Posted on 11/14/2004 5:23:06 PM PST by Cyropaedia
In light of the upcoming film Alexander (the Great), who in your opinion were actually the greatest military commanders our world has known...?
Mine are Genghis Khan, Alexander, and U.S. Grant.
I don't think I saw Hannibal on there. "Chesty" Puller should be on there.
Gunther Guderion should definately be on there. There are a few Soviet Generals that I can't remember the names for. Sukhorov maybe?
Someone mentioned Genghis. What about Kublai Khan and Subotai.
Sun-Tsu should be in there somewhere for military thought in any event.
Lord Nelson. John Paul Jones. Admiral Farragut.
That's about it for now. I will think of more.
Arioch7 out.
Had Gettysburg and Antietam not happened, Britian and France would have recognized the Confederacy, McClellan probably would have defeated Lincoln and negotiated a truce. By the time Grant arrived on the scene, the southern population was hoping for a quick end; they were already defeated, it was just a matter of when and where Lee surrendered. Stonewall Jackson's death was also a huge blow as was Sherman's "march to the sea." Lee had no real supply line from 1864 onward, he COULDN'T win a battle of attrition. I truly believe that had Lee faced Grant early in the war, he would have defeated him just as he did with McClellan.
As I just said, by the time Grant beat Lee, his army was poorly equipped, injured, and half starved. The armies of the North and South could never be thought of as equal. Lee did much better with less than Grant ever could have.
BTW, here is an interesting bit of trivia totally unrelated to the subject. After one battle, the Confederates went and picked up all the rifles that had been abandoned or dropped on the battlefield. Of the 37,000 rifles picked up, 24,000 had been improperly loaded and would not fire.
Moshe Dayan.
Even though he made a HUGE tactical mistake in handing over the Temple Mount to the bandits who defiled it.
I think Lee took a desperate chance at Gettysburg because he knew if he won the war would be all but over.
Benedict Arnold did a marvelous job until he turned traitor.
several of his staff most notably Subudai, Tamerlane, Gustavus Adolphus, John Churchill, Ulysses Grant, Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, Marshall Zhukov
Wow! I didn't know those guys all served on Ghengis Khan's staff! You coulda knocked me over with a feather!
Guderian, russian tank commander in ther battle of Kursk during WWII
George Washington, Winfield Scott, Curtis LeMay, Erwin Rommell, George Patton and Douglas McArthur.
I thought about mentioning Zhukov, but I don't know if you can even be a great general when your motivation is a murderous tyrant like Stalin.
Ian the Third Sobieski, Suleiman the Great. They should be in there somewhere.
Darned right we will!!! Even tho General ROBERT E. LEE wasn't able to win the War for Southern Independence, he was a total class act, a man of principled faith, character, integrity, & honor. Grant, along with Sherman, was a war criminal who took pleasure in allowing the systematic murder of women, clikdern, & the elderly as they waged a War of Agression against the South.
It's hard to ignore George Washington, also; the only reason I mentioned Lee over Washington is not due to favoritism, but because of having to respond to Grant being named as a great military commander.
John F. Kerry = Best tactical retreat strategist
Nah, that would have to be a French guy, oh wait, same thing, never mind
Likewise Hernándo Cortés' conquest of the million-strong Aztec Army with only 600 men was incredible no matter how you slice it.
That's my pick too.
Casimir Pulaski
Jan Sobieski
Oops! Guderian was a German.
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