#2-226
To Colonel George S. Patton, Jr.
July 19, 1940 Washington, D.C.
Dear Patton:
I have just received your note of July 16th, thanking me for your assignment to the brigade of an armored division. I am glad this arrangement is pleasing to you, for I thought it would be just the sort of thing you would like most to do at the moment. Also, I felt that no one could do that particular job better.1
I am looking forward to seeing you and having a talk with you before you leave for the South.
Hastily,
Document Copy Text Source: George S. Patton, Jr. Papers, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed letter.
1. Patton had been given command of the Second Brigade of the Second Armored Division at Fort Benning, Georgia, effective July 10. He wrote to Marshall: “Nothing could please me more. I shall do my uttermost to justify your kindness.” (Patton to Marshall, July 16, 1940, GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, Selected].) When Patton was promoted to brigadier general, effective October 1, he wrote another thank-you note to Marshall, which elicited the following response from the chief of staff: “Dear George: . . . You should thank yourself rather than me for your nomination for promotion. The service you have rendered demanded such action on my part, and I think it was the consensus of opinion elsewhere.” (Marshall to Patton, October 2, 1940, ibid.)
Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland, Sharon Ritenour Stevens, and Clarence E. Wunderlin, Jr. (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 2, “We Cannot Delay,” July 1, 1939-December 6, 1941 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 272–273.