Description:

George Patton, Jr.
n.p., ca. 1915/1916
Patton Writes "as soon as enough people die I will get my promotion" Just Before Pancho Villa Expedition
ALS

A fine content autograph letter signed "George S. Patton Jr.". Four pages. No place or date but written while Patton just before the Pancho Villa Expedition, ca. late 1915 - early 1916. Penned on four sides of a single folded sheet measuring 9.75" x 6.5". PSA authenticated and conserved in a 13" x 9.75" slab.

In part: "…We are having a regular wind storm to day and everything is covered with grit.

I had intended going out to the outpost to day but it was too nasty so I will go out in the morning if it quiets down a little.

This is the dustiest country in the world indeed there is nothing else except rocks. No one can see why a Mexican should ever want to steal it.

I have passed my examination all right so as soon as enough people die I will get my promotion but unless something happens it may be six or eight months in which case I will be here or at [Fort] Bliss for that time.

On this trip I start on [sic] in the morning there may be some wild pigs I would like to get a pair of tusks. There will certainly be some duck unless this d--- wind blows them all away.

There is no other news. I am sorry Pa is low about the Senate.

Tell him to use the machine as long as he wants and then to ship it to El Paso. Have the end people hurry up they take forever…".

Political unrest during the Mexican Revolution destabilized the entire region and threatened border areas in the United States. Though numerous border incidents between Americans and Mexican revolutionaries occurred during this period, the one event which precipitated a full-scale military action was Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico in early March 1916. This action, along with similar raids, spurred President Wilson to send General John "Black Jack" Pershing and 4,800 troops into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa. The Mexican Border Campaign (March 1916 - January 1917) was alternately known as Pershing's Punitive Expedition or the Pancho Villa Expedition.

After his graduation from West Point in June, 1915 Patton arranged to be assigned to the 8th Cavalry at Fort Bliss, Texas and thereafter joined the A Troop at the border. When the Expedition was launched, the impatient lieutenant appealed to its leader, John Jack Pershing, to join it. Pershing named Patton his aide-de-camp.

On May 14, 1916, Patton led a raid against Col. Julia Cardenas near Rubio in the Mexican state of Chihuahua in what is considered the first motorized attack in United States military history, during which Pancho Villa's second-in-command and two of his guards were killed.

According to a contemporary newspaper account, Patton's cars: "Running nearly sixty miles an hour…were within less than 100 yards of the building before their presence was discovered. A Mexican in the yard gave the warning, but it was too late. By the time Cardenas and his two men could get on their horses and dash for the ranch gate, the Americans had surrounded the place. Cardenas was the first man to emerge. He and Lieutenant Patton engaged in a pistol duel, in which a shot from Patton's weapon broke the bandit's arm and drove him back into the ranchhouse, later to be slain by the soldiers when he tried to escape form another side." (Rocky Mountain News, Denver, May 24, 1916, p. 9).

George S. Patton, Jr. (1885-1945) was a career military officer whose 36 years of military service spanned three military conflicts including both world wars. Patton sortied against partisans of Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1915-1916, and he was later dispatched to the Western Front as a personal aide to General John "Black Jack" Pershing. It was during World War II, however, that Patton made his most indelible mark. "Old Blood and Guts" served as an army commander leading Allied expeditions in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, eastern France, the Benelux Countries, and Germany. Patton died of complications following a car accident in Luxembourg in December 1945.

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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  • Provenance: PSA 85353497
  • Dimensions: 9.75" x 13"
  • Medium: ALS

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