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Colonel George S. Patton was a son of John M. Patton, of Richmond. After graduating with distinction at the Virginia Military Institute, he moved in 1856 to Charleston, Kanawha county, and there practiced the profession of law until the outbreak of the war. In 1859 he organized the volunteer company known as the Kanawha Riflemen, a fine body of men, including fifteen members of the bar and other prominent men of the town. He devoted himself with much enthusiasm to the drilling of this organization, and when it enlisted in the Confederate service on May 8, 1861, it was one of the best drilled and equipped companies of that period. Being commander of the first company to enlist In the region, Captain Patton naturally became an important figure in the rallying of sentiment favorable to the Confederacy, and was soon promoted lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-second regiment, to which the ride men had been assigned. |
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He was stationed by General Wise with nine hundred men near Scary Creek, where, on July 17th, he had a combat with a Federal force which finally resulted in favor of the Confederates, though Lieutenant-Colonel Patton was wounded severely and made prisoner. Upon his recovery and exchange he was unanimously elected colonel of the regiment, previously commanded by Col. C. Q. Tompkins. In this rank he served during the remainder of the war, though for a large part of the time in brigade command.
In April, 1862, he was again badly wounded in Giles county, Virginia, and in September following he participated, in command of his regiment, in General Loring's campaign in the Kanawha valley. In August, 1863, he had a brigade command in the battle fought near the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, winning much military distinction.
In May, 1864, he commanded a brigade in the division of General Breckinridge in the battles of Cold Harbor and New Market, and subsequently had brigade command during the expedition of Early's corps through Maryland against Washington, returning thence to participate in the final defense of the valley, in the course of which he was for the third time wounded in the sanguinary battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864- From the effects of this wound he died within the same month. |
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