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.

[isom35]

gotta go with Capt. Kirk (you did say ALL time, so that includes fake future time)

[shield]

GOD...is my first pick...most of the best looked to him before each and every battle.

[elbucko]

Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Royal Air Force.

Commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain.
Father of "Integrated" air defense by combining ground radar and fighter intercepters.
Dowding refused Churchill's request to send more British fighters to France (especially no Spitfires) and in doing so saved precious aircraft for Britain's eminent battle with the Luftwaffe.
Dowding and the RAF defeated the Germans though outnumbered three to one in the Summer of 1940.
The commander of the "Few" that was "so much owed by so many ..."

[indcons]

Thanks SunkenCiv for the ping.

A "Blast from the Past" ping: Who were the greatest military leaders/commanders of all time?

[joebuck]

Hannibal
Alexander of Macedon

Ceasar
Genghis Kahn
Napoleaon

Grant

[ichabod1]

Shaka Zulu, I forgot about him, he was a great commander.

The one that gave the Brits Fits in the Boer War, right?

Has anyone mentioned Hannibal? Scipio Africanus? Second Punic War.

[MikefromOhio]

Alexander was the first great military commander.

Caesar changed a republic with his successes....

Gengis Khan brought the Far East to the Western World....

Charlemagne is a notable military success story.....

He wasn't really a military guy, but Bismarck had a 30 year run of success in foreign dealings....

Pershing should get a mention....

Chesty Puller was good for nearly 40 years (I might have the years wrong but he was still great)...

George Washington strapped a nation together....

Robert E. Lee, although he lost, probably was the best general of the Civil War. He took an inferior (at least in numbers and supply) force and continually whipped a numerically superior and better supplied force consistently into 1864 minus one or two big battles, which told on that same force to the point that he couldn't overcome it.

[Colonel_Flagg]

In no particular order (probably just a start):

Hannibal (Cannae, anyone?)
Alexander the Great
Julius Caesar
Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson
Napoleon
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Gen. R.E. Lee
Arthur Wellesley, The Duke of Wellington
Genghis Khan

I'm sure there are a LOT more... good post.

[Tallguy]

Grant? Are you nuts? The only reason he beat Lee was that he had far more men who were much better equipped. If Lee and Grant had swapped sides, the South would not have lasted two years.

Take a good look at Grant's western campaigns. Also, the Union AoP had a massive inferiority complex when it came to going up against "Bobby Lee". Let's just say Grant had to simplify the playbook.

[Tallguy]

I'm a Union man. But I believe Stonewall Jackson was one of the greatest generals that ever lived.

I would agree. It's interesting that Grant gets labeled a "butcher" because of the casualties that he took. If anybody cared to look at the casualty lists from Jackson's commands you'd see he was pretty fond of the bayonet.

[indcons]

I think we have most choices in common :) You have included Caesar (whom I forgot) and Charlemagne (I haven't read much about his campaigns). I see you have included Pershing....what do you think about Patton and McArthur among modern American generals?

IMHO, Zhukov has not received his due credit due to the cold war. The Russo-Japanese battles at Nomohan (pre-WW2 in late 1930s) are almost unknown and his success in the Eastern Front in WW2 (Kursk) finally destroyed Hitler's Barbossa and Citadel operations.

[Sensei Ern]

My pick would be Gideon.

With just three hundred men, he surrounded an army of thousands. Using just a jug, a torch and a trumpet, his three platoons captured and/or killed them all.

[Tallguy]

Robert E. Lee was a far better commander than Grant, he simply lacked the resources to defeat Grant. However, Lee made one serious blunder, and that was trying to invade the North and then trying it again a year later. Losing at Antietam was a huge blow to the South's morale and then it was followed by the defeat at Gettysburg. Had Lee simply let the North come to him, public opinion would have eventually won the war for the South. This would have basically been the same tactic that Washington had used in the Revolution.

Perhaps. But Lee had the 'initiative' and he didn't want to keep handing it back to the more massive Union armies. Sooner or later they'd improve. Plus, it was generally agreed that the Confederacy had to win a major battle on Union soil in order to get the international recognition of their independence. Time was not on their side (Union Blockade, loss of the Mississipi, etc.).

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Top 10 in my Opinion

Julius Caesar
Erwin Rommel
Belisarius
Robert E. Lee
Genghis Khan
Hannibal
Napolean Bonaparte
Charlemagne
Sun Tzu
Alexander

[BlessedByLiberty]

Thanks for the ping?

Besides my grandfather, who could wrangle anyone, anytime, anywhere to do what needed to be done; who were the greatest military leaders of all time?

Alexander for innovation.
Caesar
Charlemagne
Wellington
Washington
Nelson
Lee
Eisenhower
Patton

There are too many to recall off the cuff.

[indcons]

I was thanking FReeper SunkenCiv for pinging me to this thread :)

[kgdallen]

John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, British General in the War of the Spanish Succession against the Sun King (Louis XIV). Never, ever, fought a battle he did not win over a 15 year long war - and he won really big every time. As Winston said about his ancestor his record was unparalleled in the annals of military history.

[indcons]

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[montag813]

Joshua was the greatest commander of all time. Many of the other names mentioned copied or adapted techiniques of his in later battles, from Monty to Patton to the Wehrmacht.

[Leatherneck_MT]

Alexander, Lee and Napoleon