Top 5 Generals in the world. (Past of Present)

[Hologram]

1. Napolean
2. Alexander the Great
3. Saladin
4. Robert E. Lee
5. George Washington

While Washington was a great general, you mustn't put him in the category of great military mind. His strengths were in that he commanded great morale and won the battles that needed to be won because he knew they needed to be won.

[DIRESTRAITS]

Good points Hologram. Still no mention of ole Winfield Scott though

[Hologram]

Good points Hologram. Still no mention of ole Winfield Scott though

Heh, I don't know enough about Scott, so I couldn't take a good description of him.

[DIRESTRAITS]

Good points Hologram. Still no mention of ole Winfield Scott though

Heh, I don't know enough about Scott, so I couldn't take a good description of him.

Yeah, Most people don't. I think my Dad wrote his graduate thesis on him or something, because he always talks about Scott.

[jonnybgood]

How can you put Sherman in a list of 5 best generals Ever? Sure, Sherman was good, but there are far more that were greater than him. There are even more generals that were greater in his war like Grant and Lee.

[DIRESTRAITS]

How can you put Sherman in a list of 5 best generals Ever? Sure, Sherman was good, but there are far more that were greater than him. There are even more generals that were greater in his war like Grant and Lee.

Grant and Lee weren't greater than Sherman. If you doubt Sherman's greatness, I suggest reading Strategy by B.H. Liddell Hart. A very good book about military strategy

[Ruben Cassar]

Eisenhower

Eisenhower was an idiot. He stopped the entire armoured corps in the western front just so the infantry could catch up. Only thing is that when the offensive stopped, Germany regrouped and conducted a major, almost succesful, counter-attack near Bastogne, Germany. Now before you go off and call generals great merely because they were in charge of an entire army, think of their strategic conduct.

Hologram are you an Irishman living in the States?

[P Gizzle]

in no order


Hannibal
Douglas MacArthur
Caesar
Robert E. Lee
Alexander the Great.....


this is just off the top of my head.

[24lrae]

General Principle
General Anesthesia
General Chaos
General Hospital
General Misfortune

[CrazyAnglican]

Eisenhower

Eisenhower was an idiot. Now before you go off and call generals great merely because they were in charge of an entire army, think of their strategic conduct.

Eisenhower's strength wasn't in his ability to handle the strategy but in his ability to handle logistics. He spearheaded the management of the preparations, materials, and subterfuge leading up to D-Day. All the while keeping an eye on conditions which were treacherous. I think he certainly deserves a place among the best even though he wasn't working from the field.

[CrazyAnglican]

Hey, I noticed nobody knows any good generals from WWI

[CrazyAnglican]

5. Alexander the Great (brilliant general, but lousy statesman)
4. Peter the Great (single handedly brought Russia out of the Dark Ages,
well sort of)
3. Patton (Anybody who scared the heck out of the Germans that bad at
that time has to make the list)
2. Rommel (for pretty much the same reason as Patton)
1. Washington (pretty good general, but great statesman when we
needed it)

Let's give the British their due. What about admirals?

[hourman]

1. saladin

2. patton

3. Lee

4. Alexi Brusilov (world war one)

5.westmoreland (vietnam)


These guys rock.

[CrazyAnglican]

5 Yi Sun Sin (Choong Moo) & Peter the Great (first armored battle ship vs. bringing a maritime tradition to Russia)
4 Yamamoto & Doenitz (Probably a mistake, but I'm crediting Doenitz
with the wolf pack strategy)
3 Halsey (can't argue with success)
2 Nimitz (ditto)
1 Nelson (Is there really any other choice?)


Couldn't name that many; this is a serious oversight in my education

[jonnybgood]

i dont really know any generals from WW1. I think that all of the other wars like Civil War and WW2 overshadow WW1. I really dont know much about it at all.

[Guiscard]

4. Peter the Great (single handedly brought Russia out of the Dark Ages,
well sort of)

Certainly a great statesman but a great general? Certainly not in the top 5 as he made some disastrous decisions (going to war with Sweden completely unprepared, disastrous campaigns against the Ottoman empire etc. etc.)

[luns101]

1. Alexander the Great
2. Napoleon Bonaparte
3. George Patton
4. Oliver Cromwell
5. George Washington

....somewhere - Blitzaholic from this site

[hourman]

oliver cromwell? come on.


ya i have noticed that i have the only one from world war I

[CrazyAnglican]

i dont really know any generals from WW1. I think that all of the other wars like Civil War and WW2 overshadow WW1. I really dont know much about it at all.

Black Jack Pershing though I wouldn't put him that close to the top. WWI is well worth studying, a bloody war of attrition in which we got better at killing each other but tactics were slow to catch up.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" by ReMarque gives a good ficitonal account from a guy who was there. It's a pretty good read, even thought it doesn't shed any real light historically.

Another overlooked war is the Franco-Prussian War. I think it's really chapter one in the Franco-Prussian conflict.

[hourman]

Here are all the military leaders i think are the best:

Gen. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller
Gen. John A. Lejeune
Alexander “The Great”
Genghis Khan
Cpl Rodger W. Young
GySgt Dan Dailey
Vo Nguyen Giap
Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell
Adm. John Paul Jones
Col. David Hackworth
Sir Arthur Wellesley (aka the Duke of Wellington)
Col Francis Marion
Gen. Curtis E. LeMay
Gen. James H. Doolittle
Gen. Evans F. Carlson
Gen. Merritt "Red Mike" Edson
Gen. Smedley D. "Old Gimlet Eye" Butler
Col. (Brevet B.G.) Archibald Henderson*
George Washington(great man)
Alfred A. Cunningham (Remember it only my opinion)
Ataila the Hun
El Cid Campeador
General H Norman Schwarzkopf
General Patton
General Eisenhower
Admiral Chester Nimitz
Admiral William "Bull" Halsey
General William T. Sherman
Rommel
Ceasar
Alexander
Hannibal
King Leonidas of sparta
Gen. Douglas MaCarthur
Gen Curt Lemay
Gen Hap Arnold
Gen Stonewall Jackson


thast all of teh top of my head

[CrazyAnglican]

More of a statesman but

Pericles of Athens

although Leonidas has him on sheer balls

"Here lies three hundred men who did their duty" I heard that one mentioned in a Taekwondo text to illustrate indomitable spirit.

[war_bloodline]

Here are all the military leaders i think are the best:

Gen. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller
Gen. John A. Lejeune
Alexander “The Great”
Genghis Khan
Cpl Rodger W. Young
GySgt Dan Dailey
Vo Nguyen Giap
Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell
Adm. John Paul Jones (he had guts to head over to England).
Col. David Hackworth
Sir Arthur Wellesley (aka the Duke of Wellington)
Col Francis Marion
Gen. Curtis E. LeMay
Gen. James H. Doolittle (he had guts to bomb Tokyo)
Gen. Evans F. Carlson
Gen. Merritt "Red Mike" Edson
Gen. Smedley D. "Old Gimlet Eye" Butler
Col. (Brevet B.G.) Archibald Henderson*
George Washington(great man)
Alfred A. Cunningham (Remember it only my opinion)
Ataila the Hun
El Cid Campeador
General H Norman Schwarzkopf
General Patton ("never dig in, always be on the move")
General Eisenhower
Admiral Chester Nimitz
Admiral William "Bull" Halsey
General William T. Sherman
Rommel
Ceasar
Alexander
Hannibal (he worked off of fear that he gave to Romans).
King Leonidas of sparta
Gen. Douglas MaCarthur (so so in my mind, but ok).
Gen Curt Lemay
Gen Hap Arnold
Gen Stonewall Jackson


thast all of teh top of my head

Now can you rate which is the best, who are the top five on your list?
(I highlighed the one I agree with).

[Incandenza]

General Principle
General Anesthesia
General Chaos
General Hospital
General Misfortune

You forgot General Disarray.

[Incandenza]

Hey, I noticed nobody knows any good generals from WWI

Ludendorff and Hinderburg knew their sh*t. They planned the victory at Tannenberg, one of the great victories for the Germans in that war, and it was Ludendorff that developed the 'infiltration' tactics that nearly won the war for Germany in 1918 and presaged the tactics of blitzkrieg (that being, pierce the enemy front, disrupt their logistics, and encircle their armies).

[sfhbballnut]

Its interesting that no one's mentioned Hitler as far as I can see, he was againone of those statesmen/ generals, but the stuff he did is pretty great(in magitude), terrible, but great