MEDHURST & CO.
Fine Images and Documents
Email: medhurstmd@aol.com
Phone: 913-851-8462
Fine Images and Documents
Email: medhurstmd@aol.com
Phone: 913-851-8462
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"IF WE FIGHT JAPAN - WHICH GOD GRANT - WE WILL BE BEATEN TO
A PULP" $5,000
GEORGE S. PATTON JR. (1895-1945). Celebrated Lt. General of the Army, one
of the finest tank commanders ever, who advanced to full general (1945) after he
led the Third Army at Normandy and through France. Controversial throughout
his career, his toughness on his enemies as well as his own troops earned him the
name "Old Blood and Guts." Superb content early ALS, 4pp with integral leaf,
51/2"x7", West Point, Jan 24, 1909. On West Point letterhead to his mother
regarding his class trip to the Watervliet Arsenal, the principal Federal
manufacturer of large caliber cannon. In part: "We had a hell of a trip yesterday
up to Water Vliet Arsenal at Albany...But we saw a lot and learned above all
things how much it costs to kill a man. They have machines so big they are hard to
describe, laithes two hundred feet long out turning like a carriage wheel as far as
ease of motion is concerned. Yet there was a sad thing in connection with it too.
We have not got manned enough field guns by half to fight a battle like Sedan
[probably referencing the 1870 battle that practically decided the
Franco-Prussian War in favor of Prussia]. We have not got organized a single
siege battery and yet the straps were hardly working to one fourth their capacity.
If we fight Japan - which God grant - we will be beaten to a pulp until this great
and glorious bunch of grafting politicians are all hung and the Army gets what it
should, we have not got enough men to police N.Y. state much less enter a war..."
He then rails against the "Crozier Elimination bill...to stop counting cadet service
in elementary..." Patton laments, "If we don't have a war and a big one pretty
damned soon the army won't be a fit place for any man to stay. Bea[trice] is in Va.
now but she is coming up here next Sunday God willing, so there is yet some use
in living but not much as I did not get a letter today though it was because both
came yesterday..." Darkly penned and signed the year he graduated, receiving a
cavalry officer's commission, and one year before he married his longtime
sweetheart Beatrice Ayre. Original mailing folds; else Fine. The frustrated young
warrior would have to wait until 1916 for war and glory when he accompanied
General Pershing in the Mexican Expedition and into France during World War
I.
A PULP" $5,000
GEORGE S. PATTON JR. (1895-1945). Celebrated Lt. General of the Army, one
of the finest tank commanders ever, who advanced to full general (1945) after he
led the Third Army at Normandy and through France. Controversial throughout
his career, his toughness on his enemies as well as his own troops earned him the
name "Old Blood and Guts." Superb content early ALS, 4pp with integral leaf,
51/2"x7", West Point, Jan 24, 1909. On West Point letterhead to his mother
regarding his class trip to the Watervliet Arsenal, the principal Federal
manufacturer of large caliber cannon. In part: "We had a hell of a trip yesterday
up to Water Vliet Arsenal at Albany...But we saw a lot and learned above all
things how much it costs to kill a man. They have machines so big they are hard to
describe, laithes two hundred feet long out turning like a carriage wheel as far as
ease of motion is concerned. Yet there was a sad thing in connection with it too.
We have not got manned enough field guns by half to fight a battle like Sedan
[probably referencing the 1870 battle that practically decided the
Franco-Prussian War in favor of Prussia]. We have not got organized a single
siege battery and yet the straps were hardly working to one fourth their capacity.
If we fight Japan - which God grant - we will be beaten to a pulp until this great
and glorious bunch of grafting politicians are all hung and the Army gets what it
should, we have not got enough men to police N.Y. state much less enter a war..."
He then rails against the "Crozier Elimination bill...to stop counting cadet service
in elementary..." Patton laments, "If we don't have a war and a big one pretty
damned soon the army won't be a fit place for any man to stay. Bea[trice] is in Va.
now but she is coming up here next Sunday God willing, so there is yet some use
in living but not much as I did not get a letter today though it was because both
came yesterday..." Darkly penned and signed the year he graduated, receiving a
cavalry officer's commission, and one year before he married his longtime
sweetheart Beatrice Ayre. Original mailing folds; else Fine. The frustrated young
warrior would have to wait until 1916 for war and glory when he accompanied
General Pershing in the Mexican Expedition and into France during World War
I.
