Patton's grandfather and grand-uncles were from the Fredericksburg area.
His grandfather, George Smith Patton, graduated VMI and moved to Charleston
(now West Virginia), where General Patton's father was born. Like his
father before him, George Smith Patton Jr, graduated VMI. A few years after
graduation, he moved to Los Angeles to practice law and it was in San
Gabriel, California in 1885 that his son, G.S. Patton III was born. The
only connection the family had with Virginia after that was the one year
that future General Patton spent at VMI (1903-1904) while he waited to be
accepted at West Point. He left VMI at the end of that year and graduated
West Point in 1907. He never considered himself a Virginian.
Paul Shelton
-----Original Message-----
From: paul finkelman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 11:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: sherman
my mistake; wasn't his family from Virginia?
Paul Shelton wrote:
> Paul,
>
> I'm sorry, but Patton was a Californian. Perhaps you've confused him with
> the actor who played him in the movie - George C. Scott - who was born in
> Virginia.
>
> -Paul Shelton
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Finkelman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 7:27 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: sherman
>
> One might view Sherman as the man who was responsible for freeing more
human
> being from bondage than any other person. His march from the Mississippi
to
> the
> Atlantic Ocean resulted in the liberation of more than a million slaves
and
> the
> destruction of a nation, whose "cornerstone," accoring to its own Vice
> President, was slavery. I suppose we should not be surprised that those
who
> lost their slaves, and the wealth that came from it, hated General
Sherman.
> His
> tactics, ironically, were no different that those of laster used by
> Eisenhower,
> Patton (a Virginian) and the rest of the Allied High Command in World War
> II, to
> prevent the enemy from making war, by destroying the enemy's ability to
make
> war. We used the same tactic against Japan, only with carpet bombing
and
> firebombing.
>
> Gross and vile? Interesting terms. I am not sure what "gross" means here
> (disgusting, ill mannered, overweight?) Vile. I would reserve that term,
at
> least in the American context, to perhaps traitors, who having taken oaths
> of
> allegience to the United States, made war against the United States when
> they
> did not like the outcome of a presidential election.
>
> Paul Finkelman (father of a first generation Virginian!)
>
> --
> Paul Finkelman
> Chapman Distinguished Professor
> University of Tulsa College of Law
> 3120 East 4th Place
> Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-2499
>
> 918-631-3706 (office)
> 918-631-2194 (fax)
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Deane wrote:
>
> > Well, let me just say this.
> > I am a 54 year old housewife with nothing but Southern roots on each
side
> of
> > my family, so I admit to a strong bias.
> > My paternal grandparents were born in North Carolina in the 1880's.
> > My maternal grandparents were born in Tidewater Virginia in the 1880's.
> > During my childhood and formative years in the 1950's, it was their
> > reflections on their parents' lives that shaped my thinking and taught
me
> to
> > regard certain aspects of Southern American history the way I do.
> > I certainly will not bore you folks with that.
> > However, it was my beloved and dear and college degreed (i.e., not
> ignorant
> > red neck) grandparents who taught me that men like Sherman were gross
and
> > vile.
> > On the other hand, one of my grandfathers (whose name was Wade Hampton
> > King) had a brother whose middle name was Grant......that brother was
> named
> > after Ulysses Grant. The family legend has it that my great-grandfather
> > named that son after the Union general out of gratitude for being able
to
> > take his horse home from Appomatox.
> > In fairness, I think that it was the horrors of Reconstruction.... the
> > salted fields that the Yankee troops had left behind them along with
> > poisoned water wells, needlessly slaughtered live stock, the ring-barked
> > fruit and nut trees and the resulting starvation that caused the deepest
> and
> > most induring bitterness.
> > I do not think that Margaret Mitchell's book created myths. I think
that
> > when many Southerners read GONE WITH THE WIND they were relieved that
> after
> > so many decades someone had finally come close to putting it right and
> > putting it down on paper.....and better yet, folks everywhere were
reading
> > it and, perhaps, coming to a better understanding, albeit a romanticized
> > one, of what Southerners tended to be like.
> > I could go on and on and on, but I won't.
> > I could tell you about the teacher I had in college in the 1960's who
> asked
> > me (the only southerner in that small Vermont college), "Is it true that
> you
> > Southerners despise the blacks, the Jews and the Catholics. And if so,
> why?"
> > I was so flabberghasted that I could not answer except to say, "Why no.
We
> > just hate Yankees!"
> > I could try to describe to you the anguish on my own mother's face as
she
> > told me about her own grandmother's stories of eating insects and make
> 'tea'
> > out of shoe leather after the "Wah".
> > I can hear my mother now, telling me how her grandmother said over and
> over
> > and over,
> > "We were SO hungry."
> > Deane Ferguson Mills
> > a 13th generation Tidewater Virginian and proud of it.
> >
> > > I agree with your assessment of Margaret Mitchell's role in tarnishing
> any
> > > understanding of Sherman. But no matter what is written, I'm afraid,
> > some
> > > Southerners, and nearly all Native Americans, will continue having a
> > > difficult time believing Sherman had any noble purpose in waging all
out
> > > war, either against the Confederacy, or against the Sioux and other
> > Western
> > > peoples he subjugated in the Indian Wars.
> > >
> > > -Paul Shelton
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Jim Watkinson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:21 PM
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: sherman
> > >
> > >
> > > Harold is right. Total war is key. There was a review of a bio of
> > Sherman
> > > 2 or 3 weeks ago in the NYT Review of Books which strongly suggested
> that
> > > the man who said "war is hell" believed he could end the war sooner --
> and
> > > stop the carnage -- by fighting the war in a differrent manner. This
> > seems
> > > to ring true. Margaret Mitchell (and David Selznick) probably did
more
> to
> > > set back the cause of understanding the war than anyone who has ever
> > lived.
> > >
> > > Jim Watkinson
> > >
> > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
> instructions
> > > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
> > >
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> instructions
> > > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
> >
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>
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>
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--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
phone 918-631-3706
Fax 918-631-2194
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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