ALS, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 4 x 5.5, West Point letterhead, February 9, 1909. A handwritten letter from 23-year-old George S. Patton to his mother, addressed from the United States Military Academy in his senior year, in full, "I just got the inclosed [sic] from B. and she asked you to excuse it as she writes it on the way to the train. Of course don't tell other people but I know you won't. She got up at seven o'clock to see me and I never saw that hotel so full of people, it was jammed. She was pretty nice to get up though as she had no watch and had to stay awake from two o’clock on to do it. It is rather hard to express in writing how much she loves me, really it scares me to death. I guess I love her just as much only I am not part Banning so don't show it so much. I suppose you may as well write to Mrs. Ayer if you think it is proper of course I don’t know who should write first.” In fine condition, with a small stain to the upper left corner of the first page. Accompanied by a full letter of authenticity from JSA.
Patton graduated number 46 out of 103 cadets at West Point on June 11, 1909, and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Cavalry branch of the United States Army. A year later, Patton married Beatrice Banning Ayer, the daughter of Boston industrialist Frederick Ayer, on May 26, 1910, in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.
