The Greatest American General of All Time?
- Thread starter YellowSnow
- Start date
Hard to go against the Father of the country but Grant helped save it
Washington’s greatest achievement as a general was keeping an Army in the field which alone makes him one of the greatest figures in history. But his greatest triumph over the Brits took a lot of luck and French help.
Grant to your point, pretty much single handed saved the Union and was both a brilliant tactical general and master grand strategist. Lee was former, but not the later.
Grant ain't walking back through that door anytime soon
Well yeah. That kinda life story doesn’t happen anymore. People don’t go from selling cordwood in St Louis to POTUS in the span of a decade anymore.
Honorable mentions...
Phil Sheridan
Winfield Scott
Omar Bradley
Black Jack Pershing
Storming Norman
Zachary Taylor
Phil Sheridan
Winfield Scott
Omar Bradley
Black Jack Pershing
Storming Norman
Zachary Taylor
@koopdog
HFNY
Well-known poster
True though someone like Ike had much more complicated logistics and headaches of humans (such as Montgomery and De Gaulle). Eisenhower's brilliance was also in taking action while not feeling the need to show off tactical genius. He wasn't afraid to sack under-performing lower generals either.
Still I think you're right in that GW's odds of success were so low yet he miraculously found a way to get the job done strategically and tactically.
Grant was excellent too, GW and he were both considered the best horsemen of their respective times.
Purple_Pills
New Fish
Purple_Pills
New Fish
Nathanael Greene.
GrundleStiltzkin
New Fish
General Unrest making a push.
Jackson was brilliant at getting his men to fight in places where his opponents didn’t think he could get to. Compared to the top 3 though, he really only had to deal with tactical considerations. As I went through this list, I went back and forth between Jackson, Grant and Ike.
That was really my consideration - tactical mastery of warfare. By that measure, I think Jackson is hands down the best. I will grant there are other measures - adeptness at managing a war effort (Ike and Grant), instilling fighting spirit and a will to win (Washington), etc. So, kind of depends on what measure you use to evaluate the choices. For sheer kick ass tactical battle planning, Stonewall has no American equal, though Ridgways work with the 82'nd Airborne in WWII and halting the Chinese offensive in Korea is legendary shit.
I never find this to be a fair comparison. Lee seems to not be a grand strategist, but Lee had no real industry supporting him, no Navy to support his field positions, and no railroad of any note to support him from land. I had a lecturer at the National War College once tell me "Lee's grand strategy WAS tactical mastery of specific battles and campaigns." He had no choice. He knew he could not win a long sustained strategic war. It was a "be better than the other guy for like 2 years and kill their will to win, or it's over" strategy.
By WW2 the American military was like Secretariat, a tremendous machine. Generals were CEOs and @Logistics was on a global scale. There were thousands of staff doing the grunt work
Washington and Grant et al were more of a one man show
Washington and Grant et al were more of a one man show