The Greatest American General of All Time?
The Greatest American General of All Time? 37 votes
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GrantHard to go against the Father of the country but Grant helped save it
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Grant
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.RaceBannon said:Hard to go against the Father of the country but Grant helped save it
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. -
Worshington
Grant ain't walking back through that door anytime soonRaceBannon said:Hard to go against the Father of the country but Grant helped save it
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Grant
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.DerekJohnson said:
Grant ain't walking back through that door anytime soonRaceBannon said:Hard to go against the Father of the country but Grant helped save it
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GrantHonorable mentions...
Phil Sheridan
Winfield Scott
Omar Bradley
Black Jack Pershing
Storming Norman
Zachary Taylor -
ShermanWrite in for the sweatpants general.
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PattonPatton was the definition of talking shit and his boys backing it up
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WorshingtonWashington dammit. The other guys really just had to not fuck things up and they’d eventually win with manpower/materiel/resource advantages.
As college football shows us you still get credit for not fucking things up. But GW won independence and popped off. -
Ike
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.biak1 said:Washington dammit. The other guys really just had to not fuck things up and they’d eventually win with manpower/materiel/resource advantages.
As college football shows us you still get credit for not fucking things up. But GW won independence and popped off.
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. -
WorshingtonThe top 3 became POTUS rather easily.
1. Worshington
2. Ike
3. Grant
the rest ...
5. Profit
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Nathanael Greene.YellowSnow said:Honorable mentions...
Phil Sheridan
Winfield Scott
Omar Bradley
Black Jack Pershing
Storming Norman
Zachary Taylor
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General Unrest making a push.Purple_Pills said:According to this, it’s
Lee.Grant.
My vote is for General Motors or General Mills. -
Stonewall JacksonYou people are mostly idiots. I'm right, because I'm usually right.
Ridgeway is a close second. -
Ike
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.Swaye said:You people are mostly idiots. I'm right, because I'm usually right.
Ridgeway is a close second. -
Stonewall Jackson
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.CFetters_Nacho_Lover said:
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.Swaye said:You people are mostly idiots. I'm right, because I'm usually right.
Ridgeway is a close second. -
Stonewall Jackson
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.YellowSnow said:
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.RaceBannon said:Hard to go against the Father of the country but Grant helped save it
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. -
GrantBy 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 -
Grant
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.Swaye said:
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.YellowSnow said:
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.RaceBannon said:Hard to go against the Father of the country but Grant helped save it
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 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. -
Grant
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.RaceBannon said: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
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. -
Grant
He wins the award for greatest shit talking pre game speech of all time.Tequilla said:Patton was the definition of talking shit and his boys backing it up
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WorshingtonNot 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.
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Grant
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.FireCohen said: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.
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WorshingtonQuite 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.
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Sorry he owned slaves therefore that made him the worst General ever. Tear down his statues.DerekJohnson said: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.
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Grant
This isn’t the Tug.SFGbob said:
Sorry he owned slaves therefore that made him the worst General ever. Tear down his statues.DerekJohnson said: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.
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Grant
George III said that him resigning his post would make him the greatest man in the world.DerekJohnson said: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.
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Pattonwent 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. -
Grant
Custer was only a Lt. colonel when team @Swaye scalped his Pumpeii esque golden blonde locs.LebamDawg said: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.
