Plain and permit the Allies to advance into the plain before counterattacking.
However, three days before the offensive the Germans learned
was
to
be attacked from two flanks, and they decided
drawal.
By H hour two
to
that the salient
begin a phased with-
divisions were already withdrawing.''
Despite the rain and foggy conditions that pervaded the battlefield the
morning of September his hillside perch
was
what Patton could see from the
12,
that
most of
trenches that crisscrossed the
his tanks
German
sight." Ration's telephone wire
front lines. "It
had run
out,
Should he violate Rockenbach's
dilemma.^''
radio contact with his headquarters or
seemed and
to
relative safety of
be stalling
was a most
at this
point he faced a
explicit orders to
move ahead
into the
in the
irritating
remain
in
unknown reaches
of the battlefield? At 7:00 a.m. Patton simply could not resist the lure of the battlefield
any longer.
He
adjutant in charge of the telephone and,
left his
calmly smoking his pipe, entered the battlefield on foot with Lieutenant
Knowles and four runners. He passed some dead and wounded, but when he saw one American sitting in a shell hole holding his rifle, Patton thought the soldier was malingering and went to "cuss him out," only to discover he was dead from a bullet
in the
head."
In his letters and after-action reports Patton described in detail
the
whole country was
into the
woods.
It
was
how
alive with [tanks] crawling over trench[es] fine but
I
could not see
my
and
right battalion so
went
Baptism to look for fire
it,
in
doing so
duck and probably did besides
and
was
I
had
I
we
passed through several town[s] under shell
more than throw dust on
but none did
at first
up
to them.
us.
admit that
I
but soon saw the
the only officer around
to live
235
of Fire
It
who had
was much
futility left
on
easier than
I
wanted
of dodging
to fate,
his shoulder straps
you would think and
the feeling, foolish probably, of being admired by the
men
lying
down
is
a great stimulus."^**
Near the village of Maiserais, Patton encountered his French battalion commander, Maj. C. M. M. Chanoine, who was directing repair work on one of his tanks. As Patton began walking away, a German 150-mm shell struck the tank, killing or
wounding
the entire crew.
Major Chanoine was
knocked unconscious but miraculously recovered and was able
to carry on.
him to the outskirts of the village of Essey, where the 84th Brigade of the 42d (Rainbow) Division seemed to be stalled. The brigade commander was Brig. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who was perPatton's journey next took
sonally leading his infantrymen. "I walked right along the firing line
they were tle hill.
I
all in shell
holes except the general
joined him and the creeping barrage
was very
thin
that
we
let
it
"Each one [of
come over
us."
us]
Such
is
duel," during
[sic];
you never hear
the
.
standing on a
came along toward
.
.
lit-
us, but
it
to say to the
each hated to
to leave but
the nonsense written about Patton
which "Patton flinched
annoyed with himself, whereupon major
who was
.
wanted
one of MacArthur's biographers describes
"macho
.
and not dangerous."'^ Neither officer had much
other. Patton recorded:
say so, so
.
their at
meeting as an inevitable
one point and then looked
the brigadier said dryly, 'Don't worry,
one that gets you.'"^" Their meeting
that
morning was wholly by chance, and the only thing on Patton's mind was to uphold the honor of the Tank Corps in the same manner in which he had ordered his officers to behave. Upstaging MacArthur was not on his agenda.
However,
as
one writer has observed: "One properly placed German
World War I would have eliminated two major, controversial figures of World War 11."^' this
moment
in
shell at
inspiring and
was now nearly 10:00 A.M., and on the road on the northern edge of Essey there came the first real test of Patton's courage since the shoot-out in Mexico more than two years earlier. The bridge spanning the Rupt de Mad was reported to have been mined by the Germans, even though American engineers were unable to detect any evidence of telltale wires. In It
the village of
his official report, Patton described his brief discussion with
which he had asked
"if
we
could
move
Essey which contrary to expectations was found
in
intact.
He gave
his consent
was not mined. We walked over the bridge in a most catmanner expecting to be blown to heaven any moment but to our great
in [that] the bridge
like
MacArthur,
the tanks forward across the bridge at
relief
found
that the bridge
had not been tampered
with."^'
Baptism
It is
237
of Fire
another measure of the Patton myth that an accompUshed historian
and biographer, Wilham Manchester, would write of how deeply the scenes at
Essey affected MacArthur, saying
which and
set
him
ruthless,
and
was
that "it
of compassion
that vein
from the Pattons of the army. He could be ostentatious
apart
toward war would always be
... a killer. Yet his attitudes
highly ambivalent, exulting in triumph while pitying the victims of battle."^'
Lack of compassion was not
part of Patton's personality,
and he was as
deeply affected by the horror of war as MacArthur, or any other battlefield
commander. Some time prior his first impressions of war.
to Saint-Mihiel, Patton confided to Beatrice
Daughter Ruth Ellen
writes:
The war was all around him when he wrote Ma a letter, which shows a side of him that she always saw, but that few others, outside his immediate family, ever knew existed. He wrote to her that he had been inspecting a battleand
field at night,
that the
dead
soldiers, as yet
teams, were lying there in the moonlight.
Americans and
British
young and very dead changed cept
and
that the
would that.
and wiped
to think
their noses,
seemed unbearable, and he decided
such a stress was to
To him
try to think
sooner the
cease.
allies
men were
how
was hard
it
all
to tell the
looked alike
—very
often their mothers had
and suddenly the whole con-
that the only
way
to survive
under
of soldiers as numbers, not as individuals,
won, the sooner the slaughter of the innocents
However, no matter what he
his
unclaimed by the burial
said
from the Germans, and they
—and he began
their diapers
He
said,
individuals, people
he could never quite do
and responsibihties, always.^
For Patton, poetry was both a means of cheering himself up and of inspiring himself.
day
at
"He was always worried when he had stood on
Fort Sheridan
—
as he
had been
the target butts
—
that
long-ago
that
he would
name on it. He told you never heard the bullet that killed you as the missile travels faster than the sound. At such times, it was not uncommon for Patton to express himself through poetry, as he did in a poem called "The Moon and not be able to face the song of the bullet that had his us
.
.
.
that
the Dead."
The roar of the battle languished The hate from the guns grew still, While the moon rose up from a smoke cloud And looked at the dead on the hill.
Pale was her face with anguish
Wet were her eyes with
As she gazed at
tears,
the twisted corpses
Cut off in their earliest years.
World War
238
I
Some were bit by the bullet, Some were kissed by the steel, Some were crushed by the cannon But all were still, how still! The gas wreaths hung The blood
in the
stink rose in the
And the moon
looked down
At the poor dead lying
hollows
air,
in pity
there.
Light of their childhood's wonder,
Moon
of their puppy
love,
Goal of their first ambition She watched them from above. Yet not with regret she
mourned them
Fair slane [slain] on the field of strife. Fools only lament the hero
Who gives for faith
his
life.
She sied [sighed] for the
lives extinguished
She wept for the loves that grieve, But she glowed with pride at seeing That manhood
still
doth
live.
For though the moon is winsome wisdome she is old Nor grieves she for the fallen Nor grudges she the bold. In
Her years are for the hero Her hate is for the cur Her utter loathing for the hound Who shrinkes from righteous war The moon sailed on contented
Above the heapes of slane, For she saw that honor liveth
And manhood breathes again.'"' In Essey, MacArthur saw "a sight I shall never quite forget." The rapid American advance forced the Germans to evacuate the town in such a hurry
Baptism that they
239
of Fire
had abandoned a battery of guns, the complete instrumentation and
music of a band, and an officer's horse, which was found saddled
A number lars.
in a
bam.
of French civilians, mostly elderly men, also emerged from cel-
They had been
had no idea
that the
them
"to explain to
there during the four years of
German occupation and
United States had even entered the war. MacArthur had that
we were
Americans."^'
Although several Germans surrendered
to
both Patton and MacArthur,
Patton himself did not remain in Essey but after receiving MacArthur's per-
moved
mission,
his tanks forward
toward the next
village, called Pannes.
After more than three hours on the move, Patton, Lieutenant Knowles, and
one of
his runners, a sergeant
named Graham, were
too exhausted to walk
any farther and hitched a ride on one of the three remaining tanks. The road
between Essey and Pannes was
littered
with dead Germans and horses, the
remains of what had once been a German
artillery battery.
Two
of the tanks
soon ran out of gas, and as Patton's tank reached the outskirts of Pannes, the
which had been following them, apparently frightened by the hor-
infantry,
rific sights
of dead
men and
animals, refused to enter the town.^*"
To reassure the nervous infantrymen Patton explained that his tank would lead the way into Pannes. The sergeant commanding the tank was equally apprehensive, and Patton told him he would accompany the tank. He perched himself atop the Renault, while Lieutenant Knowles and Sergeant
Graham
sat
on the
tail
of the tank.
"I
watched one side of the
street
and they the other." Patton's official after-action account describes what happened:
We
continually expected to be shot off our precarious perch. At the north
end of the town we saw one German and Lieut. Knowles and
ham, the runner, got off the tank
to affect the capture.
prise they found thirty instead of
one but using
the entire crew.
Colonel Patton,
The tank continued out who was still sitting on
them
below
his
result of
until glancing
end of the town
the top of the tank, here fire
.
.
.
had the
but could not
the left side of the tank about six inches
hand he saw the paint flying from the side of the tank as the
numerous machine gun
to his heroic desire to
the tank
down
Sgt. Gra-
their great sur-
their pistols they captured
the northern
most horrible experience; he could hear machine gun locate
To
and landed
make
bullets striking against the tank.
in a shell hole a great distance
however was exceedingly small and delight in shooting at
its
Owing
the tank a less enticing target he leaped
upper
the
from
away. This shell hole
Germans took an unpleasant
rim.^"^
Not only had German gunners zeroed
in
on him, but the tank on which
he had been riding continued on, unaware that Patton was no longer a pas-
World War
240
I
The nearest infantry were about two hundred meters away, village. As Patton wrote:
senger.
at the
edge of the
He was
in a great state of perplexity ... if
he moved backwards and con-
ducted a strategical withdrawal the Infantry would think a tank officer
was running away; should he move forward he would become a distinct machine guns which he was now able to see about 500
target of the four
He
meters to his front.
finally solved the
problem by moving sideways
he regained the Infantry. During the course of
until
this
movement he was
repeatedly forced to seek shelter in small shell holes.'°
The
commander adamantly
infantry
refused Patton's request to
he would send a runner
move
his troops forward. Patton then
asked
which was cruising about
open, some 500 yards to their front. "To this
in the
request the heroic Infantry ton's only choice
To
this reply, 'Hell no,
aint
my
tank.' " Pat-
once again expose himself.
to
drew a long breath and went
after the tank
be going against the whole town alone.
this
time
I
was not
my
fixed in
head.
guns spitting
at
the least scared, as
I
me.
I
stick,
and thank
I
on foot as
God
it
was
come back he was much was quite
I
could not
I
H
.
On
I
could see the
reaching the tank
tapped on the back door with
The sergeant looked out and I told him to turn and walked just ahead of him on the
a long one.
now
depressed.
I
Colonel."
safe.
The Germans could be seen
in the distance retreating to the north,
apparently scared off by the presence in Pannes of Patton's five tanks. tanks again
moved
let
strange but quite true that at
had the idea of getting the tank
did however, run like
saluted and said "what do you want
return trip and
It is
did not even fear the bullets though
about four hundred yards out in the field
my
it
to the tank
his father he wrote:
I it
was
made
if
The
forward, this time accompanied by the infantry, until one
of the tanks began mistakenly firing on an American machine-gun emplace-
ment.
When
Patton asked the machine-gun officer to apprise the tank of
mistake, the officer told "this time
him
off.
however he did so with
Again Patton had less
its
to act as a runner, but
speed since there was very
little fire.
This third advance of the tanks finally proved successful."^' Patton had barely slept in four days, and after losing his rations was so hun-
some crackers taken from a dead German. "They were very would have given a lot for a drink of the brandy I had had in my sack." (His rations had been stolen by some German POWs. When Knowles
gry that he ate
good but
I
and Graham captured the Germans
in
Pannes, Patton was giving instructions
Baptism for the next attack,
on the town of Beney. He handed
Graham, who was guarding
moments hours
filled
his
haversack to Sgt.
POWs. When Graham
few
for a
left
with stones. Patton only discovered the loss some
it
later.)"
With things well Brett's battalion
some
much
gas.
It
men
Pannes, Patton began walking toward
at
where he found the tanks of the 344th Batfrom exhaustion and bleeding from a
in tears
comforted him and started
in his nose. "I
was most
less dramatic.
a lot of our
hand
left flank,
and Brett
wound
slight bullet
in
on the
talion out of gas
get
the
nearby German, the Germans emptied Patton's
to capture another
haversack and
241
of Fire
The dead were about mostly
stripping off buttons
.
.
[in]
.
war
as
now waged
hit in the
alone to
books but
head. There were
and other things but they always cov-
ered the faces of the dead in a nice way." than fear
home
interesting over the battle field like the
there
As
for fear, "Vanity
is little
is
stronger
of the element of fear," he
informed Papa.^^
A car,
wet, muddy, and exhausted Patton encountered an officer in a staff
apparently rubbernecking.
He gave
Patton a
lift,
but the road
was
filled
with infantrymen trudging forward, and their automobile was soon stuck
behind them. German airplanes had been active all
when one
day, and
two
spotted the congestion
it
soldiers walking directly behind the car in
were
riding.
I
have nerve.
I
mcArthur who never ducked If
bomb
was
the only
a shell.
I
man on
wanted
that killed
which Patton and the
His luck continued to hold, and he had proved "to
isfaction that
no good.
in the Saint-Mihiel sector
dropped a
officer
my own
sat-
the front line except gen
to but
it is
foolish as
it
does
they are going to hit you they will."^*
The results of Patton's training methods were immediately evident in the teamwork and heroics of many members of his brigade, among them Capt. Harry Semmes. As his tank was crossing the Rupt de Mad, it suddenly sank, becoming completely submerged. Semmes managed to escape through the turret and was swimming ashore when he remembered that his driver was trapped inside the tank. Although under fire from German infantry in a
Semmes swam back to the tank, dived into it, and dragged his ears. The two men then swam ashore and killed one of the Germans who had been shooting at them. First Lt. Julian K. Morrison, a platoon leader in Company A, came under fire from a German machine-gun nest situated in a nearby woods. nearby trench, the driver out
Unable
by
either to attack
it
with his tanks or reach
it
with his guns, Morrison
dismounted from his tank and attacked the German gunners on foot with only his
pistol.
Although twice wounded, he persisted and captured the
guns. Morrison later observed that a
Tank Corps
officer
it
was expected
was made
clear during his training that
to die, if necessary, to
accomplish the
mission. During his lectures Patton had instructed his officers that they must
World War
242 "go forward, go forward. Infantry.
If
I
failure in this,
tank officer behind the front line of infantry
chant for colorful language, no one his
down go forward
your tank breaks
There will be no excuse for your
who
I
will
—
."
and
if I
with the find any
Given Patton's pen-
heard him was
in
any doubt as
to
meaning. Early on
many of Major
rubble and barbed wire of the
enemy of
the tank
was
Brett's tanks
German
had broken down or
stalled in the
trench works. However, the deadliest
the boglike ground,
which one of Patton's repair and mud in which the tanks
salvage officers described as, "sticky, soggy, awful
wallowed
belly deep.'"^"^ After three tanks
had broken down, including the
one he was commanding, an annoyed and frustrated Brett got out of and, on foot, led those that remained for several kilometers,
under machine-gun and
rifle fire.
ple of coolness and courage to
man machine-gun crew from sard.
all
his tank
the time
Brett had, noted Patton, set "a fine
Ger-
the steeple of a church in the village of
Non-
His three company commanders had
all
distinguished themselves by
directing their tanks' advance, even though constantly exposed to fire.
Patton
exam-
his command.'"^" Later Brett shot a
all
recommended both
Brett and
Semmes
enemy
for the Distinguished Ser-
vice Cross for their bravery on September 12.
As
for Patton, his exploits on September 12 went unrecognized. DouMacArthur won his fifth Silver Star for gallantry at Essey; George S. Patton was severely admonished by his commanding officer when an irate Rockenbach learned where he had been that day. Rockenbach told Patton the night before the offensive: "There is no question of personal courage in this war; it is a business proposition where every man must be in his place
glas
Keep control of your reserve and supply, you have Tank and I give you the order not to go into this fight in a tank." As Rockenbach told a postwar audience: "Patton obeyed his order, but saw his duty to go in the fight on top of a tank."" Although Patton could claim to have carried out his order, Rockenbach was understandably furious that he had obviously violated its intent. A brigade commander's place, he scathingly informed Patton, was not in the front lines but at his command post, where he could direct the battle and, not and performing no business
his part.
in a
incidentally, be reached
by
wandering around on the
his higher headquarters.
battlefield
seriously considering relieving
Rockenbach reinforced
For Patton
to
was so grossly irresponsible
him of command
have been
that
he was
for insubordinate behavior.
his displeasure with a letter spelling out a
number of
points about what tank officers were expected to do in combat. For
all
his
when he was called on the carpet and knew he was in severe trouble for some serious infraction, Patton inevitably became calm and apologetic and usually managed to defuse the situation with eloquent mea culpas and promises to behave himself in the future. He was diplomatic enough to sense when contrition, not belligeraggressiveness and bluster, on those occasions
Baptism ence,
would soothe troubled waters.
did not hurt when, several days
usually sufficed. In this instance
It
Pershing wrote to
later,
bach for the performance of his tanks
243
of Fire
at Saint-Mihiel.
choice but to endorse the letter to Patton and his lations
It
on
Rockenbach had
little
with similar congratu-
good work.''
their
War
should be noted that during World
more
men
it
commend Rocken-
I,
command and
control were
Radio communications between comman-
theoretical than practical.
communicate was
ders and units were nonexistent, and the use of pigeons to
commander to keep a successful grip on a bathow much control Patton could have exercised
hardly a prescription for any tle.
It
was problematical
from a command post
in the rear.
Thus,
in spite
of of the worst tonguelash-
ing he had ever received, Patton
was unmoved and
though Rockenbach was correct
in pointing
in the rear
he had effectively cut himself out of the chain of command.''^
"General R. gave not
me
hell for
going up but
my men
dug out and have
a
sit in
even
utterly unrepentant,
out that by abandoning his post
it
had
to
be done. At
least
will
I
out fighting." In future operations
command
Rockenbach ordered Patton
to
Although Patton took steps
ensure that there were better communications
to
remain
at
with Rockenbach during the next offensive, he
his
still
brigade
post.
had no intention whatso-
ever of remaining in the rear while his brigade was in action.
Patton had thoroughly indoctrinated the Tank Corps in his brand of aggressive leadership.
To
a
man
his officers
no matter what. In
their infantry,
were resolved never
to fall
behind
Morrison
his account. Lieutenant
later
explained:
In the Saint-Mihiel drive Tankers could be seen any
where from one
seven kilometers in front of the infantry. Everyone fought
pany
clerks,
to
—cooks, com-
mess sergeants, runners and mechanics. So closely was
the
order that the Tank Corps nearly starved for two or three days afterward.
Needless to say before the next fight orders came out
Martial
.
.
.
[however] the
to the effect that
him would be dealt with by Court [was] sufficourage of the Tank Corps
anyone leaving the post assigned
to
.
.
.
ciently proved.
Although Patton was momentarily ceeded beyond expectation
Corps
in
Rockenbach's doghouse, he had suc-
in inspiring the officers
to the very highest standards of
and men of the Tank
behavior on the battlefield.
He
taught
them; they listened and achieved. Rockenbach's point notwithstanding, inas-
much
was the first-ever day of combat for the untested U.S. Army example Patton set by being seen on the battlefield was of importance than anything he could have done had he remained
as this
Tank Corps, far greater
the
World War
244 behind the
lines. In
I
terms of inspiration alone the value of his presence was
message
incalculable, and sent the
that Patton practiced
At Cambrai the British commander, Gen. Hugh that
it
was important
for
which he did by riding
him
example
to set the
his mind.
"Tankers belong
in tanks,"
Although the offensive did not
he
officially
Saint-Mihiel salient had been eliminated by
Germans had withdrawn
Army had its first
sive after
it
a bad idea but soon
said.'"
end
until
September
dawn on September
practical purposes the Saint-Mihiel offensive
all
day.
The
1st
September
Tank Brigade played only
12.
14, the 13.
Hindenburg Line, and although the
to the
to repulse several counterattacks during the night of
13-14, for
on
tank battle,
in their first
tank with his battle flag displayed from
in the lead
the turret. Colonel Fuller, his chief of staff, thought
changed
what he preached.
Elles, believed strongly
Most of
Brett's tanks
a
were
minor still
The First
September
had succeeded
role in the offen-
out of gas, and the
only resupply was from sleds towed by some of the tanks. Gas trucks bearing the precious fuel were mired in traffic
A
jams on roads leading
to the front.
few tanks were refueled by draining the tanks of others for whatever gas
could be obtained. roll.
Compton's
By midday
battalion
both battalions were refueled and ready to
advanced
to St. Benoit, while fifty of Brett's tanks
advanced toward the village of Vigneulles, four miles second day
in a
to the west.
For the
row, Patton did a good deal of walking around the Saint-
Mihiel battlefield.
At 5:00 A.M. on September
14, Brett personally reconnoitered the area
around Woel on a captured German motorcycle
ments of the missing
knowledge
1st
He
Division.
was
that his battalion
in
in
hopes of locating
ele-
returned empty-handed and with the
no-man's land, where there were no
troops to be seen from either side. Patton arrived at about 6:00 A.M. and
with no infantry to support, decided to use Brett's tanks to naissance into no-man's land.
On
make
shing's intelligence officer. Brig. Gen. Dennis Nolan, and informed
was "looking come from Woel,
a recon-
the road to Woel, Patton encountered Per-
him
that
Brett's battalion
for a fight and the First Division." Nolan,
who had just
told
him
German battalion. Four men on captured horses were
that the
town had been newly evac-
uated by a
sent out in different directions in an
attempt to locate friendly infantry, to no avail. At noon Patton ordered Captain
for
Semmes
to
send a reconnaissance patrol toward Woel to again search
any sign of American troops. Near Jonville, the
patrol, consisting of
command of Lt. Ted McClure, ran into a retreating German infantry unit and a 77-mm artillery battery and became embroiled in a fierce firefight. When the German artillery began to three tanks and five infantrymen, under the
turn their guns into direct-fire
McClure
weapons
led a cavalrylike charge
German 77s
in
an attempt to destroy the tanks,
and succeeded
but a quantity of machine guns.
The
in
capturing not only the
infantry
were routed.
Baptism
245
of Fire
The tanks soon came under German artillery fire, and McClure and two men were wounded by shrapnel. When two of his tanks broke down, enterprising young lieutenant refused to abandon them. Instead he cou-
of his the
pled
all
three together, and the lone serviceable tank
two toward friendly
lines.
He
sent one of the
began towing the other
wounded men
to the rear to
request assistance, and five tanks were dispatched to reinforce what today
would have been called Task Force McClure. All returned McClure's courageous performance bility
that
safely."
day helped establish the credi-
of the Tank Corps and a tradition of excellence that has characterized
army tankers in the years following its re-creation as the Armored Force in 1941. It was the valor of men like McClure, Brett, and Semmes that more than justified their new nickname, the "Treat 'Em Rough" boys." the performance of
This final tank action of the Saint-Mihiel offensive earned high praise
from Patton for being the leader of "the only [known] successful operation of tanks absolutely unaided by other troops in attacking and routing an
More
enemy."^'
ton's trademark
—
Lieutenant McClure's exploits so impressed Patton that he later told
tion.
Semmes if
it sowed the seeds of what was to become Patemployment of armor in World War II the deep penetra-
important,
that
German
he believed his tanks could have slashed into the
only McClure's force had been larger.
an opportunity presented
itself
He vowed
that the next time
rear
such
he would employ a larger number of tanks
and aim for a genuine breakthrough.'^ What Patton had begun
to envision
Tank Corps as a support arm of the infantry. He had grasped the enormous potential of the tank as a potentially decisive factor on the modern battlefield. It was the went
far
beyond
the officially prescribed mission of the
concept of mobile warfare, and
it
had begun with what became barely a
footnote in the history of the battle of Saint-Mihiel.^'
During the interwar years Patton would refine
would
state that
his ideas
and by 1928
with the advent of the tank and the airplane there was
solution to the problem of delivering the
coup de grace
to
now
a
an enemy force.
"Such a [tank and aerial] force could be used in a manner analagous to that employed by Napoleon with his heavy cavalry. The tanks and attack planes or a large proportion of them should be held as a reserve to be used after a general battle had developed the enemies plans and sucked in his reserves.
Then
at the
ruthlessly
The
this force
should be launched
in mass."^^
battle of the Saint-Mihiel salient lasted barely thirty-six hours, but for
the fledgling single
cess
predetermined time and place
and
AEF,
its first
offensive
was
a stunning triumph that
day erased what the Germans had held for four years, and
reaffirmed
what had already been proven
at
Belleau
Chateau-Thierry: that American troops were the equal of any
had
in a
in the pro-
Wood
who
and
fought on
World War
246
I
the battlefields of France. In his postwar report Pershing
"the allies found that they had a formidable
army
enemy
with."'^^
learned finally that he had one to reckon
would write
to aid them,
that
and the
MacArthur argued in vain to his superiors that the success in the SaintMihiel salient was a golden opportunity to have captured Metz and turned the
German
left flank,
an argument
later
taken up by the British historian
and military thinker Basil Liddell Hart. Others,
like the
I
Corps commander,
Maj. Gen. Hunter Liggett, thought that "the possibility to tak[e] Metz existed only on the supposition that our
machine, which
was
it
as yet!"^**
not,
Army was
One
of the
.
.
.
a well coordinated
German commanders many
defending the Saint-Mihiel salient said: "I have experienced a good things in the five years of
war and have not been poor in success but I must among my few black days."*'- German casual-
count the 12th of .September
included fifteen thousand
ties
POWs
numbered seven thousand.^" Patton was disappointed by the
and the
loss of
257 guns; American
losses
ity
He
Battle of Saint-Mihiel.
minimal resistance of the Germans had not resulted
the
felt that
in a true test
of the abil-
of the tank as a fighting machine. Losses were minor, two tanks lost to
direct hits
by German
fire,
forty stalled in trenches
and
thirty out
of gas.
Five tankers were killed and nineteen wounded, four of them officers. "The great feat the tanks performed
was
getting through at all," he explained to
"The conditions could not have been worse. Overall, "as a fight, this operation was not very decisive
Beatrice.
but as an exploit in mechanics, driving and endurance
Tanks designed
to cross six-foot trenches
were made
it
to the Tanks,
is
unequalled.
to cross trenches
ten to fourteen feet wide, and not only one but trench after trench."^'
174 tanks in action, 3 took direct to
mechanical trouble or trapped
was able
to report 131 tanks
the conditions encountered
Despite his
own
had every reason quential, he
fit
works.
On September
16 Patton
battlefield.^^
annoyance with him, Patton
to feel pleased with Saint-Mihiel. First,
had overcome the fear of combat
and most conse-
that every soldier
his personal courage.
endures and
And, while
his tanks
particularly well in their first test of battle, his
had. Mechanical and tactical problems can be fixed; repairing leader-
ship deficiencies
men
in trench
for action, a remarkable achievement, given
on the
had not acquitted themselves
the
and 43 others were out of action due
feelings and Rockenbach's
had proved beyond any doubt
men
hits
from
Of
is
a lot harder. Patton had clearly
imbued
the officers and
of the Tank Corps with his brand of inspired leadership. Moreover, as
Dale Wilson notes,
until Saint-Mihiel: "Patton
had adhered
to the idea that
tanks were strictly an infantry support asset." But the battle "provided
him
with a vision of what more mechanically advanced tanks might be able to
accomplish on future battlefields operating as an independent combat arm. Patton also exhibited that rare ability to adjust quickly to a rapidly changing
Baptism
247
of Fire
situation on the battlefield. This trait would later become a hallmark of his World War II operation s."^^ By the standards of World War I, the Saint-Mihiel offensive was both brief and relatively minor. Nevertheless sixteen American divisions and one
French colonial division, consisting of more than 650,000 men, battled Ger-
man Composite Army C and of the German-held
Now, shal
Foch
in a
mere
liberated
ten days, the
to shift its operations
where a fresh offensive was
Tank Brigade was
more than two hundred square miles
salient.^'
to
First
Army was
from Saint-Mihiel
under orders from Marto the
Meuse-Argonne,
be launched on September 26. Patton's
slated to play an important role in that offensive.
1st
CHAPTER 18
Valor Before Dishonor The Meuse-Argonne His date with destiny, so long anticipated
and dreaded, came on September
26, 1918.
—RUTH ELLEN TOTTEN
The grand Allied design
for the early
autumn of 1918 called
for a series of
offensives across the entire front, to be kicked off on September 26 with the
U.S. First
Army and the French Fourth Army initiating First Army was to attack from the south
Argonne. The
Meuse
mile front, from the Argonne Forest to the
attacks in the
Meuse-
across a twenty-four-
River, with the French
launching their offensive to the west, on the American
left flank. In
subse-
quent days massive Allied attacks would commence, with British, Belgian, French, Australian, and American forces attacking to crush the Hindenburg
Line in the west.
The problems facing Pershing between tle
the
end of the Saint-Mihiel
bat-
and the commencement of the Meuse-Argonne offensive were stagger-
ing. First,
220,000 French troops had
American troops could be positioned
moment
to
be removed from the area before
but, to
deceive the Germans, only
at
The burden of planning fell on (now) Col. George C. Marshall, the First Army G-3, who was responsible for moving more than 500,000 American troops into position in the Argonne, along with more than 2,000 guns and 900,000 tons of ammunition and supplies, along only three roads.' To avoid detection, troop units had to march toward Bar-le-Duc, a town on the Marne some twenty-five
the very last
before the offensive began.
249
Valor Before Dishonor
miles southwest of Saint-Mihiel, before turning north on one of the few
roads that led toward the sparsely populated forests of the Argonne.
Those had
be
to
units in the Saint-Mihiel sector, such as Patton's tank brigade,
moved
sixty miles during the rainy season. Marshall's well-laid
plans proved impossible to carry out: "They broke
down
almost from the
beginning. Thousands of the 90,000 horses that were hauling supplies
through the waterlogged country near the Meuse collapsed or died in their causing monumental
traces,
traffic
jams. In the almost constant drizzle,
engineers worked tirelessly with rocks and gravel,
mired roads."- Night after night rain
on roads scarcely
A
fit
men sweated and
for a horse
mud and
logs to repair
labored in the
mud
and
and buggy.
plan was concocted to deceive the
Germans
into believing that Per-
shing intended to continue the offensive in the former Saint-Mihiel salient
Metz or drive eastward deep into Alsace. The deception Germans convinced that the movement of Ameriform a new army to be located between Saint-Mihiel and
to either capture
worked
well, leaving the
can units was
to
Verdun. Part of the plan included a demonstration near Pont-a-Mousson by
Compton's 345th Tank Battalion. The obvious but false conGermans were to draw was that Patton's tanks were part of a American force being assembled to launch an offensive in that sector.
fifteen tanks of
clusion the large
During the early evening hours of September 22, the tanks motored into no-
man's land just long enough for the Germans
to learn of their presence but
not calculate their actual strength.'
The
terrain
over which the First
Germans, who had used front of the
attacker ter
main
(fourth)
Army would
attack strongly favored the
skillfully to establish three defensive belts in
Hindenburg Line, behind which was yet another
Freya Stellung. To successfully penetrate these defenses, an
the
line,
it
would have
to run a gauntlet of fire that
was dominated
in the cen-
of the sector by the heights surrounding the town of Montfaucon. The
Argonne Forest was
a thousand feet
above sea level and consisted of a
series
of deep ravines and bluffs that were heavily defended, while on the right
Meuse River provided an unfordable barrier. As the First Army Brig. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, would later state: "This was the most ideal defensive terrain I have ever seen or read about."^ The only posi-
flank the chief of
staff,
tive aspect
man
was
divisions.
that the twenty-four-mile front
was held by only
five Ger-
Like Saint-Mihiel, the Meuse-Argonne sector had been
largely inactive since the first year of the
war and
for
some time had been
considered a place where battle-weary troops from both sides were sent to rest
and recuperate. Parties of Germans and French could frequently be seen
squirrel hunting in
1914
still
lay
no-man's land, where the corpses of soldiers killed
where they had
fallen,
in
macabre skeletons covered by uniforms
of blue or gray.'
To compensate
for the miserable terrain
and the German
ability rapidly
World War
250 to reinforce the
his staff
forces.
Argonne
I
front with another fifteen divisions, Pershing
drew up a bold plan
that relied
and
on surprise and a preponderance of
Numbering 250,000, the assault troops were to crush German resisfirst two defensive belts so that the First Army would
tance quickly in the
advance the ten miles preventing
to the
Hindenburg Line within twenty-four hours, thus
German reinforcements from being moved
can divisions would simultaneously assault
Marshal Petain, the French commander boldness did not pay off
at
at
in chief,
H
forward. Nine Ameri-
hour on September 26.
believed that
if
surprise and
once, the Americans faced the likely possibility
of a winter stalemate before the second defensive
line.'' It
was a
risk that
Pershing believed had to be taken, and, as historian John Toland has written,
among
"probably only Pershing
Allied
commanders would have dared
take the risks he faced," particularly since his only veteran troops were
disengaging from the Saint-Mihiel
and four of the nine assault
salient,
to
still
divi-
sions were untested in battle.^ In short, the risks were enormous, but so too
were the potential rewards.
The 1st Tank Brigade was spared the chaos of movement to the Argonne by road. Patton's tanks returned to the Saint-Mihiel railhead and entrained on flatcars for the journey to a railroad siding
at
Argonne. They arrived in the dead of night and unloaded
Clermont-en-
by-nowwas a difficult and hazardous undertaking, and Semmes credits Patton with making the impossible occur.** The tanks were moved into a wooded area three kilometers north. With German planes active in the Meuse-Argonne sector during daylight, it had been impossible to remove the telltale tracks at night. Patton instinctively familiar drizzling rain.
It
suspected danger and ordered his tanks
any sign of
their tracks
his tanks left the first
the
in the
moved
again, this time obliterating
by laying small branches over them. Not long
bivouac area, German
artillery
after
began raining down on
site.
One of
naissance of the
German
front
to
from no-man's
tryside as "like a haunted forest ... in the day
much
dawn
less
it is
alive with
men and
saw such numbers of guns.
the offensive, the French
manned
horses It is
offensive spoke in
accomplish "certain things not
to
dangerous which must be done," a reference
dark to
new
Patton's letters to Beatrice before the
vague terms of going out "night owling"
conducting a personal reconland. it is
&
He
described the coun-
nearly deserted but from
guns you never dreamed of
wonderful."^
Up
to the
the front lines to lull the
day before
Germans
into
believing that nothing would happen in this sector. American reconnaissance patrols, Patton's included,
wore blue French uniforms and helmets
to
main-
tain the deception.
As
it
had been
at
Saint-Mihiel, the mission assigned Patton's tank
brigade was to support two divisions of the sions (both National
Guard
I
Corps. The 28th and 35th Divi-
divisions, the 28th
from Pennsylvania and the
World War
252
I
35th from Kansas-Missouri), were to attack side by side toward the villages
of Varennes and Cheppy. The 28th Division would assault north along the eastern edge of the the
open
Argonne
made
Patton's reconnaissance in the
Argonne
Forest, while the 35th Division attacked across
Vauquois Heights.
terrain north of the
it
obvious that his tanks could not operate
was not well
Forest. In fact the entire sector
suited for the
use of tanks, and Patton's report was couched in negative terms. There was only a narrow
on the
strip
right flank of the 28th Division in
which tanks
could operate, and to further complicate matters, the Aire River (boundary line)
flowed between the axis of advance of the two divisions, thus eliminat-
ing any possibility of mutual support.
Patton assigned the most difficult mission to the more experienced Brett
and
his 344th Battalion.
As
at
Saint-Mihiel, the infantry
the assault, and in the 35th Division sector, be followed by nies of the 344th.
Although hardly
ideal,
it
would spearhead two tank compa-
was nevertheless an imaginative terrain. Even so Patton
by the inhospitable
solution to the difficulty posed
considered the Argonne better terrain for his tanks than the marshlands of Saint-Mihiel.
Accompanying
his operations order
detailed examination of the terrain and
ought to be employed the
I
Corps chief of
in the
staff,
was a memorandum
how
that included a
both the infantry and his tanks
forthcoming offensive. Brig. Gen. Malin Craig,
was
sufficiently impressed with
what Patton had
written that he ordered a copy furnished to each division commander.'"
In the
few hectic days prior
Murphy's law inevitably
to the offensive,
One hundred thousand gallons of gasoline arrived in tank cars without a single pump. "Now we can't get it out except by dippers!!!" stormed Patton. Of the many frustrations he experienced at Saint-Mihiel, undoubtapplied.
edly the greatest were the numerous opportunities lost because there was no gasoline for his tanks. Resupply had been a time-consuming nightmare, and,
having learned
this lesson well,
Patton approached the Argonne campaign
determined to rectify the problem. "The Saint-Mihiel Offensive had taught
immediate supply of extra gas, so each tank moving into was required to carry two 20-liter cans tied to its tail." The two large fuel dumps Rockenbach established along Route Nationale 3, not far from the front, failed to satisfy Patton, who managed to deploy an additional twenty thousand gallons for the 344th in two forward gas dumps of his own, the necessity for an
action
within a half mile of the front line."
Patton
became increasingly
irritated
when
things went wrong.
His
brigade staff bore the brunt of his criticism and complaints that "I spoon fed these hounds so
much
that they are helpless
ought to go to the W.C. to see himself responsible not such a great
for,
"reaping what
commander
and run
if it is all right."
after
I
all.
sewed.
.
to
me
every time they
But Patton ultimately held .
.
Some
times
I
think
Just a fighting animal. Still
I
I
am will
253
Valor Before Dishonor
At
one learns by mistakes
improve
in time.
made
there are tto make]."
all
"never do
Mostly
it
again
least if
if
As
pull through this.
I
I
ought
to
But
is
it
a big
be wise.
I
have
vowed he would
for his "rotten staff," he
Hellish big."'-
if.
was the result of fatigue, frazzled nerves, and his neverwhen, despite his powerful personality, his troops were
his reaction
ending frustration,
unable to respond to the high (some would say, impossible) standards he
set
for them.
Somehow, before
was launched, Patton managed to write few clues as to where he was other fancy our next show will be less easy than the first that the offensive
several letters to Beatrice, but offered
than to note
that: "I
the bosch fight and
is if
fight as
I
I
did this time.""
think they will. ...
He
you
will wire
I
after the next
reminded Beatrice how much he missed
also
ways that in more modem times might draw a return young and fat, not too fat to me, in my thoughts of you. I wish I could squeeze you and pinch you and cuddle you and love you tonight instead of going out to work in the mud alone. I shall have forgotten sometimes
her,
"You
blast.
in
are always
how. Perhaps?"'^ His
final letter
word
Just a to
was dated September to
you before
25.
leave to play a
I
be the biggest battle of the war or world so
morning but
this will not
will give us hell but
I
be mailed until after
little
140 Tanks.
have a
We go up a stinking
rest I
hauling. ...
starts
I
that. If the
In
I
...
this I
time just as
have been
all
at
I
H
-h
hour
fights he
show
will not
tired
me
and
all
at
be
will
about
at all a
show we
will
the tanks need over
so feel quite safe.
Polo or
I
in all
I
am
always
Foot ball before the game
right after that
I
hope
I
keep on
that
love you you you always.
what was clearly an attempt
1
Bosch
think that after this
to mollify
Rockenbach, Patton included
a notation in his written orders that his front-line at
in the
which
river valley
few hours.
have your picture with
but so far
way. ...
in a
hope so for the men are
nearvous about
what promises
kick off in the
don't think he intends to fight very hard. ...
have two Battalions and a group of French tanks
comfortable place
part in
We
far.
at the site
command
post
of the 35th Division field headquarters.
would open The tip-off
would not necessarily operate from there could be found in the would have from six to ten runners with him. In fact his entourage on the morning of September 26 consisted of himself, his reconthat Patton
reference that he
naissance officer, Captain Knowles; his signal officer,
1st
Lt.
Edwards, twelve enlisted runners, a number of pigeons carried field telephones,
and a large quantity of telephone
wire.'^ If
Paul S.
in baskets,
Rockenbach
intended to admonish him a second time, Patton's disobedience would not
be for lack of preparation.
World War
254 *
I
*
*
At 2:30 A.M. on the morning of September 26, some 2,800 guns began hammering the German used by
many
front.
From
75-mm gun mammoth fourteen-
the fires of the smallest French
of the American artillery batteries, to the
inch railroad guns situated far to the rear, the sight was, as air ace Capt.
Eddie Rickenbacker observed from his Spad
fighter, like "a giant switch-
board which emanated thousands of electric flashes as invisible hands manipulated the plugs."
An American
corps
commander recorded
the
ewnt
"as the sound of the collision of a million express trains."'^ During the three
hours preceding
managed
sides
was
H
hour, the Allies
expended more ammunition than both
to fire throughout the four years of the Civil War.
later calculated to
The
cost
have been $180 million, or $1 million per minute.
Twenty-five miles away, the windows rattled in the house occupied by the
German army commander. Gen. Max von
On
Hill 290, half a mile
crude dugout
command
Regiment began guns
firing
in support of the
Gallwitz.'**
west of Neuvilly and not far from Patton's
post. Battery D,
2nd Battalion, 129th Field
one thousand rounds per hour from 35th Division. The
commanding
officer
Artillery
four
its
75-mm
was a
thirty-
AEF Artillery
Guardsman from Missouri, a recent graduate of the School, Capt. Harry S. Truman. From Truman's vantage point
the fireworks
were as breathtaking as they were deadly.
four-year-old National
though every gun
in
France was turned loose.
they would boil [the] wet gunnysacks
Truman wrote With
H
to his wife, Bess, a
we
month
.
.
.
My
It
appeared "as
guns were so hot that
put on them to keep them cool," '"^
later.
hour upon them, thousands of infantrymen awaited the signal to
move forward
into
no-man's land. To a
man
they experienced the heart-
pounding, suffocating, dry-mouthed, gut-wrenching feeling that inevitably precedes the
first
moments of combat. Most had never fought
September 26, and on subsequent days, Patton and
his tankers
On
before.
would experi-
ence combat in the Argonne offensive that would make Saint-Mihiel seem like child's play.
During the march
to the front lines the night
of September 25-26, Brett's
344th Tank Battalion was preparing to cross a bridge over the Aire Neuvilly
MPs how there
when German 77-mm
shellfire
began raining down,
at
two
killing
guarding the bridge. Patton was present, and concern mounted as to his tanks could
be gotten safely across the bridge. Then Patton noticed
were predictable
lulls
between barrages, which he took advantage of to
way
speed a tank company across before the shelling began again. In
this
the tanks navigated this dangerous place without incident or loss of
life.^°
For much of the year the Argonne is shrouded in dense fog, and the morning of September 26, 1918, was no exception. At H hour, 5:30 A.M., American doughboys left the safety of their trenches and began advancing
255
Valor Before Dishonor
began chewing up the ground
into the fog as rolling artillery barrages
them
front of
—and presumably any Germans unlucky enough
in
to get in the
way. Initially all
went well across the
except the main attack centered
front,
on the Montfaucon heights, which proved every
bit as difficult as predicted,
despite an eight-to-one numerical superiority. Patton
move forward and remained
impulse to post in a
group
woods outside Neuvilly and began following
left
until
when he and
6:30 A.M.,
in the tracks
managed
to resist the
Tank Brigade command
in the 1st
command
his
of Major Brett's leading tank
companies, astride Route Nationale 46. The tanks soon ran into a German minefield but, as Patton would later write, "thanks to the courtesy of the
Germans
in leaving
up warning signs [ACHTUNG MiNEN] the tanks avoided
this danger."-'
Patton's
own
description conveys a sense of the confusion that pre-
vailed that morning. "It artillery]
started
were shooting
forward
at
guns were going
one could
tell
was lots
terribly
6:30 to see
every direction
in
who
foggy and
they belonged
in front
to. I
had
a compass," which became Patton's only
By
in addition
they [American
smoke shells so we could not see ten feet. I what was doing but could see little. Machine
of
behind and on both six
men
sides.
means of navigation.
10:00 a.m., Patton's party had advanced as far as a crossroads about
500 yards south of
where he sent
the village of Cheppy,
and only
his first
pigeon message to inform Rockenbach of his location and what
knew
But no
—runners— with me and
little
he
down to await the arrival of Compnot know until the fog began lifting a
of the tactical situation. They sat
ton's reserve tanks.
few minutes
later
What
was
Patton did
that in the
confusion and the fog he had
Saint-Mihiel) actually advanced beyond his
become entangled
in a trench
works some
1
own
tanks,
25 yards to his
Trouble began as soon as the fog started to
lift.
(just as at
many of which had rear.
A German
communique
characterized the fleet of tanks that suddenly appeared in their midst as "like the brothel of hell."'^ Nevertheless,
they could
hit,
what the German gunners could
and the Germans seemed
to
see,
be everywhere. "The tanks, as
well as the Infantry, were subjected to intense fire from the front, flanks and
sometimes from the
German
artillery
rear," Patton later
began ranging
in
wrote
When
in his official report.
on the crossroads and machine guns
situ-
ated in and around Cheppy, along the road to Varennes, and in the nearby
Bois de Cheppy, began raking the crossroads, Patton and his party hastily took refuge behind a nearby narrow-gauge railway
mined
that
there were at least twenty-five
cut. (It
was
later deter-
German machine-gun
nests
defending Cheppy.)
The capture of Cheppy was Division's mission on the
Cheppy
that, instead
first
essential to the
accomplishment of the 35th
day of the offensive. However,
of an orderly advance, bedlam reigned.
As
it
was
at
they had
— World War
256
I
during the Saint-Mihiel offensive, Patton's tanks had advanced beyond most
of the infantry they were supporting. Artillery
man machine-gun doughboys of
combined
fire
to create
from both sides and Ger-
entering battle for the
only cany a soldier so
first
time
would have given pause Guardsmen from Kansas and Missouri
it
proved
to
be too much. Enthusiasm, can
far."-'^
Some had become for their units; others
lost in the
fog and were wandering around looking
had panicked and were fleeing toward friendly
who
they encountered Lt. Col. George S. Patton,
remain with him. The
lifting
fire
certain death
by exposing themselves by dashing for the
lected all the soldiers
I
found
who were
lost
rear:-^
"So
I
col-
and brought them along. At
had several hundred.""
born. Here
his account, written
is
were shot
at to
to run but
we
George
two days
Patton the warrior was
S.
later to Beatrice: "All at
we
once
beat hell with shells and machine guns. Twice the inft started
hollored at them and called them
all sorts
of names so they
But they were scared and some acted badly, some put on gas masks,
some covered kill
German
Patton preferable to risking almost
In the next several hours the legend of
staled.
lines
ordered them to
of the fog and the increasingly intense
made remaining with
machine-gun
I
of the
first-day mission
to veteran soldiers; for the National
times
many
the green 35th Division simply could not cope. Historian Dale
Wilson observes: "The division's
when
fire
such chaos that
their face[s] with their
hands but none did a damed thing
Bosch. There were no officers there but
German
fire raining
down around
to
me."-**
the railway cut
became so
intense that
Patton and his ad hoc infantry force were forced to seek sanctuary on the reverse slope of a small rise about a hundred yards to the south.
German
trench works had
tanks of Brett's
become
Company C were
a troublesome bottleneck.
A
nearby
The leading
entangled in a very wide and deep trench
and the remainder of Capt. Math L. English's Renaults were halted and unable to advance. The situation quickly worsened ton's reserve
Schneider tanks began arriving, creating a massive
began
when Captain Comp-
companies and Major Chanoine's two battalions of heavy
lifting, the
Germans
traffic
jam.
sent spotter aircraft aloft, enabling
When them
the fog
to direct
increasingly heavy artillery fire on this lucrative target.
A disaster was in the making unless the trench works was breached which from Patton's vantage point appeared increasingly unlikely by the minute. Patton wrote that their presence presented "a dangerously large get to the enemy.
However, before they registered on the
were scattered behind various cover. in
Two
tar-
spot, the tanks
French Schneider tanks persisted
pushing forward, and were stalled in the only [other] crossing over the
trench system."-*^
When
Patton noticed that the two Schneiders and English's Renaults
remained stuck, he sent Lieutenant Knowles and
later,
his
batman, Pfc.
257
Valor Before Dishonor
Joseph
T.
Angelo, with orders to get them freed and moving forward
and eliminate the German machine guns.
to attack
he sent Lieutenant Edwards to
come up over
When
bottom of the slope and found
account of the two trenches.
once
Captain English, "to have five tanks
tell
machine guns
the hill and attack the
went
"I
to
were being held up on
that the tanks
A group
nothing
in front." Still
happened. Finally, exasperated and enraged, Patton went himself. the
at
nothing happened
of French tank
men were
sitting in the
trench with shovels."
According
to
Edwards,
went over
to the tanks
of very heavy machine-gun
fire
and
which were being splattered with machine gun
fire
in the face
increasingly effective artillery
fire,
Patton immediately
and removed the shovels and picks and put the men
down
of the repeated requests that he step
to
in the trench
work. ... In spite
from
his
exposed
position the Colonel steadfastly refused to do so saying "To Hell, with
them
—they
number of
can't hit me." There were a
who were
those
tearing
down
casualties
among
the sides of the trenches for the passage of
the tanks but the Colonel refused to budge.'"
Patton's
own
when
version was that
there
was no sign of progress
in
freeing the tanks:
I
decided to do business. ... So
I
went back and made some Ameri-
cans hiding in the trenches dig a passage.
would not work so
I
hit
him over
for they shot at us all the time but
parapet. ...
At
last
we
about 150 doughboys started but
As
I
got
my
later
of the low
We
described by his daughter, the
hill
killed
now
one man here he It
I
started
was exciting the
them forward
[walking] stick and said
when we
got fierce right along the ground.
"so long anticipated and dreaded,"
I
mad and walked on
got five tanks accross and
and yelled and cussed and waved
fire
think
I
the head with a shovel.
come
got to the crest of the
all
hill
the
lay down.^'*
moment of his date with As he crouched at
occurred.
and began sending hand signals
on.
to his tanks, the
destiny,
the foot
Germans had
gotten the range and their fire intensified, reminding Patton of a lawn
mower
cutting the grass at
He was
afraid.
Lake Vineyard.
His hands were sweating and his mouth was dry. There
was a low bank of clouds behind saw,
among
the rising ground,
the clouds, his ancestors.
and he looked up and
The ones he had seen
in pictures
*Patton began using a walking stick as a result of his experience at Saint-Mihiel,
mainly to enable him to tap
it
on the side of a tank
to gain the attention of its crew.
World War
258
I
looked like the daguerreotypes and their paintings; there was General
Hugh
Mercer, mortally wounded
grandfather. Colonel
Waller Tazewell Patton
dimmer at
at the Battle
George Patton .
.
but
in the distance,
all
him, impersonally, but as
if
.
.
of Princeton; there was his
was
there
were other
there
.
.
his great-uncle,
with a family look. They were
move forward over
to
cover
in shell craters.
The
the
few minutes the tanks
where small groups of
hill
looking
action.'-*
Patton's batman, Pfc. Angelo, records that, "In a
began
all
He knew what
they were waiting for him.
he had to do, and continued the tank
Colonel
faces, different uniforms,
Col. asked an
Officers present, to which question he answered no.
had taken
Inft.
were any of
Inft. Sgt. if there
The
Sgt. then
his
asked
Col. Patton what they should do, [and] he replied 'follow me' to which they
consented and followed." Patton had arisen, waved his walking stick over
and shouted, "Let's go get them, who's with me?" and begun to
his head,
move toward
the top of the
with about one hundred infantrymen in his
hill,
wake.^' However, as soon as they reached the exposed ground at the crest of the
their presence attracted
hill,
sanctuary on the reverse slope, as
heavy machine-gun
men on
fire,
and
all
sought
both sides of them were brutally
down.
cut
Like
it
or not, Patton
was suddenly the
ened infantrymen together
in the
commander he had
infantry
He and he
occasionally thought about becoming.
alone had held the fright-
railway cut and
later,
behind the
hill.
In
one of the reasons why he had sent three runners before going himself
fact,
was his instinctive understanding that if he left, the would panic and bolt. The motto of the infantry is "Follow Me,"
to organize the tanks
infantry
and
in its finest tradition Patton led the
way, after
what he perceived was momentary cowardice.
ward or back and
I
could not go back so
There was considerable
ridding himself of
that
we must go
for-
"who comes with me.""
yelled
I
first
saw
"I
yelling, "but only six of us started.
My
striker,
me
would follow but they would not and soon there were only three [of us] but we could see the machine guns right ahead so we yelled to keep up our courage and went on. Then the third man went and 4 doughs.
I
hoped
the rest
*Near]y thirty-three years the
later Patton's
Korean War. Captain George
on a road under
artillery
unit of the situation.
S. Patton
own
son would have the same experience in
IV and a South Korean colonel were on foot
bombardment, unable
to reach his
The colonel advised young Patton
the road. "I looked up at the sky and there he was. road.'
That was the message
road the shelling stopped
—or
would have made me cross spur
me
I
got.
I
He
it
its
radio, to
was too dangerous
said, 'Get
I
think
my
on." (Maj. Gen. George S. Patton,
"Reflections on a Fighting Father," The
I
USA
[Ret.],
New American,
Dec.
in the
quoted
his
to cross
crossed the
sense of duty and obligation to
anyway. But his appearance
warn
your ass across the
took a deep breath and took off and as
relaxed.
that road
jeep and
that
my men
clouds helped to
in Jeffrey St. John,
16, 1985.)
259
Valor Before Dishonor
down."" Patton and Angelo were now alone and exposed gunner
who
chose
to shoot at
ster strapped to his waist, but
machine guns as
his
walking
even unsheathed
stick.
and Sancho Panza wandering alone
By
his
own
to every
German
them. Patton was armed with a pistol in a hol-
Blumenson
it
was
as useless against
them
likens
to
Don Quixote
in the wilderness.
admission, Patton was terrified and, as he later wrote briefly
of the event in 1927: I was wounded I felt a great desire to run, I was trembling when suddenly I thought of my progenitors and seemed to see a cloud over the German lines looking at me. I became calm at
Just before
with fear
them
in
once and saying out loud
"It is
time for another Patton to die", called for
volunteers and went forward to what
men went with me; much in error."
death. Six
was not
A machine-gun
honestly believed to be certain
I
were
five
killed
and
I
was wounded so
and he toppled
bullet struck Patton with terrific force,
I
to the
ground, blood seeping from a serious wound. The lone American
who was
wounded nor killed was Pfc. Angelo. However one opts to interpret Patton 's brief experience, remains that it profoundly influenced him to risk almost certain
death. In
neither
retrospect, he
would
the
fact
certainly have agreed with Shakespeare's observation
"Our doubts are traitors,/And make us win/By fearing to attempt. "^^
that
lose the
good we
might
oft
Although both men had some protection from a tank they had been walking next
to,
it
was not enough
machine guns. The thigh, left
of
at the
my
fired at about
rectum.
to
It
was
where
Patton whispered, yes.
my
50
out."-'^
in the left
upper
bottom about two inches
to the
m
Imetersj so
When Angelo
He immediately
made
asked
bandage
a hole about
if
he had been
lapsed into shock but
remain conscious throughout his ordeal. Angelo managed
into "a small shell hole,"
a
crack of
came
it
them from the deadly German
to protect
found Patton struck him
"and came out just
the size of a dollar hit,
bullet that
where he then sliced open
managed
to get Patton
his trousers
and applied
stem the bleeding. However, nothing could be done about
to
evacuating Patton to the safety of an aid station in the
could be properly treated. German infantry had
rear,
moved
where the wound
into the railroad cut
about forty yards away, previously vacated by Patton and his band of infantry.
Any
attempt to
was now impossible. The miracle was described
how
about 40 feet 'oh
that both
"I felt a
when my
god the colonels
move from
hit
blow leg
the tenuous sanctuary of the shell hole
men were
not killed outright. Patton has
in the leg but at first
gave way
and there
aint
My
I
no one
left.'
could walk so
I
went
man left yelled He helped me to a small
striker, the
only
World War
260 shell hole
I
and we lay down and the Bosch shot over the top as
could and he was very
close."'"*
Patton thought he was
he
fast as
wounded about
11:15
A.M., while others placed the time at between 10:30 and 11:00.^' Patton himself thought
he was there about an hour; however,
in his condition,
time
is
The time he lay in the shell hole has not been accubut it was probably closer to two hours.
frequently distorted. rately established,
Before Patton could be moved the German machine guns had to be silenced,
tanks
and
[sat]
that took quite
guarding
me
sent to find and inform
some
like a
time.
Throughout
On
watch dog."^-
his ordeal,
"one of
Patton's order, a runner
my was
was now in command of the was not located until midafternoon. no attempt be made to rescue him until the situation Major
Brett that he
brigade, but in the chaotic conditions he
Patton also insisted that
was
stabihzed.^-
Following Patton's wounding, Captain Compton finally managed to
maneuver two platoons of Company B around the west side of the troublesome hill and all of Company C around the eastern side. German infantry in nearby trenches to the west were erased at about the time approximately one hundred troops of the 35th Division's 138th Regiment arrived on the scene, under the command of an infantry major. Together Compton and the major launched a joint attack and while one tank-infantry force outflanked
Cheppy, the other managed approximately 1:30
to enter
and secure the
village.
The time was
P.M.^''
This joint action by Patton's tankers and the 138th Regiment
example of tank-infantry cooperation
have been the
first-ever
sive situation.
Nothing recorded about the
in
earlier Saint-Mihiel
may
well
an offen-
campaign
even approached the capture of Cheppy by tanks and infantry working together as a team. If there
was
this small but
was
to
be evidence that the tank had a future,
it
important tank-infantry action. Unfortunately, whatever
useful lessons might have been learned were to be lost in the aftermath of the war.
While Patton awaited evacuation, a 35th Division medic happened by the shell hole and
changed
Even though he claimed
to
his bandage. "Patton
thanked him courteously."^^
have experienced no pain from
ton reluctantly began to accept the fact that, at least for the v/as over. Patton's thoughts
daughter. Although
of mind and of
numb
spirit,"
and
state
his wound, Patmoment, his war
of mind were later recorded by his
with shock, he recalled feeling "a great calmness
and "kept thinking
that he
was nearly
thirty-three
years old, and that his grandfather Patton had been thirty-three years old
when he had taken
the shell fragment ... at
had been; and what a waste Patton little bit in
feeling of
knew
that
it
all
Cedar Creek; and how young he
was."
he was alive but that "part of him had died; he was a
own words: T was overwhelmed by a deep warmth and peace and comfort, and of love. I knew profoundly both worlds. In his
Valor Before Dishonor
death was related to lasting the soul
It
life;
—and
was not merely
how unimportant
the love
was
his ancestors
all
who
261
the change-over was;
around me,
subdued
like a
how
ever"^^
light.'
provided Patton with inspiration.
Many
would suddenly appear, sit down, and talk with him and reassure him that he would act honorably and bravely in battle. To Patton, this apparition, "was just as real as [being] in his study at home at nights his beloved father
'Lake Vineyard.
'"^^
With the deadly German machine guns silenced
commander from
their
at last,
where he had and Patton's
Edwards
the shell hole to sanctuary behind the nearby
morning. Major Brett
lain that
Patton was
men removed
rescued about 1:30 that afternoon. Four of his enlisted
finally
still
hill,
had not yet been located,
being evacuated was to send Lieutenant The two-mile journey on a litter carried by five plesant." Accompanied by the faithful Angelo, who
final order before
to search for him.
men was
"not
at all
refused to leave his side, Patton ordered the ambulance driver to detour via
command
the
post of the 35th Division, where he personally rendered a
report of the situation at the front to a division staff officer. His duty done,
Patton finally permitted himself to be delivered to a nearby evacuation hos-
where he slipped
pital,
Elliot operated
When
into the
comfort of anesthesia as a surgeon named
on him.^"
Capt.
Harry Truman's
reached the crossroads
battery
near
Cheppy on
the
to the fury
of the battle that had raged there the day before. "Heaped in a
morning of September 27 they discovered savage testimony
were seventeen American dead, infantrymen, while down the road a
pile,
dozen more were lying 'head by.
."^^ .
It is
.
god of battles
to heel,' all shot in the
back
after they'd
(in
whom
he devoutly believed) decided to spare his
That Patton believed there was a higher power protecting him in a letter
he wrote nearly a month
have had the courage
to
ancestors. "I felt that
I
Nor did he
gone
not difficult to imagine this being Patton's fate had not the
later to his wife, stating that
life. is
evident
he would not
expose himself had he not thought of her and his
could not be false to
actually believe he
would be
hit.
my
'cast'
"One has
and your opinion."
a sort of involuntary
fear of the bullets but not a concrete fear of being hit." Patton recalled
"some story by Kipling where the officers smoked to reassure the men. So I smoked like a factory. We were then being shelled heavily from in front and were under myself
were
I
am
rifle fire
from both flanks and
not to be hit
I
know
falling or rather being
taught Patton that even he
it
so
blown
I
in front.
felt better
but
But it
kept saying to
I
was
to bits all around."'"
quite bad
men
The experience
was mortal.
awoke the morning of September 27 to find two of his company commanders in the beds next to his Harry Semmes and Dean Gilfillan. Patton
—
World War
262
Semmes had been wounded he attempted
his head, as
I
several times, including by a sniper's bullet in
through a bog
to find a safe route for his tanks
near the Vauquois heights; Gilfillan's heroism included taking two direct hits
on
his tank,
and being wounded by machine guns and shrapnel, none of
which detened him from knocking out two machine-gun nests and mowing
down
German
a coterie of fleeing
infantry.
Captain Gilfillan was
awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) earned two Patton
DSCs
managed
organ, his luck
was
how
went where
little
Although the bullet had not struck a
lot."
"The
short of miraculous. it
me
did with out crippehng
for
A
wounded you
only
you
will get
am
I
nerve
have never to call
so glad you were
men who always
are one of those gallant
says he
who came
French colonel
thought differently, and Patton reported that he said: "I
He
life.
joint, sciatic
or the big artery yet none of these were touched. 'Fate' again. perfectly."'-
vital
Dr. says that he can't see
could not have run a probe without getting either the hip
had any pain and can walk
^'
account of September 26, but, weak and
to write his
exhausted, he mostly "slept a
the bullet
and Vauquois ridge.
for his bravery at Saint-Mihiel
later
and Semmes
for valor,
But
get killed
yet.""
it
Before being evacuated on September 29, he cabled Beatrice: SLIGHTLY
WOUNDED NO DANGER.
In a pouring rain he
hour journey
base hospital near Dijon. They traveled in boxcars
to a
with racks on which the rack,
and Semmes were placed on
and taken on a very uncomfortable twenty-
stretchers aboard "a cattle train"
wounded were
where "the iron bars of the
move," and was fed only once,
triple-stacked. Patton
my
stretcher hurt
a
back and
was I
fitted
in a top
could not
meal of coffee and bread spread with
molasses. Three days later he was able to write to Beatrice that he was
"missing half
my
bottom but other wise
all right.
about as big as a tea cup and they have to leave suffer
none
at all
except
when
had a baby or was unwell. so
it is all
fine.
This
is
.
.
The hole
.
open"
it
they dress the wounds.
Still
we broke
a stupid letter but
I
it is
ward serviced by only two
war was never very Patton had
far
it
my
hip
look as
if
I
is
"I
had just
hard to write."'^
carrying the highly contagious meningitis virus.
next bed died from a broken back,
in
be drained.
the Prussian guard with the tanks
Patton was immediately placed in quarantine for a
officers in a large
to
week
He was
When
nurses.
in
case he was
the senior of fifty the officer in the
served as a visible reminder that the
away.
Semmes
for companionship,
and they spent hour upon hour
discussing tactics, the performance of their tanks at Saint-Mihiel and in the
Argonne, and
how
days of ton's
" 'cultures'
wound was
When Patton was would take many more
they might employ them in the future.
not talking he continued sleeping a great deal.
of
my
bottom
to see if there are
eventually sewed up.
would not show "unless
It
He
the styles change.
I
any bugs" before Pat-
assured Beatrice that his scar surely
am
a lucky fellow."
He
263
Valor Before Dishonor
hoped
would have enough money
that they
eymoon. But even used
if
each other"
to
they didn't, "Lets do
The boredom and
inactivity left
him
began
smoke
and read.
his pipe
nearly cost him his
was allowed to left him time
sit
go
when
in
I
had
battle that
have a few more
his close brush with death:
I
I
believe
Peace looks possible but
Even
on the
I
Medal of Honor or
only more
day
new ward. When
to a
outside in a wheelchair and
They
fights.
the fighting
all
them.
.
"a rotall
seems too bad but
have missed
either the .
m
did or the whole line might have broken. Perhaps
was mistaken but any way
.
confined
life.
feel terribly to
I
to
moved
to reflect
It
Outwardly Patton seemed undaunted by
had
have to get
will
where they bury people
to feel better after being
the weather permitted he
for a second hon-
We
restless at being
ten place with a cemetary just out side long."'^ Patton
any how.
"^^
over again.
all
war
after the it
I
have been
the military cross. rather
I
it
sited for decoration I
hope
get one of
I
hope not for
I
would
like to
are awfully thrilling like steeple chasing
so.'^
the pleasant
news
that
Rockenbach had recommended his promomixed feelings. "I would like it in a way
tion to full colonel left Patton with
but the
more rank one
tamly are fun. This things
1
is
gets the harder
it
not a pose either
know
could enjoy as you
I
like
is it
to get into a fight is
and fights cer-
few
actually so and one of the
most things solely for the
results."'**
wound proved to be slow healing, and he reported with "my d-wound is still full of bugs so they can't sew me up.
Patton's
gust that,
most Provoking.
good
...
feeling fine and
got
it
in to
cuss out the surgeon but
it
does no
want
The following day he proudly wrote: "What do you
think of me. is
colonelcy over the wire and
So
1
I
have class mates
feel quite elated
very much. ...
motion."
He
m
am
not yet 33. That
the engineers
who
I
get the decoration
I
not so bad
are colonels but
though as a matter of fact
do hope
I
I
am
I
just
to get out.""*
my
Of course ers.
have just been
I
impossible to give special attention to anyone here.
is
it
disIt is
I
don't believe
would prefer
it
is
it.
none othI
deserve
to the pro-
addressed the envelope to "Mrs. Colonel G.S. Patton,
Jr.""'
Several days later he wrote to Aunt Nannie that his promotion "is not bad for 32.
Though
Patton
I
had always intended
may have been
to
be a general
at 26."^''
only days shy of his thirty-third birthday, but his
appearance belied his age. Gaunt from the loss of nearly often unshaven, he his
am
men knew
was not
so well. His doctors thought
a lot older in
some
thirty
the immaculately dressed and
him about
pounds and
groomed
soldier
forty-five years old: "I
things, he admitted." His earlier soldiering in the
United States and Mexico seemed like an eternity ago. Patton had once
World War
264
wondered wondered
mand
if
he could even successfully
at the
time
if I
On
command
could have done
a division. Things are realy
whom
I
much
a battalion of militia. "I
Now I know
it.
October 19 Braine arrived with a
fistful
he had visited before returning to France.
of
One
letters
I
could com-
from Beatrice,
of Patton's
was how his wife looked, "if you had any gray hair. of you as Undine so I don't want you to look 33, even if tions
end of October he wrangled a transfer
that
easier than they appear."^-
... I
I
first
ques-
always think
do."
Toward which
to a hospital at Langres,
the for
became an outpatient and was able to return to his quarters at Bourg, where he immediately resumed command of the tank center. Major Brett remained the commander of the 1st Tank Brigade until the war ended. His first day back Patton issued a sharply worded decree on all aspects of personal deportment and discipline. Anyone who might foolishly have fantasized that their colonel had mellowed while in the hospital was soon set straight. He may have had "a whole bath towel stuffed in my bottom and [been] bleeding like a stuck pig," but the fire-breathing George S. Patton was back. Patton was like coming home.^^ Within days he
Pershing's tactics of massing overwhelming numbers of troops in the Meuse-Argonne had backfired when the First Army was unable to prevent a massive German reinforcement followed by strong counterattacks. The work of the men of the graves registration service was never ending. Next to Patton, Major Brett was the most aggressive tank commander in the AEF, but even he could do little in the face of such resistance. By the end of September 26, forty-three of the original one-hundred forty tanks had either been knocked out by the Germans or had failed mechanically. Two days later there
were only
The World War
fifty-three tanks
still
in action.^^
Argonne Forest bore an uncanny World War 11*; both had few roads, were honeycombed with gullies and ravines, and were heavily forested, which restricted vision to the range of a hand grenade and favored the defender, who covered every avenue of approach with machine-gun fire. resemblance
It
was
It
battles fought in the
to the Battle of the Hiirtgen Forest in
the worst of
nonpareil.
I
was
all
in the
possible places to fight and a bloody killing ground
Argonne where a
hillbilly
rifleman from Tennessee
*By November 1944, Allied forces were stalled along the German border. In midNovember Lieut. Gen. Omar Bradley launched a major offensive, with the U.S. First, Third, and Ninth Armies airned at driving to the Rhine and encircling the Ruhr. The spearhead of the First Army attack was VII Corps, whose mission was to attemot to duplicate the Saint-L6 breakout through the Hiirtgen Forest toward Cologne. Despite
massive
was a
aerial
bitterly
bombardment, what became known
as the Battle of the Hiirtgen Forest
fought colossal failure, with very high American casualties in what
Bradley himself termed "sheer butchery on
all
sides."
265
Valor Before Dishonor
named Alvin C. York won the Medal of Honor and immortality as one of the marksmen in the history of the U.S. Army. The Argonne Forest was not secured until nearly mid-October, by which million men strong. The campaign time the First Army was more than greatest
1
ended with the Armistice. American casualties exceeded
122,000
men
(26,277 killed and 95,786 wounded), while the Germans lost 100,000. Losses in the
Tank Corps accurately
October the
late
1st
reflected the high casualty rate in the
Tank Brigade had only 80 of 834 men
fit
AEF By
for duty.'-
Patton's tankers acquitted themselves with distinction in the Argonne.
On September
26, outside Varennes, the heroic rescue of a
trapped in his tank resulted in the
member
first
wounded
officer
award of the Medal of Honor
to a
of the Tank Corps, and Joe Angelo earned a Distinguished Service life.'"' "The tank corps established its reputation for They only went forward. And they are the only troops in
Cross for saving Patton's not giving ground. the attack of
whom
that
can be
said."*^^
The army hierarchy may not have importance of the tank, but the
men
fully
appreciated the newfound
A
of the 35th Division certainly did.
tank lieutenant wrote of being greeted as a savior. "Thank God," said one
whose infantry had been pinned down by machine-gun fire. Even commanding general and his staff expressed their appreciation whenever
captain,
the
elements of Patton's brigade passed
over
men
it
Patton has related
by.''**
way one German machine-gun could be
silenced
was by
how
the only
running
literally
with a tank; "but even in death they were holding to their gun.
hurried them and put up a cross
To
two brave men though S.O.B.s.'
My "
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of November 1918, the guns on the Western Front
fell silent,
and the most
had ended. Coincidentally,
it
terrible
was George
war
in the history
of mankind
S. Patton's thirty-third birthday,
occur on this day was a good omen indeed.^'' His was signed and Langres was very exited [excited]. Many flags. Got rid of my bandage. Wrote a poem on peace. Four days earlier, at Avalon, Beatrice Patton was awash in memories of
and for the Armistice
to
diary recorded: "Peace
her beloved parents as she sorted and packed their belongings. Suddenly
church bells began ringing
in unison. Beatrice burst into tears,
and Ruth
remembered her mother exclaiming: "The war is over! The war is over! Your father will be coming home!" Like that of many Americans, Beatrice's celebration was premature. The United Press Paris correspondent Ellen
had evaded the censors with a dispatch
that erroneously reported that
November 7. Immediately reprinted became known as the "false" armistice.
armistice had been signed on
can newspapers,
Some 350
in
an
Ameri-
^'
it
miles east of Bourg, in the deep snows of southeastern Bavaria,
an eccentric
German
corporal
named Adolf Hitler
spent the night of
Novem-
World War
266 ber
11.
1
9
1
8,
I
in a wooden watchtower guarding Russian prismay have been over for Germany, but within months
on sentry duty
oners of war.^- The war
of the disastrous Treaty of Versailles Adolf Hitler founded an organization that
twenty years
would
fulfill
later
would avenge Versailles and produce the war George S. Patton, Jr.
the destiny of
that
CHAPTER
Bitter I
.
saw .
19
Aftermath
battle-corpses, myriads of them,
the slain soldiers of the war,
.
They themselves were fully at rest, they The living remained and suffer'd, And the armies that remained suffered. .
.
suffer'd not,
.
—WALT WHITMAN, WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM D
Well this its
is
a hellish stupid world now and
life
has
lost
zest.
— PATTON
From to
the
dawn
of time
men have been
prove their courage and mascuHnity
in
driven by an unfathomable need
some bizaue
defines their Hves. Conversely, the notion of laying
land
is
as frightening as
Siegfried Sassoon, the guns begin
Thus have
little
it
They
/
is
was
it
is
repellent.
right
think of
The
when he firelit
down
life in
great British poet of
a foreign
World War
wrote: "Soldiers are dreamers;
/
I,
when
homes, clean beds, and wives."'
one of the great paradoxes of war
affinity for
of passage that
rite
one's
what they are obliged
to
that
while most soldiers
do on the
battlefield, they
symptoms when it ends. Whether it was a caveman dispower of dominance with a simple club or a contemporary Scot
suffer withdrawal
covering the
displaying his physical prowess in the grueling Highland games, man's
compulsion
to
Yet such
prove his masculinity
is
the
enigma of war
is
that
as fundamental as life itself. it still
manages
to induce a sense of
World War
268 euphoria
in
I
defying death or maiming injury, and walking away
who
intact.
months or even years of
For
on war more often than not brings with it an inchoate but acute sense of letdown. The human mmd, accustomed as it is to
the soldier
ruthlessly thrust into
is
living
the edge, the abrupt cessation of
a certain discipline and order,
incapable of processing sudden change
is
without trauma. The end of war rips the fabric of that special bond
—
combat share with one another
a
bond so compelling
quent family happiness nor material success can ever replace
The end of war
m
is,
short, a sort of
The
narcotic-like effect of being in
replaced by a return to a normal lifestyle.
men
other
it."
Moreover, there ardice.
The
his
to a fine
edge
to kill
an exceptionally fine line between bravery and cow-
why men
risk their lives in the face of almost certain
death has long been a puzzling one.
overcome
Men honed
community.
is
subject of
and severe
combat cannot suddenly be
of ruthless ways can hardly be expected to become
in a variety
instant pillars of their
in
massive hangover, a culture shock
that often manifests itself in antisocial behavior, alcoholism,
depression.
men
that neither subse-
Why,
for example, did Patton finally
admitted fear of death the morning of September 26
at
Cheppy? He admitted to an almost overwhelming terror that, in the end, was overcome only by the even greater fear that his men would think him cowardly for not risking his life. If his troops viewed him badly, that would last only until his death; but itage
would
if
he failed to
last for eternity. If
it
act, his
dishonor to his family her-
can be said that Patton was driven to an act
of extreme bravery, then the underlying reason
by Patton's friend and mentor. Gen.
J.
is at
least partially delineated
G. Harbord:
Every soldier took into action a confused panorama of
ammunition dumps, gun
positions,
tractors,
hastily prepared
telephone wires, artillery
pulled by emaciated and exhausted horses, tractors and trucks,
enough
to carpet the battlefield
industrial age
all
this
maps
the thousand products of a mighty
which we had attempted
background for tier
—
to adapt to military uses.
panorama he remembered
faint
As
a
legends of old fron-
days, traditions of other Americans in other wars, his particular con-
ception of patriotism, the farewells of his mother and another, his local pride in his
own neighborhood and
sister, its
and perhaps
interest to him.
All these things added to nervous force, energy without limit, confidence,
youth and optimism bly
was
to
be a
— we were substituting for experience. To doubt audi-
traitor.^
Above all it was the peer pressure of not being seen to be a coward that men like Patton to take such appalling risks. If, as the great Euripides
drove
wrote, around 412 B.C., "a coward turns away, but a brave man's choice
danger," then Patton's case
is
that of a reluctant
is
and frightened hero, a war-
Bitter
rior so
269
Aftermath
anxious to prove himself that he risked death to avoid in death the
wrath of his kinsmen Patton's
poem
who
died before
him on other
battlefields/
"Fear" provides some additional clues to what drove
him:
/
am
that dreadful, blighting thing,
Like rat-holes to the flood, Like rust that
gnaws
the faultless blade,
Like microbes to the blood.
I
know no mercy and no
The young
And Ignominy dogs my in virtuous
slay.
my wake
Regret stalks darkly in
Sometimes
truth.
old I
I blight the
way.
garb
1 rove.
With facile talk of easier way. Seducing, where I dare not rape
Young manhood from
Again
in
its
awesome guise
honour's sway.
I
rush
Stupendous, through the ranks of war.
Turning to water with
my gaze
Hearts that before no foe could awe.
The maiden who has strayed from
right.
me must pay the mead of shame. The patriot who betrayed his trust. To me must own his tarnished name. To
I
spare no class, or
My course I
is
cult,
or creed.
endless through the year
bow all heads, and break all hearts. owe me homage / am FEAR!'
—
All
his actions
on the
day of the Meuse-Argonne campaign. One biographer had Patton
"utter-
Unfortunately, part of the Patton first
ing
war
chariot.
cries .
.
.
and waving
his saber
Everything about the
and Rallying.
...
So he war
myth has grown from
.
.
.
looking vaguely like
man now
resulted in
two
Ben Hur
in a
War
cries
reactions:
cried and rallied, reorganizing
enough of
the
demoralized infantry to cover the advance of his tank, leading them forward until
most of them were
killed
by
relentless
hammering of machine guns and
neat semicircle of shrapnel around his midriff cut short his path to glory."
^
a
270
World War
I
On November 11, 1918, men who moments before had been killing one now laid down their arms and for the first time left the battlefield
another
without fear of having to return to fight another nameless
World War
Stallings, a
were halted
m
I
campfires
where. It
was
.
.
.
—
feeling
There was no
ill
stillness
at
God
Capi. Harry S.
my
men
Truman was both
how
Meuse
still
line
enemy, mainly alive,
and
built
ease because no guns were firing any-
on the Yank
a matter of noisy laughter, of
vived, writing that, no matter
they were
Lawrence
battle.
in the
their tracks, forbidden to fraternize with the
they stretched on the ground, thanked their first
"Where veterans
marine, wrote,
firing lines, as at
Appomattox.
too weary to shed tears."'
relieved and elated that he had sur-
horrific,
it
had
still
been "the most
terrific
Truman was proud that his leadership had helped his troops to survive; for Patton it was more personal: He had been robbed of any further chances to grasp the brass ring. Men like Truman were driven by honor and the will to survive; Patton was driven by a personal compulexperience of
life."**
sion to earn acceptance from the ghosts of his warrior ancestors through feats of bravery.
fear
At times the emotional baggage of the need
was almost unbearable. More often than not
at
to
overcome
such times, Patton
turned to poetry as an outlet for his emotions.
His poem, "Peace
—November
1918"
11,
is
a
paean
of joy but of sadness, confusion, and anger. Above pent-up emotions and the feeling, so that there
was no more war
to fight
common among
—
to the soldier, not
all else, it
released his
his fellow soldiers,
that for the first time
peace had
replaced the daily sight of death. In short, the "high" of war was over and
only the hangover remained.
/ stood in the flag-decked cheering
Where
all
crowd
but I were gay,
And gazing on
their extecy,
My heart shrank
in
dismay.
For
theires was the joy of the "little folk" The cruel glee of the weak, Who, banded together, have slain the strong
Which none alone dared
seak.
The Bosch we know was a hideous beast Beyond our era ban. But soldiers still must honor the Hun As a mighty fighting man. 's
The vice he had was strong and real
Of virtue he had none,
Yet
271
Aftermath
Bitter
he fought the world remorselessly
And
very nearly won.
.
.
.
And looking forward I could see Like a festering sewer, Full of the fecal Pacafists
Which peace makes us endure.
None of the bold and
.
.
.
blatant sin
The disregard of pain, The glorious deeds of sacrefice which follow
in
wars
Instead of these the
train.
lives
little
blossom as before,
Will
Pale bloom of creatures
all too
weak
To bear the light of war
While we whose spirits wider range Can grasp the joys of strife,
moulder
Will
in the
Of futile peaceful We can
virtuous vice
life.
but hope that e
're
we drown
'Neath treacle floods of grace,
The tuneless horns of mighty Mars Once more shall rouse the Race
When such
times come, Oh!
Grant that we pass midst
God of War
strife,
Knowing once more the whitehot joy Of taking human life. Then pass
in
peace, blood-glutted Bosch
And when we too shall fall. We 'II clasp in yours our gory hands In
High Valhallas' Hall.'
This
pen
in
poem was
the
the
first
of
many
months during and
that
flowed
after the
like a dirge
from Patton's
war. Those written before the
Armistice tended to be more upbeat, often self-assertive reminders not to capitulate to the
god of
fear in the battles to
come. Shortly
the United States in 1919, Patton attended a play in
after returning to
Washington about the
World War
272
war and pensively wrote machine guns made
me
"The noise of
to Pershing:
feel very
I
War
homesick.
is
the shells and the
the only place
where a
man realy lives."'" Although he would have denied it, the effects of November 1918 armistice were to be visible in Patton's behavior during
the
the
twenty-one-year hiatus between the two world wars.
The end of engagement
to
the
war
also brought about the undoing of Nita Patton's
Black Jack Pershing. She had spent the war
in Washington was in London with her sister-in-law, Kay arrived from Pershing to the effect that "the feeling"
but in the late spring of 1919
Merrill, when a letter was gone, and that they ought not to proceed with announcing their engagement or of marrying until "the feeling" returned. To make his point, Per-
shing had not bothered to send her a ticket to the great victory gala held in Paris the night of July 3. 1919, at
phone
call to
AEF
which he was the guest of honor."
A
headquarters by Patton's brother-in-law, Keith Merrill,
brought the response that of course the Merrills were expected to escort Nita
broke her engagement to Pershing by return-
to the ball.'- Humiliated, Nita
ing the
diamond
ring he
had presented her during
their
whirlwind courtship
who
rebuffed numerous
in 1917.
Nita Patton was a
woman
entreaties to patch things
breakup of
their
of great pride
up with Pershing.'^
romance was
An
obvious reason for the
had found companionship and
that Pershing
perhaps "the feeling" with another woman, named Elizabeth Hoyt.'^ Beatrice
Patton offered another explanation:
General Pershing had been under a terrible strain for the war years and
had done a
fantastic job.
wined and dined and
As
the
flattered
and some of the most beautiful falling at his feet to gain
war drew
to
its
successful close he
and praised by the great and the near
women
something for
in
was
great,
Europe who were not above
their heart's interests.
He had
a
Caesar's triumph. Nita with her blond Viking good looks and carriage and her predominantly good sense, was just there and could more or less be
propped
in a
corner until he had time to regroup and reconsider. Only,
Nita removed herself with
all
flags flying.'^
Despite the shattered romance, Pershing was an occasional guest in the Patton household during the postwar years,
the
romance between
the
still
"arrestingly
when George was again staold enough to know about
now
tioned at Fort Myer. His two daughters were
handsome" Pershing and their when Bee Patton
aunt Tinta (the Patton children's nickname for Nita). Once,
asked her mother silly
how Aunt
Nita could ever have been in love with "that
old man," Beatrice replied: "The John
not the Black Jack Pershing that Tinta
wars, but
some of them who have very
J.
fell in
know is men die in
Pershing you children love with. Lots of
strong bodies go on living long after
Bitter
the person inside of them, the real them,
used themselves
all
up
273
Aftermath
is
dead.
They
are
dead because they
one of the most
in the war. That's
terrible things
about war.""'
When
Pershing visited, he and Patton would spend hours reminiscing
One
about their experiences, aided by liberal doses of alcohol. shing began to cry and said, "Georgie, Georgie,
damned
egotistic fool,
my
children
if I
would have been
night Per-
hadn't been such a just a
younger
little
than your children with the same beautiful blond hair, and the same true blue eyes."
On
several occasions before returning
from Europe, Patton had
written his sister to suggest a "dignified reunion" with Black Jack in
Europe. Well before the final snub relationship
was
at
in July 1919,
brother's attempts to arrange a reconciliation. their
Nita had
an end. She was too proud to revive
who
breakup was Papa Patton,
it
The only one
known
that their
and rejected her truly pleased
by
"did not consider General Pershing
good enough for Nita, snobbishly observing that Pershing's father had been a brakeman on the railroad. Georgie was relieved too at having the taint of favoritism or nepotism removed from whatever his future might hold."'' Their breakup haunted Pershing the rest of his ried,
life.
Nita Patton never mar-
and Black Jack remained a widower.'-
During Patton's lengthy recuperation he and Beatrice wrote virtually every day. Beatrice
to
one another
badly wanted another child, and in one of
still
her letters mentioned to George that she was an excellent mother and loved
being one. Denied any further role in the war, and in the doldrums of recovery,
he was not amused and fired off one of the most hurtful
letters
he ever
which you
boast,
do not
"Your childish
sent to Beatrice: interest
me
children.
at all.
I
proclivities, of
much and am
love you too
Your only chance
to
jealous, or something of the
have another child
is
accident or Immaculate
Conception. You ought to be complimented. But being pig-headed,
pose you are not.
I
I
sup-
love you too much."''^
With the urgency of war removed, Patton found it more difficult to face "I fear that laziness which has ever pursued me is closing in on me
each day.
at last. It will
ing
be funny to
commanded
command 74 men
a thousand and
more
in a troop
of cavalry after hav-
and
be through by noon
in battle
to
each day." To avoid what he termed "the devil of idleness," Patton decided
book he planned
"War
prose it is the pen good book I might get to be a general before the next war. If I start the next war as a Brig. Gen. and hit the same pace I gained in this I will make three grades or end up as a full general. It turned out to be a remarkably accurate prediction. The book, however, never materialized beyond the twenty-six pages Patton wrote in
to write a
to title
which makes the sword great
late
in peace.
as
So
She
if I
Is," for "in
write a
1918 and early 1919.
To
avert even the specter of idleness, he wrote a series of lectures
on
World War
274
I
tank tactics to the General StalT College, the outline ol thoughts that he
planned to use to form his book, and an after-action report on the exploits of the 1st
(renamed the
would himself be
3()4th)
Tank Brigade, which he and Major
a colonel in the next war) wrote for
two campaigns,
ing the problems encountered in the that "the value
Brett
(who
Rockenbach. After
cit-
the report concluded
of tanks as attacking units and as a fighting arm had been
demonstrated."'' After one lecture to a group of generals Patton groused that it
was "a
rotten affair as they
went
all
He thought them
to sleep."
second-
all
"
rate.
Despite his discontent, Patton used the time to absorb valuable lessons
he would later put to excellent use in World War II. "I wish had known much when was fighting as do now but there was no one who knew and we had to learn by experience. have been reading some German documents about tanks and they furnish the greatest compliments we could have that
I
as
I
I
I
received. least
it
They under estimated
the tank
and
it
cost
them the war perhaps
at
hurried the end."''
Tank Corps
Letters praising the that 'Mots
them and taught them
all
and Patton was quick
arrived,
me by
right as
they know."-'
He had
of them don't belong to
During
Brett's highly capable hands.
was
I
left
out oft but
see you leave the I
1
st
trained
Major
his brigade in
had written
his recuperation, Brett
congratulate Patton on his promotion, to note that he was
old Brigade.
to note
1
"damned
to
sorry to
Brigade," and to reassure him. "Don't worry about the
we had no personnel left and then we orgaCompany and gave them another now the company is laying back at Exermont
fought them until
nized the remnants into a Provisional whirl for their money. Just
waiting to tear into them again. Patton
was never known
.
.
Its
.
a miracle you weren't killed."--
for his adulation
of brother officers,
who
might
be construed as threats to his professional advancement. But he was effusive in his praise
of Brett, writing to him
to put in writing
"what
have long
I
in late
in
felt
November 1918
my
wanted
that he
heart." [The
Tank Corps']
enviable record
both
in
peace and war, has been due more to your earnest and constant
efforts in training
man
and valorous conduct
or olficer. Not only did you
even hope, without a murmur, but, there
was nothing
no officer
left
and even
ol the A.E.F.
in battle
than to that of any other
work here when we had nothing, in battle
after that
not
you fought the Brigade
you fought on. As
far as
I
until
know
has given more faithful, loyal, and gallant
service.'"
Patton
was confident
that
guished Service Cross, but on
he would soon receive the coveted Distin-
November
17:
275
Aftermath
Bitter
The most terrible thing happened to me. I heard ... I will not get the DSC. Why I don't know as one is not even supposed to know that one has was in too big a hurry and put in without some one got me from behind. The worst part of it is that once rejected you cannot again be recomended. I woke up all last night feeling that I was dying and then it would occur to me what had happened. I cannot realize it yet. It was the whole war to me. All I can ever get out of two years away from you. been recomended. sufficient data.
But will
I
army
I
will
else
G.D. [goddamned]
will be
do but
think that R.
I
Or
do something.
if I
If not
I
am
beat yet.
will resign
as a Captain or something. Gen. R. thinks
pensation but
it is
nothing.
than a general with out
I
it. It
would
I
don't
know what
I
and join the French
my
colonelcy
is
a
com-
rather be a second Lt. with the D.S.C.
means more than an "A" and
it
would be of
vast value in [the] future."^
For anyone else a promotion to
colonel might well have been
full
than adequate compensation, but not for Patton,
who was
more
devastated by the
news and began lobbying to correct what he believed was a major miscarriage of justice before it was too late. He was somewhat mollified the following day to learn that Brig. Gen. Harry A. Smith, the commandant of the
AEF
schools,
was recommending him
for the Distinguished Service Medal.
Patton had gone to Smith for advice and learned (even though regulations for Smith to the
him)
D.S.M. for having had the
that I I
tell
have ever seen'.
just said
my
.
.
.
that "
T have
finest spirit
Any how
prayers for them both.
it
was
against
day recomended you for
this
and discipline
in
I
feel less alone in the
I
have a crude
your
command
world than
religion.
I
did.
But an everlast-
ing love for you."-**
At one point he learned
AEF
the president of the
that a colonel
the board considered upgrading
men
who knew
awards board and known
DSC
Beatrice and Nita
to
be "very
recommendations
fair."
was
When
for six of his offi-
Medal of Honor, Patton thought it possible that he too had a chance of receiving the highest decoration America could bestow on its military heroes. "All I want is fairness not partiality. I would surely like cers and
to
to the
have the blue ribbon with the white
only Cpl. Donald
M.
Medal of Honor.-" As for his DSC, Patton learned been favorably endorsed by the
Hugh Drum. However, eral ter."'
disapproved
it,
stars."
However, of
his tank
men,
Call and another corporal eventually received the
that
First
Rockenbach's recommendation had
Army
chief of
before Pershing ever saw
it,
staff, his
the
AEF
old friend
adjutant gen-
noting that no further action was to be taken in the mat-
Although Rockenbach's efficiency rating noted
that Patton
had been
World War
276
"recommended
Cross
Service
Distinguished
the
for
I
for
conspicuous
courage, coolness, energy and intelHgence in handling troops in battle,"
it
was of no particular help in influencing the decision to grant or not to grant him the DSC.^' A subsequent report rendered in December was slightly less effusive, noting that Patton was "very efficient, but youthful. He will, I believe, sober into
one of highest
value."^'
At Chaumont, Patton called on LeRoy Eltinge, now a general, who sent
him
to
Rockenbach. Once again Patton's glib tongue succeeded
With
ing a superior to bend to his wishes. ton,
Rockenbach agreed
impress-
in
by Pat-
the aid of a letter drafted
reopen the matter, and within days a fresh rec-
to
ommendation that included eleven firsthand accounts of his valor was wending its way through the military bureaucracy. He informed Beatrice of the disappointing news that it seemed unlikely that he would be coming home in the near future. There was equal uncertainty over the future of the Tank Corps. "I don't know whether there will be a regular tank corps or not
would
and
there
if
is I
rather be a capt of cav[alry] than a
know
don't
tanks might be different. Although tanks in peace time
hke coast
Too
artillery
with a
Lt.
it.
I
Col of
would be very much
of machinery which never works.""
number of American-built Renault tanks had finally They were faster and better built than the French version
and Patton lamented only
we
that with the
game
my
there
was only a war
Patton kept intact his record for
injuring himself in
if
and intramural football occupied
lectures, dances,
football
ground now hard from the cold weather,
could have had a few hundred of them during the war
have been something ...
was
stay in
late for the war, a
arrived in France.
"if
lot
if I will
major of Tanks but a
left
when
foot
.
.
."
his time.
new and
was punctured by a
his foot
I still
on.
nail,
it
would
Instead writing,
During
his first
innovative ways of
"but not
far.
As
it
limp on the same side." Even Sundays were no
longer a day of duty, a feeling Patton found "quite strange" after so many months of nonstop drilling. At a dinner dance a woman told Patton that his
men
revered him for his feat of bravery in crossing the bridge
at
Essey. "I
was not mined. If it had been it would not have hurt me at all as there would have been nothing left to hurt. It is funny that this small thing should stick in the minds of the soldiers."^'* was
pretty sure
When
it
she received his
ately wrote back, "as
I
read
letter .
.
.
about the Essey bridge, Beatrice immedi-
about the
'little
affair
of the Essey bridge'
—
which you say you 'forgot to mention;' I am dumb If only you were near enough for me to whisper it to you. Georgie, you are the fulfillment of all the ideals of manliness and high courage & bravery I have always held .
for you, ever since
I
.
.
have known you.
And
I
have expected more of you
than any one else in the world ever has or will.""
Bitter
277
Aftermath
After clearing out Avalon, Beatrice and the children
D.C.
ton,
It
was
moved
to
Washing-
a demonstration of her independence that she did so without
when
bothering to ask her husband's advice or consent. However,
Beatrice
wrote suggesting that she might do volunteer work, Patton admonished her, "I
wish you would get over
Your
self.
work
for the family."^"
hair,
of war work.
this fool idea
your chin and your tummie.
your
I
And
attend only to
have done plenty of war
December word filtered through Patton's old-boy network that DSC. He was overjoyed. When it was published later month, the official War Department General Order for the award read
In early
he would receive the that
on September 26, 1918." He wrote
"for extraordinary heroism"
Rockenbach.
war
in the
you
.
.
"I shall .
always prize
it
more than any thing
with out your earnest effort
I
I
to
thank
could have gotten
should not have gotten
it.
Thank
again."^**
was granted a seven-day leave and left for Paris, which had once become the City of Light and was crowded with soldiers and filled with gaiety. A week earlier Truman had been granted a similar leave and Patton
again
found Paris "as wild as any place
mood
that
pervaded the
city,
Patton
saw." Despite the revelry and upbeat
I
was lonely without Beatrice and wrote
her that "the most melancholy thing alone.
doubt
I
sion of a police
ing you
I
him.
have ever ."^'^ .
.
tried is
He
left
amusing
my
self
Paris in the posses-
dog he named Char, who "has a long pedigree. Since marry-
have never been
satisfied with
When Woodrow Wilson at the
I
stay the entire seven days
if I
any thing but the best
arrived in Paris to
crown
forthcoming peace conference, Patton was
in dogs."^"
his crusade for
in the
crowd
peace
that greeted
He was more impressed with the fierce smell of bad tobacco than he the president, who soon signed his name to the most ruinous peace
was with
modern
treaty in
history.
On December 17 Patton was one of twenty-four officers and enlisted men who were awarded DSCs at a review ceremony at Bourg in the presence of the entire complement of the
DSC
Patton sent the
1st
Tank Brigade and
the tank center.
ribbon and the citation to his father as his Christmas
present for 1918. Patton again spent Christmas with Pershing,
sented
with
him with
my
wound
self."
stripe
a scarf. "I
He
on
was
the only D.S.C. there so
who
pre-
was well pleased
cut a dashing figure with three service chevrons and a
his sleeve
and the
of rumors about our going
DSC
over his breast pocket. "There are
home soon
I hope they are correct as I would like to rest up a while before the next war when ever it may be. I hope I do as well next time as I did this [one] ... I surely am some soldier if
all sorts
I
say so
my
self.
."^' .
.
The year 1918 ended as quietly as it had begun. Patton received two more efficiency ratings from Rockenbach and Gen. Harry Smith, who assessed him
World War
278
as "one of our very best." For Patton interest,
hope
i
it
be the only one
will
The advent of 1919 brought with
whom
morale for his men, work.
Still
with the
there
men
two months
were
of the
was
the "end of a fine year full of
which
home
in
more than
Many
of 1919.
where mud was king and apathy morale plummeted
to
year to create and
it
new
huge numbers. During the
lows.
its
AEF was
of them lived
in
not slated to return
crude encampments
queen, and as the time passed, their
AEF
The mighty
war machine had taken a
could not be dismantled overnight. Moreover, more
Army were on
and around Coblenz, and along the Rhine River. They
following summer, when Germany signed the Treaty was finally determined that they would not be required to German army again.^^
would remain
until the
of Versailles and fight the
in
first
eight hundred thousand troops
than two hundred thousand of the newly created U.S. Third
occupation duty
B.'"*'
what even he could accomplish, particularly
returning
after the Armistice
until the spring
from
problems of boredom and low
the twin
were discharged, but the preponderance of the
home
am away
I
Patton kept busy with training and housekeeping
limits to
AEF
it
it
in
I
it
Pershing's order to conduct prescribed drills was a total failure, and
eventually sports and a wide range of educational programs replaced gun drills
and road marches. The morale of the Regular
Army
officer corps suf-
fered right along with conscripts awaiting discharge. Patton
have become a colonel before November frozen by the
War Department.
time army would bring with
it
It
was
1
1
,
when
all
was fortunate
clear that a return to a small peace-
demotions from wartime ranks
permanent
to
who were
regular grades.'*^ In Patton's case that meant captain. Officers
wearing
stars or eagles
to
promotions were
one day suddenly appeared
in captain's
bars or the
gold oak leaves of a major on their uniforms.
On
January 3 Patton was ordered to be prepared to close
operations and
move
his tankers to the United States
while Patton traveled
in
down
his
on short notice. Mean-
France and Luxembourg to give lectures and
demonstrations on tanks. Not only did the experience keep him busy, but
most of
it
was
in the
province of Lorraine, over which he was destined to
Luxembourg he was billeted with the mother-in-law of the army commander, a major whose army was discharged after it went on strike. Patton was appalled. fight a series of bitter battles a quarter of a century later. In
"This is the first country in the world to have no army. It is a horrible example of what not to do."**"^ Toward the end of January, Rockenbach learned that Patton was slated
The growing shortage of tank officers him to request Patton's retention for at least an additional month, by which time it was expected that his brigade would depart for the United States. The approval of Rockenbach's request was merely a deferral of the
for occupation duty in the Rhineland.
led
duty.
Although Patton could remain
would
news
279
Aftermath
Bitter
at
Bourg, when his troops departed he
be transferred to occupation duty. As gung-ho as Patton was,
still
arrived like a bombshell.
less military duties that
had
Even he had wearied of
litde to
this
the seemingly end-
do with advancing
his career. Still
recovering from his wound, the days on the road visiting one unit after another, and nights spent in cold, crude billets
where drunkenness and
wenching were commonplace, had become wearisome. He wanted only
to
be with his wife and family.
had not been in good some months. "God-Dam," he penned in his diary in a fit of rage and dismay. Enough was enough. It was time to go home. During his final weeks in France Patton was not always pleasant to be around. "I have seen JJP [Pershing] make people cry but to day is the first time I ever did it. I surely gave one of my captains hell and he howled but it did him no good. It is a great accomplishment and I set out to do it."^^ When he was not traveling, Patton was composing the brief treatise that was all that was ever written of his proposed book. One day he went to Chaumont and found all the AEF Medal of Honor recipients at a luncheon in their honor, hosted by Pershing and a number of high ranking generals. The generals, assisted by Patton, took the occasion to serve them. "All of them were young except one captain and one corporal. The rest were just In addition to losing both her parents in 1918, Beatrice
health for
boys but
all
had
fine clear eyes.
It
Brains of the army and the brawn."
now
ald Call, "I
wish
a lieutenant,
whom
had gotten an M.H.
I
struck
One
me
as a splendid contrast the
of them was former corporal Don-
Patton introduced to General Summerall.
...
I
will get an
M.H.
in the
next war.
I
hope."^^
His time was enlivened when his presence
at
Chaumont coincided with
who was
a visit by the Prince of Wales (the future duke of Windsor),
visiting
Pershing and several American units. After inspecting the VIII Corps, Patton
wrote Nita:
On
the
supposed
to
way back I rode with the Prince and he told me a lot of stories be bad some were. He said "Bein a dashed prince rather
cramps ones
style
What?" There was
a reception and later a dinner. After
the dinner the prince and several of us
danced
he wanted to play poker but none of us knew
on the
floor.
The H.R.H. got
He
phonograph and then
to a
how
so
a hundred and fifty of
we
my
shot craps sitting
francs and then
much money and had to borrow to start the Commercy to inspect the 35th Division. There were twenty thousand men in ranks and we walked about seven miles to inspect every man every one with a wound stripe was talked to by the Gen. and the Prince ... On the way back I rode with J. and we went
game
to bed.
did not have
... the next
day
we
left for
.
.
.
World War
280
me
talked for about three hours he told
When
left after
I
about with you
I
all
sorts of secret history.
.
.
.
dinner the Prince said i should like awfully to nock
america on the border.' He possibly says that to every
in
one.^**
The departure date of
When
Ration's brigade
was now
fixed for
members of the AEF staff. "My home came this morning so at last am
the brigade
I
Rockenbach. To Pershing he sent a attempted
in a
way
small
to
model
have had has been due to you as an
Not long before he his poetry
and
heartfelt
my
self
letter
orders to
of thanks.
now 34
gift
the ability to write verse
let his "gift
—and a Col &
life.
.
.
.
upon vulgar
&
sure your
In
own judgment
March Patton and
ney.
men
his
I
— I
— upon men
in
your
own good
really regret
—and
&
that
smutty subjects," which he found
may some day want
have known
to enter
—abstained from
repeat-
more but
I
am
reflection will agree with mine.'"^"
arrived in Marseilles after a lengthy train jour-
There they boarded the SS Patria for the voyage
Gibraltar. Patton
hope
I
for your
don't want to preach and will say no
I
I
of gab" get him into dan-
you have developed
All the really big
ing vulgar stories. ...
have
and the dignity going with
self restrained
both undignified and potentially hurtful. "You public
"I
on you and what ever success
inspiration."'"
tendency to
speeches you will be very careful
—Another
accompany
going," he wrote to
your rank invests what you say with more importance so
is
but
France, Patton 's father admonished him for
left
his
gerous trouble. "You are
for your future
1,
his status.
remain with his troops was disapproved, he used his
his request to
influence to lobby key
some of
March
morning of February 24 Patton remained uncertain of
until the
was pleased when
the port
to
New
York via
coinmander informed him
that
come through the port of Marseilles, his brigade was the best disciplined.^' As the senior officer, he was troop commander of the 2,103 officers and men aboard the ship. Rough seas and worm-infested meat made the ten-day trip from Gibraltar to New York miserable.
of the units that had
was learned that publisher William Ranmembers of the official welcoming committee when the ship docked in Brooklyn. While the Patria was still in New York Harbor, it was met by a police patrol boat and some members of Mayor John F. Hylan's welcoming committee. A soldier yelled from the Several days before landfall,
dolph Hearst was
to
be
among
it
the
deck, "Is William Randolph Hearst on board?" Another trooper threw a
packet tied with string into the boat.
It
contained a resolution condemning
Hearst for his pro-German sentiments, signed by
men." When
the ship
docked several
obtain copies of the protest
Although Patton and
some
fifty officers
officers aboard told reporters
and 450
where
to
letter.**'
his tankers received considerable
newspaper cov-
Bitter
erage, both in
New
York and throughout the country,
when
the subject of controversy affair as headline
the
the
that Patton's
pro-German and inhumanitarian jr.,
New
news. In a front-page
Herald declared
ton,
281
Aftermath
.
article
men .
.
homecoming was
their
York Herald Tribune reported the
under a provocative headline,
believed Hearst was "un-American,
[and that] Colonel George Smith Pat-
home is in San Gabriel, Caliwas said that as an army officer in comthat it was proper for him to align himself
an officer of the regular army, whose
fornia, did not sign the
mand of
document.
troops he did not feel
with any factional
It
protest."^''
Patton was thoroughly dismayed and momentarily convinced that the
would
protest
seriously
return, perhaps
mar what otherwise turned out
even resulting
in a court-martial.
remains one of denial that he knew anything about
newspaper coverage. In
letters to
any advance knowledge of
it
before the
claiming that even fit
he told Papa: "Some fools must have
to get
He need soon
.
.
.
don't get hit for something of which
I
affair
unwelcome
Pershing and his father, Patton disclaimed
this action,
with Hearst, they ought to have done nothing. In a
hope
be a triumphant
to
His role in the Hearst
done I
was
it
they disagreed
if
of unjustified paranoia,
me
in trouble ...
was
not have worried, for once the Patria docked, the protest
lost in the
I
perfectly inoscent.'"^^
euphoria of homecoming. Patton became the darling of the
him and headlined him in articles chronicling New York Herald his photograph appeared under a caption reading: tank fighters OF NEW YORK AMONG 2,110 BACK HOME, COLONEL PATTON TELLS HOW BIG MACHINES BY HUNDREDS ATTACKED GERMANS.'''
press,
whose
reporters quoted
the exploits of the tank corps. In the
And
in
to the Richmond Timeshometown Los Angeles Herdescribed by patton. "
newspapers from the Washington Post
Despatch, Patton was the
man
of the hour. His
tank victory of yanks is man who two years earlier had been apprehensive over his future, Patton had come a long way. After leaving New York for France in May 1917 as a junior captain, he now returned as the leading battlefield commander and expert of the Tank Corps. He wore the eagles of a full colonel and on his breast was the DSC, four battle stars and the French croix de guerre. Soon he would add the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) to his ribbons.
ald reported,
For a
As
the
voyage ended, Brett presented Patton with a
letter
signed by himself
and forty-nine of the sixty-five tank officers aboard the Patria
that read:
"A
testimonial of personal affection for Colonel Patton for his energy, his leadership, his courage, his constant attention to the welfare of his officers
men,
his understanding
play."^^
It
was
and foresight,
his sterling sense of justice
a touching and unexpected tribute
from
and
and fair-
his loyal officers.
There were festive reunions of hugs, kisses, and
tears,
and euphoria
swept the Brooklyn docks as the returning soldiers were reunited with
their
World War
282 loved ones.
Among
I
those present to greet her
only record of their reunion
is
man was
Beatrice Patton.
daughter Ruth Ellen's recollection
have been told that he was walking with a cane because of his wounded
when he saw Ma standing on the dock, he walked down the gang-plank unaided."^*^
but that
laid
down
his
The
that, "I
leg,
cane and
Whatever the exact circumstances of his return, the war was finally over moment in the spotlight was to prove fleeting. Ahead lay the
for Patton. His
inevitable reductions in rank and the barren interwar years, during
which
Patton would need every ounce of perseverance to survive in an army that
was
to
prove
itself as
woeful as
its
pre- 19 17 predecessor.
PART
VI
The Interwar Years (1919-1939) Where
the hell
am
I?
— PATTON
CHAPTER 20
Eisenhower, Patton,
and the Demise of the Tanl(
Corps
(1919-1920) The "war to end all wars" had been fought; the swords had been beaten into ploughshares; the military appropriations had been cut all was to be well.
—
—RUTH ELLEN PATTON TOTTEN
*
Patton's brigade
Corps
at
was assigned
Camp Meade,
to the
new permanent home of
the
Tank
Maryland. In 1919 Meade's primary function was to
help demobilize the massive military force created to fight the war. Patton
had barely arrived when,
in
mid-April, he was ordered to temporary duty in
Washington, where he and several other veteran tank officers constituted a tank board to examine and
Tank Corps, and how
future wars.' For several
recommend
the basic doctrine of the peacetime
ought to be organized, trained, and employed
it
months Patton and
his
in
team pored over records and
reports and traveled extensively to visit the Springfield (Massachusetts)
Armory, the Rock Island tory in Illinois, and a tank
swollen.
(Illinois) Arsenal, the
works
He was diagnosed
in
Holt Caterpillar Tractor fac-
Davenport, Iowa, where his face became
with chicken pox and laid up for several days
— The Interwar Years
286 until
he was able "to get looking decent again." His ever-present fear of
growing old led him
to observe: "I
young enough
it."-
to
have
was delighted
to find that
from France arrived
Patton's final efficiency ratings
I
was
later in
still
1919,
including one from Pershing. All were laudable, especially one by Brig.
who
Gen. Harry Smith, cers in the service
AEF
.
.
.
rated
him "one of
the
most active and forceful
[and] one of the strongest officers in the Army."^
offi-
The
had also approved Patton's Distinguished Service Medal, and he
proudly informed his father that he thought only he and MacArthur held
DSC and DSM. Later, however, he put himself down by writing was common knowledge the only reason he won the medal was because of the splendid manner in which the Tank Corps carried out its mission: "They won the medal and fortune pinned it on him."^ Despite the long separation from his wife and family, the task of reestablishing his brigade at Camp Meade meant little time for a leisurely reunion. It was midsummer of 1919 before he was granted an extended leave to visit his family at Lake Vineyard. The only record of that visit is both the that
it
Patton's brief remark: "Papa and
so proud of
He always ther he or
one day
me
that
said: 'Mr. so
mama
I
had long
he embarrassed
ever
talks about the war. ...
me when
he presented
and so you remember
made an
Mama called me
actual fuss.
my
The
me
He was
to his friends.
son Colonel Patton.' Nei-
nearest
I
can recall
is
when
'Her hero son.'"^
Beatrice bluntly informed her husband that she refused to remain apart at Camp Meade, even though it was within commuting distance of their leased home in Washington, D.C. Although there were few officer's quarters at Camp Meade, Beatrice insisted that they find a means to create their first home together since Fort Bliss. Ruth Ellen remembers that her father managed to requisition an entire disused wooden
from him while he was stationed
barracks, covered by tarpaper, in the middle of a sandlot, "which into an unforgettable
home. The only paint available
Ma turned
Quartermaster
at the
stores was blue and yellow. So, the whole part of the barracks we lived in was painted blue, yellow, blue and yellow, yellow and blue. The latrine .
.
.
presented a problem in decor, but she solved this by planting trailing ivy in the urinals."
home was such a dangerous fire hazard that cooking was banned, and the Pattons had to eat in the mess hall, where most meals came out of a can. Beatrice soon issued a fresh and nonnegotiable ultimatum: "She would live at Camp Meade and she would have a Their barracks
inside
—
kitchen. ...
A
day or so
Georgie appeared nal house he
'pronounciamento,' a
much
harassed
hauling a timber sled on which was a small sig-
had found abandoned on the range. 'Here's your goddam
kitchen,'" he said.
managed
after her
in a tank,
With
the assistance of military prisoner labor, Patton
to erect a foundation for the
new family
kitchen and connected
it
Eisenhower, Patton, and the Demise
287
Tank Corps
barracks with a covered boardwalk. Beatrice was thrilled and
their
to
thought
of the
it
reminiscent of
Mount Vernon, where
a kitchen located outside the
main house.
It
the food
was
cooked
also
in
too received copious applica-
For once Beatrice had a large
tions of the ubiquitous blue
and yellow
complement of hired
which included a housekeeper, a governess, an
help,
paint.
English cook, and six Mexican servants. The Patton stable was soon bursting with a dozen horses. George had also purchased a Pierce-Arrow, noting that, "I
can afford
Pattons were
now
it
and believe
enjoying
in
my
self
between wars."^ The
a two-automobile family.
Since 1918 the Tank Corps in the United States had been headed by Col. Ira C.
Welbom, an infantryman and Medal of Honor winner during
Spanish-American War. Ever loyal
bom,
whom
"Col.
W.
is
to
he did not know, Patton wrote to his former commander that
dead from the neck up" and urged Rockenbach
claim the job rightfully for himself, which he did in the
When
the
the
Rockenbach and suspicious of Wel-
Rockenbachs came
to dinner
to hurry
summer
home
to
of 1919.^
one evening, Beatrice had neglected
room for the benefit of her swallow, and another behind Ruth Ellen implored, CHEW. Mrs. Rockenbach smiled and said, "We have the same trouble at our house too, Mrs. Patton. The General never stops chewing and I never stop talking. So you see, we can still learn from the young. Although they barely knew him, Patton's two young daughters were thrilled actually to have him around, but it did not last. "Bee and I had been
to
remove two signs she had placed
two daughters. One behind Bee
led to expect so killer
much
—
teller
as he did to the peacetime army.
realize
now
that
said,
a knight in shining armor, a playmate, a fearless
of the dreaded Hun, a
expectations." Patton found as
I
in the dining
of
much
tales.
What we
got
was
far
difficulty adjusting to his
Ruth Ellen
below our
own
family
later wrote:
he was in considerable pain
his future in the tank corps of his creation;
at the time;
worried about
and having a hangover from
is a very real thing. A man goes from the command of men where his judgement means victory or defeat, life or death, to the shrinking command of a handful of men, and the narrowing horizons of peacetime duty with not enough money and not enough troops, and the tender trap of home and family and, it is a let-down. I guess things didn't come up to Georgie's expectations either.
the war,
which
thousands of
—
A stem and uncompromising father, Patton found it difficult to relate to two daughters, both of whom he perpetually resented for not having been bom male. As the youngest, Ruth Ellen had a particularly tempestuous
his
relationship with her father.
Now
four years old and, unlike her older
sister,
young to have had any recollection of George Patton until he stormed back into their lives in the spring of 1919, she thought he was too
The Interwar Years
288 an ogre. Everything
I
was wrong.
did
ever spoke directly to me.
was
there,
and he was
1
sitting
me
as
I
will never forget the first time
on the living-room floor among a
membered guns which he was at
I
cleaning and re-assembling.
lot
of dis-
He looked up
hovered in the doorway, and with his really charming smile
said; "Hello, little girl."
I
was so overwhelmed with
burst into tears and howls, and he began to yell at the
he
had rushed into the house not knowing he
baby away,"
that she
the attention that
Ma
was "making a goddam awful
to
"come and
I
take
noise," and that he
hadn't touched her.
him to try harder, Patton bought his named Tank, the first of several bull termost famous of which was his World War II companion, Willie.
Shortly after Beatrice admonished
daughters a white bull terrier puppy riers, the
Tank turned out to be stone with Tank by banging on the
deaf,
and the Patton children communicated
floor.
Despite his handicap, the dog
somehow
managed always to be at the door to greet his masters when they arrived home. The major difference between Tank and Willie was that even deaf. Tank was a fighter who never gave ground to invading dogs who frequently attacked him but almost always lost. Much to Patton's dismay, Willie turned out to be a coward.
Eventually Patton relaxed in the presence of his family and "began to
Ma had promised us. He
was a great raconwas a lengthy fable he made up about Reginald (Shark) Fulke, the Black Count of Anjou. Beatrice would chide him for the "raw history" he imparted, but Patton would respond, "It's history, Bee, history! You dug all this out of the archives at Saumur yourself! Do you want the girls to grow up ignorant?" The Patton girls loved it. "As tell
us the wonderful stories that
teur."
The
children's favorite story
the stuff of history
way Georgie
told
is it.
often cruel and
Bee and
I
bawdy and bloody and
the Rabelaisian bits." Using his great
an epic
tale
of medieval
life
unfair, that's the
were the age where we particularly enjoyed
knowledge of
and times with no
history, Patton created
detail left to the imagination.
Later Patton's half-aunt Ophelia Smith hired a genealogist,
family line to an illegitimate son of Edward
III.
who
traced the
"Georgie was simply
to think that somewhere in the misty tangles of his background was a genuine no-good, hell-blasted, fascinating Fulke." During her childhood the strong-willed Ruth Ellen would struggle with
charmed there
her father,
who approached
tary unit. In
fatherhood
much
as he did disciplining a mili-
1927 Beatrice and Bee were in the United
States,
and twelve-
year-old Ruth Ellen and three-year-old George (Beatrice had finally had her
much-desired third child
in
1924) were
left in the
care of their father in
Hawaii. As a pampered child, Patton had never been forced to eat anything
he disliked, and, on the rare occasions he was pressed, Aunt Nannie would always manage to get him off the hook with her patented hysterics.
When
Eisenhower, Patton, and the Demise they were
first
of the Tanl