Handguns of the generals - Handguns

Guns Magazine, August, 2003 by Massad Ayoob

Why Patton Carried Two Guns

We know that George S. Patton, the most pugnacious and perhaps the most famous American general officer who actually took the field in World War II, carried two handguns as his trademark. At first, they were twin Colt Single Action Army .45 revolvers. After he gave one of that brace of sixguns to a Hollywood star he admired and appreciated having the courage to entertain his boys at The Front, he backed up the remaining Peacemaker with a 31/2-inch barreled Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.

Many thought the pair of ivory-handled revolvers conspicuously strapped to his waist connoted merely showmanship. Certainly, there was some of that. Patton knew the importance of inspiring his troops, and if it took flamboyance to make an inspiring impression then, by all the gods of war, he would be flamboyant.

But, it turns out, there was more than that. Stanley P. Hirshon's biography General Patton, published in 2002 by Harper Collins, contains Patton's explanation to his friend, General Kenyon A. Joyce, of exactly why he carried two handguns instead of just one. It is well known to those who've studied Patton's life that when he was a young man, he was part of General Pershing's "Punitive Expedition" to Mexico hunting Pancho Villa.

First Blood

On May 14, 1914, Patton came under fire for the first time in his life. He had led a caravan of three automobiles to buy food for the troops when he came upon a band of Villistas. As the latter attempted to flee on horseback, a gunfight took place between the Americans and the Mexicans. Patton was armed with his privately owned Colt SAA .45 revolver, carried in the usual fashion with the hammer down on an empty chamber. In the course of the encounter, he emptied the weapon.

He would later say in a letter to his father, "I fired back five times with my new pistol and one of them ducked back into the house. I found out later that this was Cardenes and that I had hit both he and his horse."

That encounter occurred at approximately 20 yards. Another opponent came much closer on horseback, about 10 paces, and Patton deliberately shot the horse. Animal and rider went down, and when the latter stood back up, a volley from other American soldiers cut him down.

George Patton had drawn his first blood, but in the course of the firefight he had also found out what it was like to be shot at and have nothing to shoot back with. He would later explain to General Joyce why that experience made him a firm believer in carrying a backup handgun.

Writes biographer Hirshon, "Patton related to Joyce that his attachment to two ivory-handled revolvers stemmed from the incident. During the fray, he had had to stop and reload his six-shooter. While he did, three shots just missed his head. Henceforth, in times of danger, he preferred to wear two Colt Frontier-model .45-caliber revolvers. Newspapers often described them as pearl-handled because it sounded more colorful."

We know that when asked about those "pearl handles" on a later occasion, General Patton angrily corrected the reporter who asked the question and sharply explained that they were ivory. "Only a New Orleans pimp," Patton snarled, "would carry a pearl-handled gun."

In his younger days, George Patton had competed in the Pentathlon, which included pistol shooting. He practiced to stay sharp with his handgun skills. Hirshon quotes General Hugh S. Johnson, Patton's tent-mate during the Mexican campaign.

"Georgie' he said, "used to sit in his tent by the hour practicing 'trigger-pull' with either hand on a pistol fitted with a spring and a rod which would dart out at .a swinging pith ball at which he aimed. We used to call Georgie a Sears-Roebuck cowboy, because he wore a pistol cartridge belt low about his hips with two pearl handled forty-five revolvers in holsters, one on each groin -- he never used an automatic pistol."

Well, "never" is a strong word. We know that at various times Patton carried a Colt Pocket Model "hammerless" during World War II, and a Remington Model 51 .380. It was the latter he emptied at a German fighter plane that was strafing his encampment as he stood defiantly in its gunsights, a scene graphically re-enacted by George C. Scott in the title role of the movie Patton. He also was seen on occasion with a Colt Detective Special .38 revolver on his hip. All had the Patton signature ivory grips, some inlaid with the stars of a U.S. Army general officer.

Eisenhowe's Sidearm

Dwight D. Eisenhower was at various times Patton's peer, his admirer, his commander, and his bete noir. While many photos of Patton show him carrying one or two ivory-handled sidearms, Eisenhower is never depicted as visibly armed. However, the records show that he was issued and probably carried at least some of the time a Colt' .38 Detective Special revolver with 2-inch barrel. "Ike" returned it to the Army when he retired. Its twin, 'with consecutive serial number,' is on display at the Springfield Armory Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts.