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Lot 319
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Cadet George S. Patton Jr. Writes to Future Wife about Life at West Point
Cadet George S. Patton Jr. Writes to Future Wife about Life at West Point
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Description:

George S. Patton Jr.
West Point, NY, April 23, 1907
Cadet George S. Patton Jr. Writes to Future Wife about Life at West Point
ALS
GEORGE S. PATTON JR., Autograph Letter Signed, to Beatrice Banning Ayer, April 23, 1907 (added in pencil at bottom), [West Point, New York]. 3 pp., 5.125" x 6.5". Light toning; very good.

George S. Patton Jr. and Beatrice Banning Ayer (1886-1953) met as teenagers on Santa Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California in 1902, when their families were vacationing. Ayer was the daughter of prominent Boston industrialist Frederick Ayer.

While Patton was attending the Virginia Military Institute, California Senator Thomas R. Bard nominated him for appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. In his first year at West Point, he performed well in the military routine but struggled academically. He was cadet sergeant major during his junior year and cadet adjutant during his senior year. He joined the football team, but injuries to his arm (including one evident in this picture) kept him off the field. Instead, he focused on fencing and track and field, specializing in the modern pentathlon, which took him to the 1912 Summer Olympics in Sweden. During his years at West Point, Patton's friendship with Ayer deepened.

This letter discusses an ongoing battle between Commandant of Cadets Robert Lee Howze and Mrs. Elizabeth Fairfax Ayres, the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Charles G. Ayres and the mother of Cadet Fairfax Ayres. Mrs. Ayres had written several letters to newspapers accusing the Academy of persecuting her son. Ultimately, Secretary of War William Howard Taft issued an order forbidding Mrs. Ayres from visiting the military academy at West Point, and she threatened to sue the officers at West Point and Secretary Taft for damages. The letter also mentions the U.S. Military Academy's yearbook, The Howitzer, and an upcoming military exposition in Jamestown, Virginia.

Patton graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in June 1909, finishing 46 out of 103 cadets, and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Cavalry branch of the U.S. Army. After Patton asked Frederick Ayer's permission to marry his daughter, they announced their engagement in March 1910. They were married in Boston on May 26, 1910. Two days later, they sailed for a honeymoon trip to England.

Complete Transcript
Dear Beatrice;
Say but you are in the very devil of a fix but if writing can help you and as you cant talk I should think it might prevent explosion why please write for there is nothing I like better than to get your letters and I have had the whooping cough. Truly though I am very sorry you are sick and only console myself that it gives me an excuse to bother you with a Howitzer.
Now if it is in the way please dont hesitate to throw it away for I know that college year books are not very interesting to those out side the college.
Also please take out the page with the fact of my utter worthlessness in football printed on it.
I hope I have cured my attack of "Wilderesque" any way I have tried for some thing must be done when one gets an absence reading a book on Egyptian Architecture written in French.
Tell that boy that there are much easier ways of going to –— than by enlisting and I should advise him not to do it. If he has any pull he should try for a civil appointment in the artillery for just now that is the best. I fear Mr Carroll will not come pack he is too lazy.
That is a fine name but how do you like "Yellow Jacket" you see it means something else something that stings too. "If you dont like it say so."
It has been very cold here also but there have been no fires and no Willies and the only exciting thing has been the fight between Mrs. A. and the Com. and oh yes we beat Yale at base ball but I was out running and did not see it. We wont go to James Town until the first of June when we are going by boat and will probably live on her while down there I hope we will for there is little fun camping in the mud with white trousers. They will probably make a rigiment of us in June so there will be some new kind of makes and no one can tell what he will be but I will try not to be "busted"
And now please dont Whoop any more not even at this letter
Wednesday George Patton
[added in pencil:] 23 April 1907

George S. Patton Jr. (1885-1945) was born in California and educated at the Virginia Military Institute (like his father and grandfather) and the United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1909. An avid horseback rider, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the cavalry. In 1910, he married Beatrice Banning Ayer (1886-1953), the daughter of a wealthy Boston businessman. He competed in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, in the modern pentathlon, where he finished fifth behind four Swedes. He then traveled to France, where he learned fencing techniques. Returning to the United States, he redesigned cavalry saber combat doctrine and designed a new sword. In 1915 and 1916, Patton participated in the Pancho Villa Expedition in Mexico as Commander John J. Pershing's aide. In the spring of 1917, he accompanied Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, to Europe. Patton took an interest in tanks and was soon training crews to operate them. By 1918, he was in command of a tank brigade. After World War I, he served in various army posts and began to develop the methods of mechanized warfare. At the beginning of World War II, Patton worked to develop and train armored divisions in the army. In the summer of 1942, he commanded the Western Task Force in the Allied invasion of French North Africa. He commanded the Seventh U.S. Army in the successful invasion of Sicily in July 1943. After the Normandy invasion of June 1944, Patton's Third Army sailed to France and formed on the extreme right of Allied land forces. Through speed and aggressive offensive action, the Third Army continuously pressed retreating German forces until it ran out of fuel near Metz in northeastern France at the end of August. When the German army counterattacked in the battle of the Bulge in mid-December 1944, Patton's ability to reposition six full divisions to relieve besieged Allied forces in Bastogne was one of the most remarkable achievements of the war. As the Germans retreated, Patton's Third Army advanced, killing, wounding, or capturing 240,000 German soldiers in seven weeks before crossing the Rhine on March 22. After the end of the war in Europe, Patton hoped for a command in the Pacific but after a visit to the United States returned to Europe for occupation duty in Bavaria. In December 1945, the car in which he was riding collided with an American army truck at low speed, but Patton hit his head on a glass partition, breaking his neck and paralyzing him. He died twelve days later at a hospital in Germany. He was buried among some of his men of the Third Army in an American cemetery in Luxembourg.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 5.125" x 6.5"
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