Great Generals from history, who deserves more recognition?

Question

The highest echelon of Generals from history seems to be narrowed down to a select few. Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon... They are the most glorified. (I'm not forgetting Genghis Khan, Attila etc...) These names are familiar to us but I was wondering who hasn't received proper recognition? What Generals should be included in this list that popular media has ignored? If someone could give me a list of who and why I'd appreciate it. Who deserves more recognition as a General? Any time period.

Answer 1

I would say General Frank Merril of Merril's Marauders as well as his successor Col. Charles Hunter

deserve more recognition. The Marauders have received attention, but their service was phenomenal ie. every member of the Marauders received a Bronze Star and they were forced to fight outnumbered over a harsh vast territory usually heavily outnumbered and behind wnemy lines winning battle after battle using the element of surprise and skill to compensate for their lack of heavy arms. Gen. Merril suffered 2 heart attacks during his campaigns, and Col. Hunter took over and was instrumental in launching an investigation of Gen. Stilwell for improper evacuation procedures. I tend to see Merril as the workhorse who did all the fighting and real planning while Stilwel got the credit.



General George Thomas of the Union Army. Duringthe US civil war he saved the Union army from total collapse at the Battle of Chicamauga. He was called the 'Rock of Chicamauga' and if not for his bravery that day the Union might have lost the Civil War. He also totally defeated the Confederate Army of Tennessee in the Battle of Nashville effectively ending the Civil War in the Western Theatre.

Ironically, he was unpopular among northern establishment comrades because he was born in Virginia from a prominant Virginia family who supported the confederacy. He was a West Point graduate... Also his family in Virginia disowned him because he chose to fight for the Union. He died of a heart attack while serving at a minor outpost out west after the Civil War.



Marshal Georgy Zhukov is hardly known in the USA, but he was born in extreme poverty in Tsarist Russia and became an apprentice to a furrier. At age 15 he was recruited into a WW1 Russian Cavalry unit in 1915. He won rwo medals for bravery and later fought for the Red Army in the Russian Civil War. In WW2 he won dramatic victories ie. he defeated the Japanese driving them out of a war with Eussia. He fought in Moldova driving out Romanian fascist forces. He stopped the German drive on Moscow, fought of course and won the largest battle in the history of the world - the Battle of Stalingrad. The siege of Keningrad, Kiev, Kursk. He was everywhere and he always won.

One mystery of his career is the persistant rumor that he had a plan for a preemptive attack against fascist Germany through southern Poland, but it is not mentioned in his autobiography. He indeed fits the natural profile of a great general ie. like a Napolean or Julius Caesar in his rise from humble origins to being an inspirational general. Also he was able to achieve such power and popularity without invoking the wrath of Stalin. To his credit also, he was instrumental in the plot to keep Stalin's henchman Beria from seizingpower. When Beria took beief command, Zhukov had his intel forces...back Kruschev when Beria was accused of crimes against humanity and treason. Zhukov also backed personnalt the officer who arrested and executed Beria. Beria had been a Himmler-like figure and a serial murderer and rapist. Zhukov was heroic to involve himself in that arena and to support deStalinization and the arrest of Beria. It's ironic that such a commander who was even highly praised by Eisenhower has not received more detailed attention from the West. There is a statue of him on horseback in Moscow near the Kremlin with his armed raised over the motto of

'They Shall Not Pass'. Russia laid 900miles of defensive works before Moscow; Zhukov took command and defeated the fascist forces there who were in sight of the city and could here its cathedral bells ringing...

Answer 2

Alexander is the undoubted number one. The guy fought over 300 battles and never lost a single one. Plus, he was outnumbered 99 percent of the time. Napoleon was famous for terrorizing the whole of Europe but he did not fight many battles and he still lost some. Suvorov would definitely go second. The guy fought over 100 battles and never lost a single one. He was recognized as one of the greatest generals in history by the Czar. Suvorov was a very kamikaze-like general. He always strained his soldiers to do the best they could and he once said "What is hard in training will be easy on the battlefield." Attila and Genghis Khan are recognized by their lifetime accomplishments but they were never very good on the battlefield. Hannibal was good and almost took Rome itself, but he was somewhat too ambitious and careless which is why he lost so many units. Caesar was a brilliant tactician, but he never showed the bravery Alexander portrayed. Alexander was everything: brilliant tactician, inspiring speaker, and he fought with his men in the front line. Alexander is the definite number one. There's a reason they called him the son of God.



P.S: Attila and Genghis Khan NEVER personally went out to fight a battle.

Answer 3

Genghis Khan with no a doubt personally. Gained countless battles while ordinarily being outnumbered. Was once a satisfactory Warrior, and had such eager techniques and approaches that no one stood a risk towards him. His potential to study and adapt to each battle predicament supposed that he certainly not fought the equal war twice. That meant any who opposed him did not have any competencies from abilities of his earlier battles. He lead the Mongolian Empire to finally turn out to be the largest that the arena has ever identified spanning across almost the whole lot of Asia and India as well as a large component of western and southern Europe. Also King Leonidas must get an honorable mention. Extraordinary leader in the face of a enormous navy with no hazard of success. He took his small navy of men and made a heroic image for Sparta. Finally dropping the battle of Thermopylae but making a stand that showed the Persians that Sparta would not without problems be walked over, and gave the Spartan military that adopted (and finally defeated the Persians) a logo to rally around. The fact that a small quantity of Spartans might hold off and do extreme harm to an whole navy for three days meant that an entire Spartan army might now not and would no longer lose! Extreme bravery and leadership in the face of designated death...Yeah, i'd say he used to be nice.

Answer 4

German General Herman Balck, I've read several accounts of WW2 written by German officers that stated they thought General Balck was the Germans best field commander, yet few have heard of him.



American General Matthew Ridgeway, he was the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and then XVIII Airborne Corps during the Battle of the Bulge, he parachuted into Germany in March 1945 when he was 50 years old. During the Korean War he was the commander of the U.S. 8th Army. In 1952, he replaced Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.



American General Alexander Patch, the only American General to command troops in both the Pacific and European Theaters. He commanded the Americal Division and then became the overall commander of U.S troops in the Guadalcanal Campaign. He then became commander of the 7th U.S. Army in the invasion of southern France and lead his troops into Germany in 1945.

Answer 5

Khalid ibn al-Walid

Jan Zizka

Henri de la tour d'Auvergne de Turenne

Alexander Suvurov

Winfield Scott

Stephen III of Moldavia

Answer 6

I'd go with Parmenion who was Alexanders second in command and is thought to have come up with some of the best strategies used by him.



Decent Wiki link attached.

Answer 7

Erwin Rommel, German general in WW2, was very successful even when the odds were against him.

Selim the magnificent, conquered all of the Balkans,lead the ottoman empire to dominance.

Cyrus the great, conquered most of the lands that became part of the Persian empire.

Answer 8

Alexander should be excluded from the list, because his achievements are grossly overrated.



He was lucky to be born as prince of an extremely gifted father.



Father had invented new type of troops (phalanx) and trained tens of thousands Greeks and Macedonians as phalanx troops. Alexander just inherited these troops and when he needed more of them, Alexander was unable to train his own troops from either Persian or Greek recruits.



In all years of his campaigns Alexander had defeated only one king (Darius III), which was the most cowardly king in the neighborhood. Because of the lack of courage of Darius Alexander did not need to invent anything new in military tactics. He used only one trick - ride toward Darius and Darius ran away reliably loosing battle.



Alexander was lucky that that looser of a King was the ruler of the largest empire of his times.

Alexander had never conquered anything outside of Persia.



Yes, besides Darius Alexander clashed with 3 other kings:

1. Philip of Macedon (his own father). It looks like Alexander succeeded in the plot to get king killed.

2. Besos of Bactria (former Persian satrap). Alexander was able to bribe Bactrian chieftains to get that king killed.

3. Porus of India. Battle ended in a draw.



No military victories in 3 of those other cases.



The only personal military qualities of Alexander were his courage and boldness - something average captain of British imperial troops in 18th- 19th ce3ntury also had.