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Captain George S. Patton Writes to His Father Not to Worry and Not to Support the Red Cross: "I don't think soldiers should be called upon as they do enough by fighting."
Captain George S. Patton Writes to His Father Not to Worry and Not to Support the Red Cross: "I don't think soldiers should be called upon as they do enough by fighting."
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Description:

Patton Jr. George

GEORGE S. PATTON JR., autograph letter signed, to his father, George S. Patton, October 24, 1917, [Base Hospital No. 15, Chaumont, France]. 2 pp., 8.25" x 10.5". Expected folds; very good.



Complete Transcript

                                                                        "Oct 24 17

Dear Papa:

            Before I forget it take my advise and don’t give any more money to the Red Cross. I think there is going to be a big bust up and scandle about it. They simply throw money away and send foolish women all around in high priced machines. I am not joking I think the are on the pig.

            The army did well on the Liberty Loan and nearly every man subscribed  I had to though I don’t think soldiers should be called upon as they do enough by fighting. besides it is darned low interest and not tax exempt after a certain amount.

            My jaundice is improving a little though I am still living on milk and nothing else though to day I had a potato. It is a great bore for I have a fine chance about the middle of next month of going to one of the schools as instructor in “Tanks” with work as Major N. A. and that might lead to a lot. Hq. is no place for a junior officer of ambition because there are too many big boys about who do all the real work. I am going to try to get off the staff and stay off until I am fifty six or so then it will be worth while. Of course one is slightly more exposed in the line but then if you are born to be killed you will be killed any where and I was not intended to be killed in this war of that I am perfectly sure.

            Any how don’t worry for a long time as it will be very long before any of us even get a chance to be shot at.

            Much love to all your devoted son

                                                                        George S Patton Jr."

 

Despite Patton’s belief that the Red Cross was “on the pig” and his criticism of its expenditures, others highly commended the humanitarian organization. On December 10, 1917, the International Committee of the Red Cross received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1917, the first awarded since World War I began.

 

During World War I, Liberty Loans were part of the U.S. government’s effort to sell war bonds (also known as Liberty Bonds). Congress passed the first Liberty Bond Act on April 24, 1917, issuing $1.9 billion in bonds at 3.5 percent interest. On October 1, a Second Liberty Loan authorized $3.8 billion at 4 percent interest. On April 5, 1918, a Third Liberty Loan authorized $4.1 billion at 4.15 percent interest, and the final Fourth Liberty Loan of September 28, 1918, authorized $6.9 billion at 4.25 percent interest. The interest on up to $30,000 in bonds from the First Liberty Loan was tax exempt. Sales of the bonds were sluggish and often below par, so Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo (1863-1941) developed a marketing campaign to popularize the bonds with small investors and common people. Even Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts sold bonds. The sale of Liberty Bonds raised about $17 billion for the war effort. The entire cost of the war to the federal government was approximately $30 billion.

 

Around October 10, Patton began to “feel badly and get yellow,” and by October 14, he was “very ill indeed.” He went to the hospital three days later and was put in a room with Col. Fox Conner (1874-1951) and “talked Tank with him.” The next day, Patton was told that General James W. McAndrew (1862-1922) wanted to start a Tank school and asked Patton if he was interested in commanding it. Patton agreed but remained in the hospital until November 3. For two weeks surrounding the writing of this letter, hospital staff gave Patton only five glasses of milk per day and pumped out his stomach daily. On November 4, Patton wrote in his diary regarding the tank school: “I did not sleep a bit that night and decided to try the Tanks as it aperes the way to high command if I make a go of it.”

 

On January 26, 1918, Patton received a temporary promotion to Major of the Cavalry, and on April 3, he received a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in the Tank Corps of the National Army (“N.A.” mentioned here). A promotion to Colonel in the Tank Corps followed in October 1918. The War Department formed the National Army in 1917 specifically to fight in World War I from the old core of the regular United States Army, augmented by units of the National Guard and a large draft. At its largest, the National Army had more than six million men. After the war, Patton returned to his prewar rank of Captain of Cavalry in the Regular Army.

 

Patton did not see combat until nearly a year after he wrote this letter. In August 1918, he was given command of the 1st Provisional Tank Brigade. As part of Colonel Samuel Rockenbach’s Tank Corps in mid-September 1918, Patton commanded 144 French-built Renault FT light tanks manned by Americans at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in the first American use of tanks in combat. Saint-Mihiel is a town in northeastern France, held by the Germans since 1914. The attack on Saint-Mihiel, if successful, might open an opportunity to attack the German railroad center in Metz, France, thirty miles to the northeast of Saint-Mihiel. The offensive, involving the American Expeditionary Force and 110,000 French troops as well as 275 French tanks, was successful in driving back the German salient from Saint-Mihiel and the capture of 15,000 German prisoners. However, the muddy roads prevented food supplies and artillery from keeping pace with the advance, and the operation stalled before reaching Metz. On the morning of September 26, at the beginning of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Patton was wounded while getting tanks forward and later received the Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism” that day.

 

 

George S. Patton Jr. (1885-1945) was born in California and educated at the Virginia Military Institute and 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.

 

George Smith Patton (1856-1927), was born in Charleston, (West) Virginia. His father was Confederate colonel George Smith Patton (1833-1864), who died at the third Battle of Winchester during the Civil War. The younger Patton changed his middle name to Smith in honor of his father. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, studied law, and became an attorney in Lexington, Virginia. In 1877, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where in 1884, he married Ruth Wilson (1861-1928). They settled at Lake Vineyard, California, where they raised produce and operated a winery. In 1902, he began working for Henry E. Huntington’s real estate development company, and he served as the first mayor of San Marino from 1913 to April 1922 and again from October 1922 to 1924. They had two children, George S. Patton Jr. and Anne Wilson Patton (1887-1971).

 

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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