Who Were the Greatest Military Commanders (Of All Time) ?

[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.

[Hootowl]

Well, no. Longstreet was probably a better general, but going back even a little further, General Albert Sidney Johnston might have been the South's best. He actually was kicking Grant's but all over Shiloh until he got killed. Longstreet seems to have been the only Confederate general who grasped the potential of modern warfare, which he called the "offensive defensive," or counter-punching from a heavily defended position. Lee was a great general, but he was hamstrung by outmoded notions of warfare, such as frontal assaults which he clung to disastrously, as at Gettysburg. That was an acceptable tactic during the days of smoothbore muskets, but the advent of rifled barrels made such attacks almost suicidal.

[NorthEastRepublican]

Grant was a great general in the west. He turned the war around.

Also a not about Washington. Washington was not a good general. He was one of the greatest Americans but look at is military history. Washington was embarassed everytime he fought a battle in the French and Indian War and he was bad in the revolutionary war.

If I had to make a list

Hitler- He fought 3 superpowers simultaneously. Had Hitler concentrated on the western front and defeated the French and invaded Britain, then he focused on Russia, he would have been victorious. Instead he fought Russia in the dead of winter and experienced the same fate as Napoleon. The Japanese then attacked us and the rest is history.

Napoleon

Robert E Lee-Best American

Patton

Hannibal

Alexander

[Dan(9698)]

>>>Can the President be overruled by the Military?

No.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If Lee and Grant had swapped sides, the South would not have lasted two years.

Lee turned down the job. (He was offered command of the Union Army at the start of the War.)

Without detracting from the brilliance of Lee, Grant used the tools at hand. His seige of Fort Donnelson, his first major campaign, showed his tactical and strategic capability.

Grant unfallingly won the battles he should have won, something that can be said for few other generals. (Shiloh, aka Pittsburg Landing, was a tactical blunder, possibly from underestimating Johnston, a blunder from which he recovered.)

Lee sealed the fate of the South with Pickett's Charge. After that moment the South could not prevail. Arguably, the South might not have gotten to 1863 without him, but it's difficult to tell.

[Hootowl]

Except, of course, Forrest never said it. Although uneducated and not given to writing, Forrest was not the ignorant hillbilly he has been portrayed as and he has been misquoted throughout history. What he said was, his Civil War campaigns were successful because he "Got there first with the most men."

[clee1]

Agreed. Douglas MacArthur was a modern military genius. That is not hyperbole.

[jocon307]

WOW! You are a thread crawler. What wouldn't I give to be back, just to Nov, 2004, not to mention back to Nathan Forest's time. Or how about 6 months ago? No, that was lousy then too.

Well, regardless of his exact words, it is still good advice.

I love these blasts from the past on FR.

So happy new year, hootowl!

[cal30m1]

Macarthur? He was nothing but a politcal blowhard. The only man who won the Medal of Honor for running away!