[No Truce With Kings]

George Washington has to rank up there. He definately had the most lasting positive impact on history of all of the major commanders. Compare Washington to his French counterpart, Napoleon. Washington took a poor frontier nation and set it on track to become the greatest nation in the world. Napoleon took the world's most powerful nation (then France), and set it on track to be the third-rate power it is today.

[laconic]

Alexander in a class by himself. George Washington, Stonewall Jackson, Marshal Zhukov, Suvorov, Sherman, TE Lawrence, Belisarius, Charles "The Hammer" Martel, NB Forrest, Cortez, Pizarro, Tokugawa, Genghis Khan, Nathaniel Greene, Clive of India, Patton, Rommel.

[jocon307]

"George Washington has to rank up there."

Yes, I like your argument.

First in war
First in peace
First in the hearts of his countrymen

Even to this day. I feel a fine revival coming on. I think our "values" may yet carry the day.

If we look to General Washington we can't go far astray.

God bless America and our noble fighters, doing such good jobs, so far away from here.

[TFMcGuire]

Good inclusion

[JasonC]

George Washington was a statesman and showed it by refusing to be made a king and retiring after 2 terms. He commanded in some tough times without his army completely falling apart. But by the standards of straight military history, he was a mediocre corps level commander. We won because of our natural advantages in the war (distance, popular support, etc) and because of French help - not because of any brilliance in Washington's generalship. He was a good man, but not a gifted general.

[smcmike]

Washington ranks up there with the greatest statesmen of history... but not the greatest generals. His accomplishments in holding the army and the new nation together were truly remarkable, but his military exploits were not the stuff of Alexander, Hannibal or Napoleon (my top 3).

[HenryLeeII]

George Washington has to rank up there.

Thank you! I'm shocked it took 24 replies to get to General Washington. With absolutely no formal training he became the adjutant general of the Virginia militia at age 20, and during the Seven Years War he learned the lessons of continental-scale warfare that were completely lost on the British, during that war and during the entire American Revolution.

What Washington did during the Revolution is nothing short of incredible, when you consider the political, strategic, tactical, and spiritual roles he fulfilled. Very few men would have inspired freezing, starving, unpaid citizens to remain at Valley Forge just to face the most powerful army again the following spring. Very few men could have convinced his men to cross the ice-strewn Delaware like they did. Very few men could have conceived of victory awaiting the ragamuffin colonials on the other end of years of toil, defeat, disease, and everything else they faced.

Every bit of the near-religious fervor with which his countrymen adored him was earned and deserved. Washington was nothing short of Providential.