George Smith Patton, Jr.

Tennessee was chosen for the Army's war games because its climate and terrain resembled Germany and Belgium. Umpires made calls in the field while blue and red teams fought it out. Civilians were warned not to feed or shelter soldiers, yet many did: men slept on porches and in barns, and some were fed eggs and fried chicken. Edsel Floyd, then about twelve, remembered his father waking the family at five one morning in Watertown to see Patton come down Main Street in a light tank with his head out of the turret.

What the plaque says

George Smith Patton, Jr. Near here, June 19, 1941, then commanding the 2nd Armored Division, he issued oral orders to his unit commanders, whose successful execution established armor as a decisive element in the American Army, soon to vanquish German Forces in World War II. Present on the last inspection before his untimely death was Maj. Gen. Adna R. Chaffee, Chief of Armored Forces.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 5.3 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 22 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 23 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 28 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.

More markers nearby

• Murfreesboro — 1.7 mi
• Benevolent Cemetery — 1.8 mi
• Rutherford County — 1.9 mi
• Black Fox Camp Spring — 1.9 mi