Posted on 09/22/2010 3:17:47 PM PDT by Palter
My friend and CNAS colleague Bob Killebrew nominates the Revolutionary War's Nathaniel Greene as the most under-rated general in American history:
Regarded by peers and historians as the second-best American general in the war (after Washington) he would have assumed command if W. had been disabled. A Quaker who learned war from textbooks, he was both a field operator and the commissary-general, a trying position in the best of times. Sent by Washington to take over the Southern campaign after Gates' disaster (and personal cowardice) at Camden, Greene fought a masterly fabian campaign through the South, leading Cornwallis further and further into the interior, weakening his army through one indecisive battle after another. Then came the Yorktown campaign. Few know that after the turnover, Greene returned to the South and fought for another year, rolling up the Redcoat detachments in the interior and Low Country one by one. He showed further good sense by remaining in the South after the war.
Greene is an interesting pick. As the great Russell Weigley wrote in The American Way of War, Greene represents the road not taken in American culture. That is, he set out not to destroy the enemy directly, but to weaken him or make him irrelevant. Makes a lot of sense in the COIN world, but not to the dominant American military tradition. Given our current wars and our current economic squeeze, Greene is a good general to think about. Here is what Weigley had to say about him:
The achievements of Nathaniel Greene and the southern partisans in reversing the greatest British success of the war, the conquest of the southernmost rebellious provinces, must rank as the war's most impressive campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at ricks.foreignpolicy.com ...
You may well be right!
Under rated?
Not hardly.....!
When I grew up in the 50’s we read our history of the Green Mountain Men and how they were instrumental in our fight for freedom.
Only someone who grew up in modern time and with modern history books, would you hear that he and his men were obscure heroes.
Just to prove a point. It was Ethan Allen (well known for his furniture store that organized the Green Mountain Men.
Ha! History is fickle and with modern history test-books, facts get screwed up time after time.
I personally think George Custer is our most maligned general. Remembered only for a mistake that current thinking suggests may not have been his.
I would nominate General Walton Walker of the 8th Army and his defense of the Pusan perimeter in Korea from June 25, 1950 till his death in December 1950 as the most underrated American General. He, through sheer force of will, prevented an American Dunkirk. His orders to “Stand or Die” at the Naktong river should be legendary. They were outnumbered terribly and held!
I say Omar Bradley.
“That is, he set out not to destroy the enemy directly, but to weaken him or make him irrelevant.”
MacAurthur in the Pacific for most of WWII?
to me its Winfield Scott!
Nathaniel Greene was covered ably in McCulloch’s 1776. As I recall, Greene was not a Vermonter, but a Rhode Island farmer who had natural talents in military leadership and strategy. Washington noticed this early on after taking command in 1775 outside of Boston. It is to Washington’s credit that assignments and promotions were based on merit. Another New Englander who was identified by Washington was Henry Knox, a Boston bookstore owner who learned his artillery skills from books in his store. Henry would later serve in Washington’s cabinet. As a fellow New Englander, I am proud of the accomplishments of these long ago heros.
The category is underrated.
The Green Mountain Boys rather than men, but in a good way. Fort Ti !
“I will recover the country or die in the attempt” Great words spoken by a great soldier . We need more like him at this time in history instead of the wimps we have running the show .
Smedley Butler
“the Fighting Quaker”
“but a Rhode Island farmer.........”
Yep his old homestead still stands:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Nathanael_Greene_Homestead
He was a comrade @ arms with my gggg grandfather, methinks.
There are many exceptional Generals, for some reason, who don't have the recognition they deserve. Of course, the warriors they led and served with have their respect.
I'd suggest Gen. Lawton, MoH award, long service, but the first COIN strategy fighting Muslims.
Absolutely!! Washington could not have done it without Greene.
Greene’s escapades in the Southern Department are amply illustrated in “The American Revolution in the South” by Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee, who fought under Greene during the Revolution.
Oww.
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