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The Greatest American General of All Time?

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  • pawz
    pawz Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 22,515 Founders Club
    Worshington
    The top 3 became POTUS rather easily.

    1. Worshington
    2. Ike
    3. Grant

    the rest ...

    5. Profit
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  • Purple_Pills
    Purple_Pills Member Posts: 2,110
    edited January 2021
    According to this, it’s Lee.
     Grant.

    My vote is for General Motors or General Mills.
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  • Purple_Pills
    Purple_Pills Member Posts: 2,110
    YellowSnow said:

    Honorable mentions...

    Phil Sheridan
    Winfield Scott
    Omar Bradley
    Black Jack Pershing
    Storming Norman
    Zachary Taylor

    Nathanael Greene.
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  • GrundleStiltzkin
    GrundleStiltzkin Member Posts: 61,516 Standard Supporter
    Purple_Pills said:

    According to this, it’s Lee.
     Grant.

    My vote is for General Motors or General Mills.

    General Unrest making a push.
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  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,741 Founders Club
    edited January 2021
    Stonewall Jackson
    You people are mostly idiots. I'm right, because I'm usually right.

    Ridgeway is a close second.
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  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,741 Founders Club
    Stonewall Jackson
    CFetters_Nacho_Lover said:

    Swaye said:

    You people are mostly idiots. I'm right, because I'm usually right.

    Ridgeway is a close second.

    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.
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  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,741 Founders Club
    Stonewall Jackson
    YellowSnow said:

    RaceBannon said:

    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.
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  • YellowSnow
    YellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 37,832 Founders Club
    Grant
    Swaye said:

    YellowSnow said:

    RaceBannon said:

    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.
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