Who was the best military general of all time?

Question

Some possible responses could include: Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Xerxes, Washington, Grant, Sherman, Lee, Eisenhower. Does not have to be recent, should probably not be recent, (pre-korea). Give me a list of your top 5/top 10

Answer 1

Lemme see the candidates:

1) Patton how far could he have gone given a free hand in france during 1944?

2) Rommel what could he have done had he more than 25% of the force required to win in africa plus his defense of france and the conquest of france.

3) zhukov the defender of russia and did well in the east prior to facing the germans

4) Paul Hausser for his tactical leadership of the II SS Panzer Corps, he restored the sagging front after Stalingrad and Kursk, beating Soviet Armies 7 times his size.

5) napolean master of land and sea warfare egypt and russian were his for a while. He was left chomping on the bit along the English Coast the same as Hitler tho.

6) thomas jackson, for his tactical victories in the Shenandoah Valley and Chancellorsville. He made bobby lee look good and if he was alive, could've won at Gettysburg too.

7) macarthur same as napolean but not the size of scale of conquest. A free hand could've won the Korean Conflict, either that or a direct confrontation with China...who knows?

8)Moltke first used the practice of mobility with railroads and the use of commanders to figure out the best way to take an objective

9)Sherman author the first demonstation of total warfare with march through the south to atlanta

10)genghis khan able to go from mongolia to europe a large undertaking considering his time. His empire was larger than Hitlers, Alexanders, and the Roman Empire combined.

11) charlemagne last big empire of europe until napolean. Without him, Europe would've been overrun by the Moors/Saracens (You'd be praying to Mecca each day).

12)Gauis Julius Caesar, especially for his exploits in Gaul and Britainnia...

Caesar conquered Gaul & Britainnia, but he did this by a combination of politics and warfare against an enemy who thought war should be conducted either nude or certainly armourless, and that combat should be 1 on 1 with slashing weapons. Against Roman military technology there was only ever one outcome. You can slash armour all you want, but when someone jabs a few inches of a pointed short sword in your face from behind a big shield, you're going to lose, irrespective of how much battlefury you have. Anyway, Caesar would have been one of the worst generals in history had he failed to conquer Gaul with the resources at his disposal. I concede that the barbarian Vercingetorix was a challenge, but if you actually analyse the battle Ceaser was outmanourvered badly by the Gaul! I think Ceasar can be better measured by his victories during the Civil war and over the aged Pompey. However, even there he had a battle hardened army and he fought a vastly more inexperienced force, with some terrible tactical decisions being made by Caesar's enemies.

Crassus lost in Parthia, but was it not he who crushed spartacus? Of course, the escaped army of gladiators and slaves is no fit comparison, but its worth rememering that he was not that bad a general.

Scipio Africanus was the general who defeated Hannibal. Arguably, Hannibal was, along with Phyruss of Epirus, mithrodates and possibly Jugurtha, one of the greatest generals since Alexander. You cant argue with that pedigree but my knowledge of the Punic Wars is limited.

Vespasian was effective in the invasion of Britain, although his enemies were the disorganised British tribes.

To end, I have always thought Sertorius was the greatest General but the one least interested in politics and therefore the one least mentioned in history. However, like Memnon vs Alexander, his contemporary's obviously repsected him enough to rarely have a bad word said against him, and it is not often that you have a man so unknown by the public who, and I'm going from memory here, plutarch felt could have, and should have, been the greatest Roman General of his time.....

Answer 2

Muhammad, founder of the Muslim religion. When they say "Win the hearts and minds," this is the master. He still has over one billion people that believe in the religion he founded. Nobody will ever come close to his popularity.

Attila (The Hun of Mongolia). The only thing that stopped him was a natural death.

Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar (India), although he basically ruled rather than took land, he defined the human element in rulership, ruling with wisdom rather than an iorn fist. You can tell he was a Muslim by his name, but he ruled over mostly Hindus and the Hindus basically liked him. That's something akin to having the relatives of Adolf Hilter being admired by the Jews. As you can tell, that would be no small feat.

Qin Shi Huang of China. He basically unified China, ordered the building of the Great Wall of China, ordered the building of a city-sized mausoleum guarded by a life-sized Terracotta army and created a massive road system, all around 221 BCE to 210 BCE.

Moses of Egypt. Most people started with something and made it more. This guy and his whining buddies spends 40 years in a desert, declares the area cleared of enemies and sets up Israel, right in the middle of at least four powerful kingdoms at that time. That would be akin to David Koresh taking out a fifth of Texas and holding that land.

Answer 3

Difficult challenge - here are my "Top Ten" - in chronological order:

Phillip of Macedon (set his son up to win - on the grand scale)
Julius Caesar (probably the best of them all)
Ghengis Khan (hugely successful)
Charlemagne (great battle leader in an age pretty much free of generalship)
Frederick the Great (victorious against the odds - repeatedly)
Marlborough (best of the many 18th century generals by a long way)
Napoleon (not an innovator, but still one of the very best - a sound strategist and real battle-winner - a rare combination)
Manstein (best of the 20th century)
Rommel (best tactician of the 20th century)
MacArthur (for the Inchon landings - and to have a post-WWII entrant)

So that's one Greek, one Italian, one Mongolian, two Frenchmen, three Germans, An Englishman and an American.


But there are many other possible candidates- a few worthwhile candidates I've omitted include Wellington (never lost a battle), Mao (the long march and after), Petain (won WWI), Stalin (won WWII), Moltke (for 1870), Gustavus Adolphus (the innovator of "combined arms)

Answer 4

best military general of all time? that would mean he would have to have led an army or was in command of several armies or was the lead guy. that would eliminate some names that others have listed: so here's my list...
1. alexander the great -- he was the leader and he took the lead on military affairs, plus he never lost. one of a few undefeated generals of all time.
2. hannibal -- was undefeated and outnumbered numerous times until his final defeat in the third punic war.
3. ghengis khan -- never met defeat and expanded an empire
4. suleiman the magnificent -- the great ottoman turk expanded an empire that encompassed much of north africa and the middle east even including spain.
5. saladin -- recovered jerusalem from the crusaders and fathered an enormous empire that covered the present-day middle east.
6. duke of wellington -- defeated the great napoleon and never lost a battle to him
7. frederick the great -- never lost a battle during his time period; much of europe feared him. revolutionized 18th century tactics, drill, and military organization.
8. alfred von schleiffen and helmuth von moltke -- invented "lightning warfare" or blitzkreig
9. napoleon -- would be ranked higher if he was flexible as he was innovative. improved 19th century tactics by the use of his "light" infantry. improved on frederick the greats organization by introducing ranks to the common soldier.
10. general eisenhower and general grant -- eisenhower led an effective military orgnaization to the battlefield. grant developed american doctrine of war in use to this day.
developed "total war"

Answer 5

That is truly a good question to ask. In my opinion, Ghangis Khan is the best military genius of all time. He used military tactics that were so unique and genius that he was able to conquer more land in less time than anyone else before him. To this day, the only empire ever to exceed the Mongol Empire's land mass is Great Britain some 500 years after Ghangis Khan conquered all of Asia (minus India), parts of Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. Ghangis Khan started off as a nobody from a poor tribe that was smack dab in the middle of a lawless, fractioned region known as Mongolia. He took his collapsed tribe and turned it into the second largest empire in the entire human history. Only England managed to surpass the Mongol Empire, and it took England decades and generations to conquer what Ghangis Khan did in just a couple of decades! Ghangis was the first to effectively use a mobile army. Not only was his entire army mobile, but his entire country was too! Entire cities with populations as high as 100,000 people would pick up their stuff and move as much as 20 miles a day! He was the first to use fireworks and gunpowder in battles (previously they were only used for celebrations in China and surrounding areas). He trained his men to use compound shortbows while riding on horses going full speed. He was the first to use compound shortbows which were specially designed to shoot a much greater distance and far more accurately. He also trained his men to ride on the sides of horses while firing their bows accurately so that the enemy could only hit the horses instead of the soldiers. He was also the first to harnuss the technology of lever catapults (previously people used the much more ineffective rope catapults) and therefore was able to conquer entire cities from a much greater distance and not lose a single soldier (the enemy catapults were made of rope and therefore couldn't fire far enough, which enabled the Ghangis' soldiers to remain out of harm's way while the pummeled the city). He was the first to implement non-traditional battle tactics. His genius went even further than the battlefield. He was the first emperor to give equal rights to women and give education to all children, not just the rich. He was a strong advocate for education and people's rights. He truly knew how to rule a country better than anyone else before him. His genius in military strategy, politics, governing, and education would change the course of history dramatically. Because of him, gunpowder was introduced to Europe. He was the first emperor to suggest civil rights for the people and he did this three hundred years before any king or emperor in Europe did. He was truly a genius ahead of his time.

Answer 6

Julius Caesar was great, practical , Logic, Able to dare when needed. I wished seen him against Partes in Mesopotamia, the sam population who defeated and killed Crassus.
But maybe Hannibal was a little superior: the only general able to defeat repetely a classical roman army. The one who gave to romans the biggest defeat before Empire era...

Answer 7

The accomplishments of the generals all the other folks have listed here are hard to dispute. I can only think of one fellow to add who seems to get very little notice throughout the western world these days:

John Hunyadi of Hungary, a warlord whose daring exploits especially at the Seige of Belgrade in 1455 stopped the largest invasion of the Moslem Ottomans from overrunning Europe, without whom we would probably all be typing in Turkish right now.

Answer 8

The Unlikeliest of Heroes a man denigerated by a frustrated populace grappling with the pace of social change during the 1600s in England and the Crown goes to - - - -

Oliver Cromwell who created the Modern Army,

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/STUmodelarmy.htm
"""In February 1645, Parliament decided to form a new army of professional soldiers and amalgamated the three armies of William Waller, Earl of Essex and Earl of Manchester. This army of 22,000 men became known as the New Model Army. Its commander-in-chief was General Thomas Fairfax, while Oliver Cromwell was put in charge of its cavalry.

Members of the New Model Army received proper military training and by the time they went into battle they were very well-disciplined. In the past, people became officers because they came from powerful and wealthy families. In the New Model Army men were promoted when they showed themselves to be good soldiers. For the first time it became possible for working-class men to become army officers. Oliver Cromwell thought it was very important that soldiers in the New Model Army believed strongly in what they were fighting for. Where possible he recruited men who, like him, held strong Puritan views and the New Model Army went into battle singing psalms, convinced that God was on their side.""

Oliver Cromwell was a Strategist and a Tactician and that is rare in a War Leader and if you truly need a yardstick for greatness then yes it is true that Cromwell NEVER lost a fight he set out to win.

And yes I lnow all the bad things about 'Ollie' and my heart goes to all the dead Irish and the culture he attempted to b^stardize - - - but measured by many reasons Cromwell comes out on top....

Having tooted a horn for Cromwell will simply list in no particular Order...

George Washinton

Nathanial Greene

Henry the Fifth of England

Frderick the Great of Prussia

Admiral Hpratio Nelson (Not a General so sue me - LOL)

Admiral Charles Charles Nimitz

Alexander the Great of Macedonia

Nathan Bedford Forest

William Tecumseh Sherman

Peace............

Answer 9

Alexander from the Ancients and Grant from the Moderns

Answer 10

Alexander the Great for sure