By Lawrence D. Gellar
Title: Edward H. Pattison Collection, 1915-1924
ID: RG1/004
Creator: Pattison, Edward H. (Edward Hargrave) (1896-1986)
Extent: 14.7 Cubic Feet. More info below.
Arrangement: This collection is arranged topically into the following four series: Series 1: Correspondence, 1915-1924; Series 2: Military Publications, 1914-1918; Series 3: Photographic Material, 1917-1919; Series 4: Uniforms and Military Equipment, 1917-1918; and Series 5: Unsorted and Processed Material.
Date Acquired: 00/00/1990
Languages: English
Edward H. Pattison (1896-1986) served as an American Field Service camion driver and 2nd Lieutenant with the U.S. Army Field Artillery during World War I. The Edward H. Pattison Collection contains World War I American Field Service and U.S. Army military publications, war memorabilia, photographic material, and correspondence written before, during, and after the war.
The Pattison Collection is particularly significant, not only for the scope and the diversity of the materials found within it, but also for the fact that it mirrors the creation of the Cornell University Unit of the AFS in 1917, and the formation of the Réserve Mallet in that same year.
The Cornell Unit had been formed as a part of the American Ambulance Field Service that had originated as a volunteer ambulance service in 1914 at the outbreak of the war, under the aegis of the American Hospital of Paris. However, when the men of the Cornell Unit came to France in April of 1917 at the time of the United States’ Declaration of War, their services were urgently requested by the French Army Automobile Service as camion drivers rather than as “ambulanciers.” The Cornell Unit was, therefore, the first of a number of such college or university units to volunteer for the American Field Service’s Transportation Corps. The Cornell Unit, as a part of the Réserve Mallet, was the first to raise the American flag on the French front after the United States’ declaration. The creation of the Réserve Mallet, named for its French commanding officer, Major Richard Mallet, thus widened the scope of the American Ambulance Field Service to encompass aid to France as camion as well as ambulance drivers. The title of the service was therefore changed at this time to simply the “American Field Service,” to reflect the broadening scope of its work.
The Pattison Collection can be seen as source materials for a case study of a young college man in the United States during the period of American neutrality. It shows his awakening, and that of his friends, and indeed, his university, to the state that the world wide conflict portended for the United States. Hence, his decision to volunteer on behalf of France and its allies. The collection also illustrates the typical sojourn of a young AFS volunteer from the time he left American shores, his introduction to the A.F.S. at its Paris headquarters at 21 Rue Raynouard, and his hard and unrelenting work as a camion driver on the front. It is also important for demonstrating the various facets of the take-over of the entire Field Service by the United States Army in the Fall of 1917.
Edward Pattison’s decision to join the United States Army Motor Transport Corps, or as it was know, the American Mission, Réserve Mallet, and then, to opt for a more combatant branch of the U.S. Army, was typical of many former American Field Service men. The desire of these men for U.S. Army commissions was understandable in those who had already been tested under fire with the French Armies before the U.S. entry to the war. Then, one had to take into account the fact that most of these men of the AFS were naturally U.S. Army officer material by virtue of their backgrounds and educations, to say nothing of their previous service.
It happened that Edward H. Pattison chose to join the U.S. Army Field Artillery, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in that branch. What the collection has to say concerning the training of U.S. Artillery officers in French schools, and in the famed French artillery methods and techniques, is instructive for any military or social historian. The closeness of the Allied cooperative effort to prepare the American Army for the field can be seen in the documents in this collection.
What a soldier thought about in terms of his training, his conditions of service, his food, friends, recreation, his prospects for advancement, his ideals, and thoughts about the wider pictures of the war, all can be seen in the letters that Pattison wrote home to his friends and family in the United States.
At the end of the war, Pattison returned to the United States to finish his education. In this, he was typical of many men who broke off their college or graduate studies to volunteer for service. The last part of the Correspondence Series in the Pattison Collection takes him through law school and his admission to the New York Bar. He spent the rest of his professional life as an attorney in Troy, New York.
For more information, please see the individual series descriptions.
Alternate Extent Statement: 13 boxes, 1 trunk
Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research. Cotton gloves are required for the handling of all photographic material, some of which is fragile and may be restricted from use. Series 4 is currently inaccessible for research or viewing.
Use Restrictions: Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the AFS Archives. In the event that this research becomes a source for publication, a credit line indicating the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs is required. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions. Any copyright vested in the Pattison family has passed to AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc.
Acquisition Method: This collection was given to the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs by Edward H. Pattison’s son, Attorney Edward W. Pattison of Troy, New York in April 1990. Financial support for the processing of this collection was given by the Pattison Family Fund through the Mohawk Hudson Community Foundation.
Appraisal Information: No items were deaccessioned, separated, or removed from the collection.
Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Date]; Edward H. Pattison Collection; Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs, New York, NY.
Finding Aid Revision History: Processed in 1990 and finding aid written in 1990 by Lawrence D. Gellar. Photographic album listed under the Series 3 description was disassembled at an unknown time. Box list updated in November 2010 and finding aid encoded in EAD in December 2010 by Nicole Milano, which was made possible under the scope of the 2010-2011 Basic Processing grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. In 2015 Elena Abou Mrad refoldered the individual letters and rehoused all the uniforms and military equipment, creating item-level lists.
There is correspondence in this series from Pattison to his family from the “S.S. Chicago” on the way to France with comments on Pattison’s facility with the French language. There is a fine description of American Field Service (AFS) Headquarters at 21 Rue Raynouard, Paris, and A.F.S. Director-General A.P. Andrew’s May 10, 1917 appeal to the men of the Cornell Unit to join the camion service. There is Pattison correspondence indicating the “supplies” the Réserve Mallet carried were ammunition, and that his family was not to know this. A May 28, 1917 letter indicates the raising of the first American flag on the French front by Réserve Mallet drivers at Dommiers. Pattison’s correspondence from this period describes the kind of work the Réserve did, the extraordinary length of time and distance Réserve convoys traveled while occasionally coming under artillery fire. He wrote to his family on the necessity of U.S. intervention as the French were tired of the war and thought it hopeless.
Pattison correspondence concerning a permission at Evian-Les-Bains indicated his opinion that Lake Geneva is much like New York state’s Lake Gorge. The correspondence of 6 September, 1917 showed a disinclination to stay in the A.F.S. after his six months enlistment. He believed that the quality of men then being recruited was below the usual A.F.S. standard, and his own desire to do other kinds of work. There is correspondence concerning the upset Ed Tinkham’s removal as head of the camion section made in the Cornell Unit. This had some effect upon Pattison’s own decision to leave. However, correspondence of that period indicated that he accepted the offer to go to the camion school at Chevigny Farm for Transportation Corps officers and non-commissioned officers.
There is correspondence praising the French camion school at Chevigny and its program. There is also correspondence dating from September, 1917, demonstrating that Pattison had transferred to the United States Army for the duration of the war. Although Pattison signed as a private in the U.S. Army, there was, as the correspondence shows, every hope that he would be commissioned. There is also much valuable information about the confusion in the transport sections between the bounds of authority of the French and American Armies. There is also correspondence to Professor Martin Sampson concerning the doings of Cornell men in the U.S. Army.
Correspondence beginning with December 14, 1917 shows that Pattison had been assigned to Heavy Artillery. He chose this branch in that he believed his chances for a commission were best there as most former American Field Service (AFS) men remained in the Camion Service from his unit. This series contains a copy of Prof. Sampson’s letter of recommendation for E.H. Pattison to the U.S. Army, and a description of Christmas, 1917, and U.S. soldiers’ help for the poor population of France in the region where Pattison was stationed at that time of the year. There is much correspondence indicating that his transfer to artillery had been held up. There is also correspondence from Battery “D” illustrating that he was deferred to by veterans of the U.S. Army because he had served with the French.
Correspondence from early April, 1918, is from the Artillery Officer’s Candidate School at Saumur in the south of France which had been the site of the famous French cavalry school of pre-war days. Correspondence from this school is on the course of study, his opinion of fine French officers, and the excellence of French artillery, which he believed would have taken millions of dollars and years for the U.S. to have learned on its own, and then, not so well. There are descriptions of the celebration of the 4th of July, 1918, and his recommendation for a U.S. commission. Correspondence of July 18, 1918 concerns his commission in the U.S. Coastal Artillery Corps of the National Army as opposed to the regular army. Interestingly, having left the Reserve Mallet for a more active role, he had not been at the front since he served in the Réserve Mallet, missing most of the German offensive of 1918 due to attendance at various schools.
Correspondence beginning with August 14, 1918, indicated that E.H. Pattison was then at the Heavy Artillery School at Angers and that, in his opinion, the U.S. had entered the war just in time, due to French national fatigue. On the other hand, he believed the Americans were just spoiling for a fight. There is correspondence showing that he was working with the French Artillery Intelligence Service at Verdun, and was there when the war ended in November, 1918. He wrote of his return to Paris where he stayed at an old AFS hangout, the Hotel Montana, and his feeling about the war and its end. There is also correspondence for January, 1919, from the historic city of Carcassonne and his desire to see the Statue of Liberty and American shores once more.