Patton

Battling with History

J. Furman Daniel

• Publisher: University of Missouri
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780826274458
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Weltgeschichte

General George S. Patton Jr. is one of the most successful yet misunderstood figures in American military history. Despite the many books and articles written about him, none considers in depth how his love of history shaped the course of his life. In this thematic biography, Furman Daniel traces Patton's obsession with history and argues that it informed and contributed to many of his successes, both on and off the battlefield.Patton deliberately cultivated the image of himself as a warrior from ages past; the more interesting truth is that he was an exceptionally dedicated student of history. He was a hard worker and voracious reader who gave a great deal of thought to how military history might inform his endeavors. Most scholars have overlooked this element of Patton's character, which Daniel argues is essential to understanding the man's genius.

CHAPTER ONE

EARLY BATTLES WITH HISTORY

The Young History Lover

GEORGE S. PATTON JR. was born on November 11, 1885, in San Gabriel, California, and raised on his family’s ranch outside of Pasadena. The Patton family moved to the area from Virginia shortly after the end of the American Civil War in an attempt to escape the devastated southern countryside and to restore their fortunes. Despite the inauspicious circumstances surrounding their departure from Virginia, the family was extremely proud of its history, particularly its military traditions. According to family lore, their relatives had distinguished themselves as military leaders for centuries fighting in conflicts such as the Jacobite Rebellion, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War.¹

History was the favorite topic of discussion in the Patton household, and the oral history of his family’s military exploits made quite an impression on the youth.² Even though he would listen attentively for hours to these stories, he soon grew interested in more complex subjects. While he was a poor reader initially, his family happily indulged him with countless hours of reading from classic works of literature on military themes, including the Bible, Shakespeare, Homer, Walter Scott, and Julius Caesar, as well as a wide range of secondary sources on topics ranging from the Middle Ages to the Napoleonic Wars.³

These lessons were supplemented by visits from many former soldiers, both friends and relatives alike, who frequently stayed as guests at the Patton family home for extended periods. Two of the most notable visitors were the Confederate partisan leader Colonel John Singleton Mosby, and Patton’s step-grandfather, Colonel George Hugh Smith, both of whom had distinguished themselves during the American Civil War. Mosby had a gift for storytelling and imparted colorful anecdotes as well as practical advice about how to fight on horseback, exploit initiative, and use unconventional tactics to achieve battlefield success.⁴ Colonel Mosby also had a playful side and would indulge the young Patton for hours riding across the family estate on horseback, reenacting battles and taking orders from “Robert E. Lee,” played by George.

Colonel Smith taught Patton to revere both his military ancestors and Confederate heroes such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.⁵ Perhaps more than any other person, Smith instilled in Patton a belief that he was destined to continue the family tradition of being a soldier. While the pro-Confederate bias may strike contemporary audiences as anachronistic, this worship of the past and the veneration of the “Lost Cause” had a profound impact on the young boy, encouraging him to learn history and to seek a military career.⁶ This indoctrination into the mythology of the Lost Cause was so complete that he apparently prayed every night to a picture of Confederate generals Lee and Jackson that hung above his bed, believing that they were God and Jesus. While he would eventually be corrected as to the identity of these two men, he continued to venerate them and his Confederate ancestors, later reflecting that they “have ever inspired me [to be] true to the heroic traditions of their race.”⁷ As he matured, he continued to read and study the American Civil War and would frequently use examples from the conflict to understand unfolding campaigns and explain his views of warfare to his fellow officers.

Even in his childhood play, Patton was committed to living history and mastering the military arts. George and his younger sister, Nita, spent countless hours dressing up as Civil War soldiers and reenacting battles on the family ranch. While Nita was generally a willing participant in these games, she did refuse to serve as the defeated Trojan hero Hector, despite George’s insistence that he would tie her to a horse and drag her body around the family farm in a modern reenactment of his favorite scene from The Iliad.⁸

One day, when Patton was still a young boy, his father bought him a .22-caliber rifle. The youth and his rifle quickly became inseparable. Patton hunted small game and practiced his marksmanship until he could shoot oranges off fence posts from a respectable distance, much to the amusement of the family and their houseguests. He would carry his love of firearms for the remainder of his life as an Olympic athlete and onto battlefields in Mexico, Africa, and Europe.

Young George particularly enjoyed staging mock sword fights with his father. He crafted many swords and primitive weapons out of wood and scraps of metal, including one on which he wrote “Lt. Gen. G. S. Patton.” When a local surplus store ran a sale on model 1870 French bayonets, his father proudly presented one of these weapons to his young son, who used it to attack local cacti with ferocious abandon.

These early childhood experiments with swordplay would also serve Patton well in future days.⁹ He displayed his world-class fencing skill as a pentathelete at the 1912 Olympics, was twice invited to study fencing at the French cavalry school, was named the “Master of the Sword” for the US Army Mounted Service School, redesigned the US Army saber, rewrote the saber manual, and taught swordsmanship at Fort Riley, Kansas.¹⁰ Because Patton had to serve as a swordsmanship instructor to officers more senior in rank, he would often use the wooden swords from his youth as an icebreaker, claiming, “But gentlemen . . . I have been an expert on the sword, if nothing else, for at least fifteen years, and in that respect I am your senior.”¹¹

In his early days, Patton also became an accomplished horseman. He learned to ride on the bloodstained saddle of his Confederate grandfather, Colonel George S. Patton. The blood, which was believed to be from the mortal wound that killed his grandfather at the Third Battle of Winchester, connected him to his family history while reminding him of the sacrifice of a warrior who had gone before him. Initially, Patton struggled at horse riding. The many falls he experienced hardened both his body and his mind, but did not diminish his desire to engage in military-style exercises. He persevered and became not only an excellent rider but also a ferocious polo player and a lover of horses. In the final days of World War II, this appreciation of the equine arts led him to divert forces to prevent the famous Spanish Riding School’s Lipizzaner stallions and their trainers from falling into Soviet hands.¹²

While Patton recognized the anachronistic nature of cavalry in modern warfare, he simultaneously reveled in the romantic past. Throughout his professional life, he used his knowledge of horses to further his career, connect with the cavalrymen of the past, achieve excellence in another field of military endeavor, and perpetuate his warrior image. The spirit of the cavalry became an essential part of his own theories of warfare. Much like his mounted predecessors, he was comfortable with a fluid operational environment, used mobility to arrive at decisive points on the battlefield, and maintained the initiative by vigorously pursuing retreating foes.

Patton’s story time and playtime during his youth amounted to much more than idyllic diversions of an overindulged child. Rather, these early exposures to the military profession reveal much about his character and later success. Even as a boy, he studied history and the military arts, confident that these games and historical reenactments had a practical use.

Formal Military Education at the Virginia Military Institute and West Point

Given this early indoctrination into military history and his family’s veneration of warriors from previous generations, it was perhaps natural that the young Patton would choose a military career. Despite his passionate desire to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, he was initially denied an appointment. Undeterred, he attended the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) for a year before reapplying and ultimately gaining admission to West Point.

Despite his excellent military deportment and passionate desire to succeed, Patton struggled at West Point. He failed mathematics and was required to repeat his plebe year. The young cadet was devastated by his academic failures and seriously questioned his abilities. Several prominent historians claim that these academic struggles were the result of undiagnosed dyslexia, and significant anecdotal evidence exists for this interpretation. He had been slow to learn how to read as a child, struggled with spelling his entire life, lost his temper easily, believed that he was stupid, and frequently expressed doubts about his own abilities. All of these traits are common with dyslexics but are inconclusive speculation without a formal diagnosis.¹³

On the contrary, it is also well documented that Patton lacked a comprehensive formal education prior to attending VMI and West Point. He was late to enter school, changed schools several times in his formative years, focused his energies almost exclusively on history and literature, and was indulged by friends and family who would read to him and tell stories rather than force him to study or read on his own. That he was never exposed to a rigorous education in science and mathematics prior to attending West Point may be an equally valid reason for these early struggles.¹⁴

Whatever the cause of these deficiencies, Patton was neither lazy nor dismissive in his studies at West Point, and he was keenly aware that his early shortcomings risked jeopardizing his military career. Contrary to the cocksure image of legend, he harbored deep feelings of self-doubt. He would admit to these insecurities only in his diary and private letters, but the sense that he was never good enough would follow him for the remainder of his life.¹⁵

Instead of discouraging him, however, these private struggles drove his studies and broader pursuit of excellence. In a letter to his father, the young cadet revealed his insecurities by describing a dream: “Every body [sic] was pointing their fingers at me and calling me stupid. I was so scared that I woke up.” In this same letter, he went on to propose a solution, noting that he believed the soldier’s duty was to be “so thoroughly conversant with all sorts of military possibilities. . . . To attain this end I think it is necessary for a man to begin to read military history in its earliest and hence crudest form and to follow it down in natural sequence permitting his mind to grow with his subject until he can grasp with out [sic] effort the most abstruse question of the science of war.”¹⁶

To help formalize these early studies, Cadet Patton began to compose a series of notes and observations regarding military history and strategy. These notes were a mixture of names and dates, quotes from famous military figures, and his own set of pithy maxims and turns of phrase. While many of these entries reflect a deep sense of loneliness and self-doubt, they also reveal a firm belief that if he worked hard he could achieve his dreams of fame and high command.

In 1905 he wrote, “By perseverance and study and eternal desire any man can be great,” and “I hope and pray that whatever it cost I shall gain my desire.” This powerful motivation was supported by numerous quotes from Napoleon and Frederick the Great about the need to act decisively and dedicate oneself entirely to the mastery of the military profession. With an eye toward his own career, he reproduced this quote from Napoleon in his diary: “To command an army well a general must think of nothing else.”¹⁷

Even at this early stage of his career, it was clear that Patton believed that he needed to study military history and extract enduring principles of war. In an entry that would presage the offensive tactics he would apply four decades later, he noted the importance of aggressiveness and initiative: “In making an attack make only one and carry it through to the last house holder. Make the men who have gained ground lay down and hold it. What folly to let them fall back and to take part in a fresh assault. . . . Remember Fredrick [sic] the Great [who said to his faltering troops] ‘Come on men do you want to live for ever [sic]?’”¹⁸ Such entries provide a revealing insight into the mind of the future general. He was already using the study of the past and the written word to improve himself because he was confident that it would pay future dividends.

While Patton had few close friends during these years, he was already being viewed as a young officer with a soldierly bearing, a fierce competitive streak, a desire to attain the highest ranks in the army, and a love of military history. The cadet yearbook, The Howitzer, joked that he could stop an earthquake with an order, noted his penchant for accidents on the athletic field and his fastidious appearance, and even mentioned his private studies, noting, “It is said that Georgie Patton has compiled for future generals, a rule for winning every battle under any combination of circumstances.”¹⁹

For the remainder of his time at West Point,...