Patton Claimed Lives Across Millennia

American World War II general George S. Patton believed in reincarnation and claimed he had fought in wars for thousands of years. He described past lives as a Roman legionary under Julius Caesar, a Viking raider, an English warrior at Agincourt, and a fighter who rode with French marshal Joachim Murat during the Napoleonic era. Patton explored these recurring military lives in his 1922 poem "Through a Glass, Darkly," describing himself fighting and dying in different forms throughout history. When British General Sir Harold Alexander said Napoleon would have made Patton a marshal, Patton replied, "But I did."

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