March 18, 1862 (Tuesday): The Original George S. Patton

Colonel George Smith Patton

J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State (late of War).

SIR: On the 18th of March last you grave me a letter of which the following is a copy:

WAR DEPARTMENT, March 18, 1862.
Colonel GEORGE S. PATTON, Richmond.

SIR: You are released from your parole and may resume service at pleasure. I will at an early day indicate to you the name of the officer from whom you are exchanged as we have the choice of several already surrendered to the enemy.
Yours, respectfully,



J. P. BENJAMIN,
Secretary of War.
 
This letter speaking in verba de presenti and you stating to me verbally that I was exchanged then I under orders from the Adjutant-General founded on this letter joined my regiment, went into active service, was finally wounded in action and sent home invalided. On reaching Richmond imagine my surprise at learning not only that I was not exchanged, that the U. S. authorities had not assented to it, that no Federal officer had been designated for exchange for me, but actually that the records of the War Department did not show even your letter to me or any memorandum whatever of the transaction.
And thus, sir, I have been placed by your action in a most disagreeable and delicate position and exposed to the imputation of having violated my honor, sacred above all things to me at least, and not only that but have been also exposed to all the risks of capture and the consequent indignity to which I would have been subjected as a violator of parole. My safety as an officer has thus been jeopardized and my honor as a man seriously compromised, and you can readily understand that I must have it vindicated; and I demand therefore that you at once take measures to put me rectus in curia by giving me a full and complete statement of the transaction and publicly freeing me from all blame.
I have the honor to remain, yours &c.,


GEO. S. PATTON,
Colonel Twenty-second Virginia Volunteers.

Official Records, Series II, Vol. 3, Part 1, Page 880.

The grandfather of World War Two General George S. Patton Jr. (although he was actually the third George Smith Patton his family called him Junior) was a friend of Mosby and graduated second in the VMI class of 1852.  He was a lawyer by trade, accounting for the term “rectus in curia” (standing before the bar with no one to claim an offense against him).  The use of “verba de presenti” (Italian for present tense, also shows a verbal flair which the latter George S. Patton inherited no small part).  Patton had won a minor victory at Scary Creek, WVa (near present day Nitro) but was left in a private home after the battle with a shoulder wound and was captured.  He often commanded Echols brigade in battles in Western Virginia and was mortally wounded at the battle of Occoquan in 1864.  Patton's official exchange would not come until late in May of 1862.