Exactly two months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, General Lesley J. McNair rated the army's "high commanders" for General George C. Marshall, the chief of staff. Of the seven corps commanders McNair endorsed, only one, Joseph W. Stilwell, attained fame in the coming conflict. One, Lloyd R. Fredendall, commanded at Kasserine Pass, perhaps the army's greatest debacle. McNair did 'Just as miserably forecasting the future of the army's division commanders. He said of William H. Simpson, who later led an army: "untried but should do well." One of Simpson's classmates at West Point appeared as poorly to McNair. "Good," McNair, a dedicated infantryman, noted of George S. Patton, Jr., then the commander of the 2d Armored Division; "a division possibly his ceiling." Even more startling today was the last name on McNair's list of "others," an officer who lacked World War I combat experience, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Omitted entirely was Omar N. Bradley. "This is fascinating," Patton's son, himself a major general, wrote when he saw the list a half century later. "McNair's predictions were not too hot. Take notice of Ike at the bottom of the list-'an also ran.'"'
No American war produced more generals whose names are instantaneously recognizable than did the Second World War: Eisenhower, Bradley, Marshall, Stilwell, MacArthur, and Patton. Perhaps Patton has held the most fascination, for his fame stems solely from his skill and determination as a combat commander, not from service as an administrator or executive.Ambitious, controversial, and brilliant, he blazed brightest but for the shortest time just as war helped define him, he helped define it. As he often predicted, students of war today study his campaigns, and those who served under him led the American army for a quarter of a century.
At different times and to different people, General Patton appeared to be different things. To British general Sir Charles Richardson, who met him in Sicily in September 1943, Patton was more cowboy than anything else. "I was led by an ADC into a large room; in one corner, flags of the Allies, very large flags at that, were erected behind an enormous desk. A slim, elderly figure rose up, with pearl-handled revolver strapped to his hip, and greeted me in movietone accent. Was I at war, or was I in Hollywood, I wondered?"' Conversely, Patton's father considered him the heir to the traditions, military and otherwise, of the great Southern family from which he came. Patton himself lived and never felt uncomfortable in Massachusetts. In reality, he was an American, and it is hard to imagine any other nation producing a general exactly like him.
Patrons lived in Virginia throughout the eighteenth century. In 1755 Colonel James Patton, the head of the Augusta County militia, displayed all the family's impulsiveness. After the Shawnees massacred some settlers, James Patton gathered his troops and drove straight for the Indian encampment. On July 8, the day before General Edward Braddock's defeat by the French and Indians near Fort Duquesne, he marched into a trap and was never heard of again.
Just before the Revolutionary War, Robert Patton, a Scotsman, came to the New World and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia. About 1793 he married Anne Gordon Mercer, the only daughter of the Revolutionary War hero General Hugh Mercer, who was killed at the Battle of Princeton in 1777, and for whom the New Jersey county containing that town is named. Of their six children the most distinguished was John Mercer Patton, who lived from 1797 to 1858. He served in Congress from 1830 to 1838 and was for a short time the acting governor of Virginia. John Mercer Patton and his wife, Margaret French Williams, in turn produced twelve children. They named the sixth, born on June 26, 1833, George Smith Patton.
During his brief life George Smith Patton had two great loves: the military and Susan Thornton Glassell. A graduate in 1852 of the Virginia Military Institute, he practiced law in Charleston, Virginia, now West Virginia. He also led the county militia unit, the Kanawha Riflemen. "It was well trained and equipped," George Smith Patton's commander informed his son sixty years later, "all of which was due to your Fathers energy and genius. The Kanawha Riflemen was composed of the best young & old men in Charleston & the Valley. Many of them have become distinguished & all were engaged in developing the resources of the Valley. Your Father served with me in many engagements & I have never had a more efficient & gallant officer under my command." In 1859, when John Brown captured the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, the Kanawha Riflemen was among the units rushed into action to retake the place .
In the fall of 1854 George Smith Patton, then twenty-one, met his other love, Susan Thornton Glassell, two years his junior. That November, from Richmond, Susan described the relationship to her cousin, Virginia Ring:
You will be astonished when I tell you that to this individual I have given my entire heart. He is one of God's own noble men a work of his own hands. He is a son of Mr. M. Patton of this place. His name is George. I met with him last evening and liked him from the first moment that I saw him.... I have been engaged to him now rather more than six weeks, and every day develops some new and noble treat.... His hair is as black as a raven's wing with eyes of the same hue but oh my, so deep, so bright, and so full of soul. He is very fond of fun and we keep up a most incessant chatter.
The Glassell family bore little of the luster of the Patrons. Originally from Virginia, Susan had grown up deep in Alabama in Greensboro, where her father, Andrew Glassell, Sr., engaged principally in hiring out his slaves to a Mr. Franklin Randolph. In January 183 5, just after moving to Alabama, he urged his wife, Susan Thompson Thornton Glassell, to send her brother, Dr. William Thornton, there....
General Patton. Copyright © by Stanley Hirshson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.| List of Maps | xiii | |
| Preface | xv | |
| Acknowledgments | xix | |
| Prelude: Sicily, July 12, 1943, to July 14, 1943 | 1 | |
| 1 | Glassells and Herefords, Wilsons and Pattons (with Some Account of the Dyslexia Myth) | 5 |
| 2 | A Day as a Lion | 49 |
| 3 | The Suicide Club | 90 |
| 4 | Leavenworth and All That | 133 |
| 5 | The Warrior Soul | 174 |
| 6 | "1918 Minds, All" | 213 |
| 7 | Field of Honor | 256 |
| 8 | "Not Much of a War" | 296 |
| 9 | Sicily on My Mind | 340 |
| 10 | Atrocities Amid the Triumphs | 363 |
| 11 | "Lower Than Whale Tracks" | 407 |
| 12 | Whither Destiny? | 435 |
| 13 | Invasion Blues | 466 |
| 14 | Hurry Up and Wait | 502 |
| 15 | Stumbling into the Bulge | 536 |
| 16 | Hits and Errors | 573 |
| 17 | "Haven't You Learned Not to Take This Man Seriously?" | 617 |
| 18 | Headlong Toward Disaster | 651 |
| 19 | A Diary and a Movie | 681 |
| 20 | Patton: A Brief Assessment | 700 |
| Endnotes | 709 | |
| Manuscripts and Oral Histories Cited | 799 | |
| Index | 805 |
Chapter One
Glassells and Herefords,
Wilsons and Pattons
(with Some Account of the Dyslexia Myth)
Exactly two months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, General Lesley J. McNair rated the army's "high commanders" for General George C. Marshall, the chief of staff. Of the seven corps commanders McNair endorsed, only one, Joseph W. Stilwell, attained fame in the coming conflict. One, Lloyd R. Fredendall, commanded at Kasserine Pass, perhaps the army's greatest debacle. McNair did 'Just as miserably forecasting the future of the army's division commanders. He said of William H. Simpson, who later led an army: "untried but should do well." One of Simpson's classmates at West Point appeared as poorly to McNair. "Good," McNair, a dedicated infantryman, noted of George S. Patton, Jr., then the commander of the 2d Armored Division; "a division possibly his ceiling." Even more startling today was the last name on McNair's list of "others," an officer who lacked World War I combat experience, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Omitted entirely was Omar N. Bradley. "This is fascinating," Patton's son, himself a major general, wrote when he saw the list a half century later. "McNair's predictions were not too hot. Take notice of Ike at the bottom of the list-'an also ran.'"'
No American war produced more generals whose names are instantaneously recognizable than did the Second World War: Eisenhower, Bradley, Marshall, Stilwell, MacArthur, and Patton. Perhaps Patton has held the most fascination, for his fame stems solely from his skill and determination as a combat commander, not from service as an administrator or executive. Ambitious, controversial, and brilliant, he blazed brightest but for the shortest time. just as war helped define him, he helped define it. As he often predicted, students of war today study his campaigns, and those who served under him led the American army for a quarter of a century.
At different times and to different people, General Patton appeared to be different things. To British general Sir Charles Richardson, who met him in Sicily in September 1943, Patton was more cowboy than anything else. "I was led by an ADC into a large room; in one corner, flags of the Allies, very large flags at that, were erected behind an enormous desk. A slim, elderly figure rose up, with pearl-handled revolver strapped to his hip, and greeted me in movietone accent. Was I at war, or was I in Hollywood, I wondered?"' Conversely, Patton's father considered him the heir to the traditions, military and otherwise, of the great Southern family from which he came. Patton himself lived and never felt uncomfortable in Massachusetts. In reality, he was an American, and it is hard to imagine any other nation producing a general exactly like him.
Patrons lived in Virginia throughout the eighteenth century. In 1755 Colonel James Patton, the head of the Augusta County militia, displayed all the family's impulsiveness. After the Shawnees massacred some settlers, James Patton gathered his troops and drove straight for the Indian encampment. On July 8, the day before General Edward Braddock's defeat by the French and Indians near Fort Duquesne, he marched into a trap and was never heard of again.
Just before the Revolutionary War, Robert Patton, a Scotsman, came to the New World and settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia. About 1793 he married Anne Gordon Mercer, the only daughter of the Revolutionary War hero General Hugh Mercer, who was killed at the Battle of Princeton in 1777, and for whom the New Jersey county containing that town is named. Of their six children the most distinguished was John Mercer Patton, who lived from 1797 to 1858. He served in Congress from 1830 to 1838 and was for a short time the acting governor of Virginia. John Mercer Patton and his wife, Margaret French Williams, in turn produced twelve children. They named the sixth, born on June 26, 1833, George Smith Patton.
During his brief life George Smith Patton had two great loves: the military and Susan Thornton Glassell. A graduate in 1852 of the Virginia Military Institute, he practiced law in Charleston, Virginia, now West Virginia. He also led the county militia unit, the Kanawha Riflemen. "It was well trained and equipped," George Smith Patton's commander informed his son sixty years later, "all of which was due to your Fathers energy and genius. The Kanawha Riflemen was composed of the best young & old men in Charleston & the Valley. Many of them have become distinguished & all were engaged in developing the resources of the Valley. Your Father served with me in many engagements & I have never had a more efficient & gallant officer under my command." In 1859, when John Brown captured the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, the Kanawha Riflemen was among the units rushed into action to retake the place .
In the fall of 1854 George Smith Patton, then twenty-one, met his other love, Susan Thornton Glassell, two years his junior. That November, from Richmond, Susan described the relationship to her cousin, Virginia Ring:
You will be astonished when 1 tell you that to this individual I have given my entire heart. He is one of God's own noble men a work of his own hands. He is a son of Mr. M. Patton of this place. His name is George. I met with him last evening and liked him from the first moment that I saw him.... I have been engaged to him now rather more than six weeks, and every day develops some new and noble treat.... His hair is as black as a raven's wing with eyes of the same hue but oh my, so deep, so bright, and so full of soul. He is very fond of fun and we keep up a most incessant chatter.
The Glassell family bore little of the luster of the Patrons. Originally from Virginia, Susan had grown up deep in Alabama in Greensboro, where her father, Andrew Glassell, Sr., engaged principally in hiring out his slaves to a Mr. Franklin Randolph. In January 183 5, just after moving to Alabama, he urged his wife, Susan Thompson Thornton Glassell, to send her brother, Dr. William Thornton, there....
Anonymous
Posted November 28, 2002
Clearly this book is a meticulous biography, and perhaps in places it provides some balance of judgment, but on the whole this is the work of a bookkeeper turned historian, and misses the spirit of the man and the times. If you're going to read just one Patton biography, this isn't it. If you're going to read several this should be your 3rd choice, just for balance, and to correct the record here and there. But the author leaves out so much critical background informaton, that the work suffers. Particularly Patton's ability to confront and overcome fears for himself and others cannot be understood at all without some appreciation for the spiritual dimensions of the man, particularly including his study of the Bhagavadgita, and his own private experience of a meeting with Krishna (symbolically), on the battlefield of Saint-Mihiel in WW1. Without that perspective of inner peace, he could not have functioned as he did in WW2. If Mr. Hirshson essentially dismisses Patton's profound belief in re-incarnation and sense of his place in history as 'just' a mechanism to deal with fear in battle, the result is a 2 dimensional rendering of a 4 dimensional phenomenon, and an injustice to the subject. No doubt Patton had his faults too, thanks to the author for pointing out the obvious, and setting the record straight where necessary.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 8, 2009
I always knew my Great-Grandfather was friends with General Eisenhower in WW2 but really did not know how close he worked with Patton. I am starting to do family research and imagine my suprise when I found 2 pictures of my Great-grandfather, General W.D. Crittenberger in this book! He is also mentioned 4 times in the book. I have read a lot of books on "Ike" and now I am reading books on Patton. This book was very interesting. I got it from the library and now I am going to buy it for myself to pass down to my children.
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Posted February 16, 2009
I thought I knew a lot about Patton but I did not. A bit more about his early life than I thought I wanted to know. But as I read it, it helped me to better understand who he "was" and why he was...... <BR/><BR/>Very informative.
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Posted May 15, 2007
Dr. Hirshson's history of General George Patton was extremely disappointing. I have read numerous histories of his life and all of the author's focused on his unequaled accomplishments. Dr. Hirshson's approach seemed to be an effort to reverse history. His use of multiple end notes on virtually every page was tedious at best, drudgery at worst. He seemed to highlight as much negative comment as he could. His mission appeared to be an attempt to remove General Patton from his rightful and well earned place among the handful of the greatest tacticians and strategists this country has developed. I have read many biographies about General Patton and this one holds the position of being the worst by far. I would not recommend this volume to anyone.
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Posted November 3, 2003
Incredibly, even exhaustively researched, this book tackles a delicate task and pulls it off. To write a book about Patton the man rather than Patton¿s campaigns is a tough sell, but I believe Mr. Hirshson pulls it off nicely. The legend of Patton is stripped leaving Patton the man- flawed, egotistical, but undoubtedly one of the greatest field commanders our country has ever produced. The one major downside of the book is the author¿s poorly argued (and surprisingly, poorly researched) accusation of Patton¿s complicity in the killings of German POWs by his troops. Nowhere does he make a clearly argued, compelling case against the man, yet he insists on bringing it up repeatedly. I believe it is an unfair, unbalanced accusation on the part of the author against the subject of his book. That being said, this book is well written, and choke full of more information about the man Patton than you will find in any other book.
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Posted November 20, 2002
Nothing new in this account of General Patton's life. The author seems to take pleasure in continuously listing the faults of Patton and spreading the credit for successes around to other officers. Overall not a bad account, but not one of the best biographies available on Gen. George S. Patton Jr.
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Posted September 5, 2002
Mr Hirshson quotes British Gen.on page six who states Gen. Patton was wearing "pearl handled pistols". No correction or foot note provided the fact that General Pattons pistols were IVORY handled. I can assure Mr. Hirshson the General would be most disappointed over this error with no corection. I offer a quote from General Patton himself. "No one but a G. D. pimp from a New Orleans whore house would carry pearl handle pistols. My pistols are Ivory Sir". This waas always a sensitive misrepresentation to the General and when I find it on the sixth page of a book that took 12 years I then begin to wonder about the other seven hundred some pages. I am not a Historian but just a simple soldier who has nothing but respect and admiration for the Greatest Soldier, George S. Patton Jr. Gen. I would appreciate this being addressed to the author and all who assist him in this publication. SFC. Edward L. Harmle(Retired).
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Posted September 6, 2002
Sept 5th I wroe a review critical of page 6 quote of a British General calling Pattons pistols pearl handled. I stated the author made no effort to correct this mistake as pistols were Ivory. The Author did correct with a endnote on page 710. Ierrored by looking at foot note on page 709. My reverence for General Patton led me to make a early misjudgement. My appolygies to Mr Hirshson..
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Posted June 6, 2009
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Posted March 9, 2011
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