The Greatest American General of All Time?

[YellowSnow]

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.

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.

Lee’s grand strategy of tactical victories worked until it didn’t. Ultimately his jerb was to keep a confederate army in the field until the north lost the political will. He got fucking greedy after Chancellorsville and thought he was invincible and then bet the house at Gettysburg. Major blunder here. Following that he got caught in Grant’s meat grinder and his army withered away.

I do give Lee a tremendous amount of credit for doing the right thing at the end which was to surrender and not go full on VC the hills of Appalachia.

 

[YellowSnow]

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

Well said. There’s no question that Ike was a master of @Logistics and management of the alliance. He didn’t fuck up D-Day which was Yuge. But still by the time Ike got us into France we had every advantage and @DerekJohnson had already consumed most of Germany’s manpower. Ike’s job was to not fuck up and he did it will.

ATBSJBS, he’s got nothing on his resume like Grant at Vicksburg or Spruance at Midway.

I always come back to Grant because he did it ALL. Tactical brilliance plus overall strategic genius.

 

[YellowSnow]

Patton was the definition of talking shit and his boys backing it up

He wins the award for greatest shit talking pre game speech of all time.

 

[FireCohen]

Not even fucking close. Not giving into temptation of power makes him a great man. He set a crazy precedent that other leaders after him had to follow.

 

[YellowSnow]

Not even fucking close. Not giving into temptation of power makes him a great man. He set a crazy precedent that other leaders after him had to follow.

True but it's hard to say whether this fits under Washington the general of the Continental Army or Washington the politician and father of a nation. I rank Washington, Grant and Ike in this exercise based only on their wartime resume.

 

[DerekJohnson]

Quite honestly Mitch, I didn't think George Washington would ever lead in this poll, yet here he is. I just love him for when the corrupt guys in the Continental Congress wanted him to be king... Washington reportedly kneeled before them to hand over his sword and insisted that we be a republic and not a monarchy. Even if that story might be gussied up with some BS, I just love that humility. It's awesome.

 

[SFGbob]

Quite honestly Mitch, I didn't think George Washington would ever lead in this poll, yet here he is. I just love him for when the corrupt guys in the Continental Congress wanted him to be king... Washington reportedly kneeled before them to hand over his sword and insisted that we be a republic and not a monarchy. Even if that story might be gussied up with some BS, I just love that humility. It's awesome.

Sorry he owned slaves therefore that made him the worst General ever. Tear down his statues.

 

[YellowSnow]

Quite honestly Mitch, I didn't think George Washington would ever lead in this poll, yet here he is. I just love him for when the corrupt guys in the Continental Congress wanted him to be king... Washington reportedly kneeled before them to hand over his sword and insisted that we be a republic and not a monarchy. Even if that story might be gussied up with some BS, I just love that humility. It's awesome.

Sorry he owned slaves therefore that made him the worst General ever. Tear down his statues.

This isn’t the Tug.

 

[YellowSnow]

Quite honestly Mitch, I didn't think George Washington would ever lead in this poll, yet here he is. I just love him for when the corrupt guys in the Continental Congress wanted him to be king... Washington reportedly kneeled before them to hand over his sword and insisted that we be a republic and not a monarchy. Even if that story might be gussied up with some BS, I just love that humility. It's awesome.

George III said that him resigning his post would make him the greatest man in the world.

 

[LebamDawg]

went with Patton cause he was just nuts, and the end of an era, not really a politician which I like.

Ike was the beginning of politically correct military administration.

Thought for sure @swaye was going to go with Custer...my Indian friends always do without having to have a poll.

 

[YellowSnow]

went with Patton cause he was just nuts, and the end of an era, not really a politician which I like.

Ike was the beginning of politically correct military administration.

Thought for sure @swaye was going to go with Custer...my Indian friends always do without having to have a poll.

Custer was only a Lt. colonel when team @Swaye scalped his Pumpeii esque golden blonde locs.

 

[Joey]

Honorable mention for the guy that can save you money and time

 

[YellowSnow]

View attachment 36437

Honorable mention for the guy that can save you money and time

This guy has the incorrect 5 star rank on his helmet.

 

[Mad_Son]

View attachment 36437

Honorable mention for the guy that can save you money and time

This guy has the incorrect 5 star rank on his helmet.

Interesting observation. I'm beginning to suspect he may not be a real general.

 

[DerekJohnson]

View attachment 36437

Honorable mention for the guy that can save you money and time

This guy has the incorrect 5 star rank on his helmet.

Interesting observation. I'm beginning to suspect he may not be a real general.

I assumed he was a member of The Village People

 

[YellowSnow]

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

To add to @RaceBannon 's point...

Ike clearly got the job done, but it you had subbed in another figure I don't know that the outcome looks much different. We still beat the Nazis.

I don't think you can say that about Washington or Grant. W/o either of those guysm being the man of the hour, I don't know that we? win.

I still rank Grant ahead of Washington, because George fucked up in the summer of 1776 and damn near lost the war. Furthermore, his greatest victory at Yorktown was the ultimate case of it being better to be lucky than good. It was miracle that the French navy didn't fuck up and got to the Chesapeake before the Royal Navy. I mean how often did the French beat the British at sea?

 

[CFetters_Nacho_Lover]

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

To add to @RaceBannon 's point...

Ike clearly got the job done, but it you had subbed in another figure I don't know that the outcome looks much different. We still beat the Nazis.

I don't think you can say that about Washington or Grant. W/o either of those guysm being the man of the hour, I don't know that we? win.

I still rank Grant ahead of Washington, because George fucked up in the summer of 1776 and damn near lost the war. Furthermore, his greatest victory at Yorktown was the ultimate case of it being better to be lucky than good. It was miracle that the French navy didn't fuck up and got to the Chesapeake before the Royal Navy. I mean how often did the French beat the British at sea?

I definitely have some decency bias for Ike.

 

[YellowSnow]

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

To add to @RaceBannon 's point...

Ike clearly got the job done, but it you had subbed in another figure I don't know that the outcome looks much different. We still beat the Nazis.

I don't think you can say that about Washington or Grant. W/o either of those guysm being the man of the hour, I don't know that we? win.

I still rank Grant ahead of Washington, because George fucked up in the summer of 1776 and damn near lost the war. Furthermore, his greatest victory at Yorktown was the ultimate case of it being better to be lucky than good. It was miracle that the French navy didn't fuck up and got to the Chesapeake before the Royal Navy. I mean how often did the French beat the British at sea?

I definitely have some decency bias for Ike.

Recency or decency bias? Ike was a very decent man, of course.

 

[CFetters_Nacho_Lover]

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

To add to @RaceBannon 's point...

Ike clearly got the job done, but it you had subbed in another figure I don't know that the outcome looks much different. We still beat the Nazis.

I don't think you can say that about Washington or Grant. W/o either of those guysm being the man of the hour, I don't know that we? win.

I still rank Grant ahead of Washington, because George fucked up in the summer of 1776 and damn near lost the war. Furthermore, his greatest victory at Yorktown was the ultimate case of it being better to be lucky than good. It was miracle that the French navy didn't fuck up and got to the Chesapeake before the Royal Navy. I mean how often did the French beat the British at sea?

I definitely have some decency bias for Ike.

Recency or decency bias? Ike was a very decent man, of course.

Spell check got me again.

 

[Swaye]

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

To add to @RaceBannon 's point...

Ike clearly got the job done, but it you had subbed in another figure I don't know that the outcome looks much different. We still beat the Nazis.

I don't think you can say that about Washington or Grant. W/o either of those guysm being the man of the hour, I don't know that we? win.

I still rank Grant ahead of Washington, because George fucked up in the summer of 1776 and damn near lost the war. Furthermore, his greatest victory at Yorktown was the ultimate case of it being better to be lucky than good. It was miracle that the French navy didn't fuck up and got to the Chesapeake before the Royal Navy. I mean how often did the French beat the British at sea?

I definitely have some decency bias for Ike.

Recency or decency bias? Ike was a very decent man, of course.

Kay Summersby agrees.