"LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING HOME, WHERE THE SUN SHINES AND THERE'S NO DRILL OR QUILL": LENGTHY PATTON AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED: A 21-YEAR-OLD CADET WRITES TO HIS MOTHER FROM WEST POINT, 1907
PATTON, George S. Autograph letter signed. West Point, New York, Sunday, May 26 [1907]. One leaf folded into four pages, 5-1/4 by 6-1/2 inches, on stationery embossed with the West Point coat of arms ("U.S.M.A.") and the date 1909 (Patton's class year).
Lengthy autograph letter signed by 21-year-old West Point cadet George Patton to his mother, discussing rumors regarding the upcoming graduation plans, an upcoming track meet, separate visits from family friends Virginia and Hammond Johnson, and his desire to return home to California "where the sun shines and there's no drill or quill."
The letter reads, in full: "Dear Mama: There is rumor today that we are not going to James T. (?) and that graduation will be on the eighth but personally I do not credit it and think that we will carry out the present program and got to JT on the 4th return on the twelfth and graduate on the 14th. Tuesday is the last day of study and on Thursday the track meet comes off. I am in the high hurdles the low hurdles the hundred and the two hundred and twenty so will have plenty to do. This darned weather has turned cold again and it is raining. But then that may prevent parade. I am on the detail for the special artillery drill the one you saw last year. I think it is on Friday.
"Virginia Johnson was up here at the hop and asked about me but I carefully avoided seeing her. Speaking of Johnsons, Hammond J. of V.M.S. was up here when we played the University of Vir. He was on the team and asked to be remembered to you he was just as ugly and just as good a player as ever but said that he was feeling bad because he graduates next spring and would then have to stop playing and make money. We will bring our trunks up to our rooms next Wednesday and get already to leave.
"I guess that Ayres does not deserve much sympathy for he is nearly as complete an ass as his mother and sister.
"I am feeling well and looking forward to getting home, where the sun shines and there's no drill or quill with both of which I am very willing to part. With lots of love and hoping to see you very soon now, Your devoted son, Geo. S. Patton Jr. Sunday, May 26."
"Patton spent one year at Virginia Military Institute before entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1904. At the academy, Patton had special difficulty with mathematics and did not graduate until 1909, 46th in a class of 103. One year after graduating he married Beatrice Ayer; the couple had three children" (ANB). While at West Point Patton was an excellent athlete, going on to compete in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm in the pentathlon, an event that included steeplechase riding, shooting, fencing, swimming, and a 5000-meter race.
Faint fold lines. A fine signed Patton letter.