George S. Patton Jr.
Culpeper County, VA, September 22, 1854
General George S. Patton's Confederate Grandfather and Namesake Proposes Marriage
ALS

[GEORGE S. PATTON.] George S. Patton Sr., Autograph Letter Signed, to Susan T. Glassell, September 22, 1854, Culpeper County, Virginia. 5 pp., 6.25" x 8". Includes envelope. Expected folds; small holes at some intersections of folds and small separations on some folds, with minimal effect on text; very good.

General George S. Patton Jr.'s grandfather, a future Confederate officer, wrote this love letter to Susan Glassell, asking her to become his fiancée, though he was uncertain how soon they might be able to marry. He wrote from Culpeper County, Virginia, on his return to Richmond from a visit to her in Woodville, in north-central Virginia, 65 miles west of Washington, DC. Patton sent this letter to the care of Col. Robert Voss (1785-1861), who had married Mary Frances Thornton in 1834. She was a first cousin of Susan Thornton Glasswell's mother.

George Patton and Susan Glassell married in November 1855 in Richmond, fourteen months after Patton wrote this letter.

Complete Transcript
Springfarm Culpeper Co
Sept 22nd 1854.
In accordance with the kind permission you granted me to write to you, on a subject near to my heart, I now my dearest Miss Su, will lay open that heart to you.
I have preferred to address you in this manner, not because I was afraid or ashamed to speak the sentiments of my heart, for I would glory, not only in proclaiming them to you, but to the world if it were proper to do so; but because I thought that in many respects it would be better to allow your own cool judgment to act, and your own warm feelings to decide after careful and deliberate thought, uninfluenced by any protestations which I might make, or by any sudden emotion of surprise which you might feel. I now repeat what I told you on yesterday that I love you very dearly indeed; love you as you deserve to be loved. I feel that you are the one to whom I can trust my future happiness, and now ask you, can you and will you love me in return?
I am sure that you will believe me when I say that this sentiment of love, which I feel for you, is no weed of sudden growth that will wither and die away when time and absence begin to exert their power—nay even rejection of my profound love would not be sufficient to uproot it. Mine is no love at first sight excited by a pretty face, but a love which was begun in, and was strengthened by, daily intercourse with you, and which was fanned into a flame by your qualities of head, and heart. As I could not love where I did not esteem so I first esteemed, and then learned to love.
I shall make no protestations of eternal devotion, and undying attachment because I am sure that you would consider them superfluous, and unnecessary, for in this instance you will agree with me that
"Words are like leaves, and where they most abound
Much fruit of sense is seldom found."
But I will say that under all circumstances, my earnest, true, and devoted love will be yours, and yours only.
I have before told you that I am now in no condition to marry, and I do not know when I will be—it may be longs years—and I am now even, doubtful of the reasonableness of asking you to declare your sentiments, and of persuading you to enter into an engagement so solemn, and sacred, whose consummation may be distant, yet my love too strong to be concealed from you must be my excuse; and indeed your ingenuous answer when a paralell, and suppositious case was put to you, encourages me in my presumption, and perhaps justifies, or at least excuses my unreasonableness.
You cannot tell how much I regretted that I had no opportunity this morning to see you alone, for a moment and to be compelled to conceal, perhaps illy enough, my feelings at parting under a mask of levity, to hide a serious heart behind a laughing face, as on last night, when I hope at least you perceived that I was acting a part.
It is unnecessary, and would be tedious for me to say more, and I must conclude as I commenced. I love you with my whole heart, can you love me?
You can readily imagine with what anxiety, I shall wait for Tuesday's mail, and with what doubts I shall be oppressed until then. On your decision depends my happiness. Can you wonder that I fear the result? However as you have given me the "privilege of hoping" I will hope until ten, and my imagination will run riot in building delicious castles in the air. Hoping then a speedy and favorable answer, permit me to sign myself dearest Miss Sue,
Your sincerely attached lover
Geo. S. Patton
Be so kind as to direct to "the care of Mr. Geo. Patton Richmond as I shall leave here Monday, for the city.
G.S.P.

George Smith Patton Sr. (1833-1864) was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the son of politician John Mercer Patton. He grew up in Richmond and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1852. He studied law and began a practice in Charleston, (West) Virginia. In 1855, he married Susan Thornton Glassell. In the Civil War, he joined the 22nd Virginia Infantry as a captain and rose to colonel of the regiment. He was wounded in battles in 1861 and 1862. At the Battle of Opequon, on September 25, 1864, Patton was mortally wounded. The Confederate Congress had promoted him to brigadier general, but he died before receiving the promotion. His son George William Patton (1856-1927) changed his name in 1868 to George S. Patton in honor of his father and was the father of General George S. Patton Jr. (1885-1945).

Susan Thornton Glassell (1835-1883) was born in Virginia. Her mother died in 1836, but her father moved to Alabama, where he was a cotton planter. In 1855, she married George Smith Patton, and they had five children. After he died in battle in 1864, she moved her family to live with her brother Andrew Glassell in Los Angeles, California. Her son George S. Patton II (1856-1927) became a prominent lawyer and was the father of General George S. Patton Jr. (1885-1945). In 1870, she married Colonel George H. Smith, a first cousin of her first husband, who practiced law with her brother. They had two children

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6.25" x 8"