Obviously, my gut says Patton. I just love that guy.
And, being a Southerner, I'm gonna piss off a bunch of my brethren and say RE Lee was overrated. He still believed in Napoleonic warfare, when technology made it obsolete. Give me Longstreet any day. Heck, if Lee would have listened to Longstreet about Pickett's charge, things would've been different.
However, I am gonna say the BEST general was Duke Wellington. Man, I love that guy.
Anyway, I think that it's important to qualify the attributes of generals. Alexander was a great heroic general, but that type of generalship would be suicidal now. Patton and Napoleon are great examples of generals with charisma, and neither fit into the 21st century ideal of an apolitical general. Who is the best? I think Wellington, but even by saying that, I acknowledge that he is the best compared to his time. Comparing Wellington to Alexander, Caesar, Grant, Stonewall, Ike, or Sun Tzu is like comparing apples to oranges. The nature of leadership changes, so the role of "general" has evolved over time.
this up coming film makes me so mad because of all the historical lies making Alexander look like a lover more than a brilliant general
p.s. Has any body read the Theodore Dodge books. There the greatest! One book is about Alexander's fantastic military campaign and the other is about Hannibal's triumphs.
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.
Longstreet and Jackson; Hannibal
Spruance at Leyte Gulf!
Ho can one argue with a winner? [Grant]Lincoln didn't mind his hard drinking that much.
William Tecumseh Sherman.