Alexander Suvorov-Russian General 1729-1800 Was said that he has never lost a battle with near 100 battles fought Was under Great Catherine Reign Favorite Weapon: Bayonet(Why reload your weapon when you have a bayonet)
EDIT: Had complete faith in his country. Although very ill since he was young, he worked his way up the rankings in the Russian military. He was known to be a workaholic as well. It is stated that every time he was dismiss from a battle(Vacation time) he became more ill than he originally was. He taught his mean respect,courage, and to be well aware. There is a story were he took his troops on a daily march and as they passed a church he immediately order the troops to take over the church as means of practice.(He would do this every now and then to keep is troops ready). He loved the bayonet because it was actually faster then to reload. He taught his mean to shoot once then charge in with their bayonets to finish the enemy as they were reload.
He is also known as the man who could have stop Bonaparte.
"The bullet is a fool, the bayonet is a fine chap." — Alexander Suvorov
A Great biography if your interested: Art of Victory: the Life and Achievements of Field Marshal Suvorov (Philip Longworth)
William T. Sherman: You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it... Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth—right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.
This was written before the Civil War even started.
Sherman is definitely up there.
ironically, the south wanted peaceful independence (similar to the way the thirteen colonies wanted independence from GB)
it was the north that forced them back into the union by blood and bayonet, the ones who took war lightly and underestimated the south's resolve and ability to resist their will for 4-5 long bloody years
On February 15 2011 14:44 Sanctimonius wrote: Belisarius and Hannibal have been mentioned....
Any Pyrrhus mentions get to be thrown out after you point out he gave the English language the phrase Pyrrhic victory. Nah, there's better ancient generals.
Hannibal placed Pyrrhus in his top three.
Considering how far he exerted his influence with a piss-poor half-barbaric ragtag "nation", he gets kudos ^^
I respect everyone's opinion... and I respect everyone's culture. I personally enjoy reading american history a lot, recently even more than Rome's (almost pains me to admit this) and I admire a lot of americans, especially Robert. E Lee (top 5 general in my opinion), Abraham Linlcoln, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, ah it's a huge list I cannot name them all, but honestly honestly if you ask me american history have a lot more interesting people than George Washintong, maybe that's just me, but as a general he was terrible, he lost a lot of battles, there is no way he's above people like Alexander The Great, not even close.
Subutai, the right hand man of Genghis and his most prominent Dog of War. He was responsible for much of the Mongol Empire's expansion, regularly coordinating two separate battles very far apart at the same time. He is a huge reason for Genghis's conquering of half the world in a single lifetime.
I give him number one because of his massive achievements while at the same time not having prior access to military history from which to learn. The Mongols, originally a nomadic people, carved their own strategies and didn't learn from Alexander, Caesar, etc. which makes their accomplishment even more amazing.
Number two I give to Robert E. Lee, who was a legit genius and almost won the American Civil War while being outnumbered, and incredibly out-teched in terms of infrastructure.
On February 15 2011 14:19 Jerubaal wrote: Fabius Maximus Cunctator
The general who won by delaying: With Hannibal's army in the Italian Peninsula and two Roman armies defeated, Rome was in tremendous danger. Realizing the genius of Hannibal, Fabius refused to engage Hannibal's army directly, instead keeping his army close and withdrawing whenever Hannibal prepared to attack. Along with scorched earth tactics, they harried Hannibal's army until he was forced to return to Carthage.
unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem "one man, be delaying, restored the state to us"
never even heard of him but I loved reading that
he might not be Hannibal himself, but he's the next best thing
Genius! He knew he couldn't defeat Hannibal so he used his smarts and outlasted Hannibal :O
On February 15 2011 14:18 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:
On February 15 2011 13:53 Kimaker wrote: There's a fairly strong opinion among historians (not necessarily TRUE) that Hannibal's strategic exploits were greatly exaggerated by Roman historians in order to make their triumph seem all the more complete.
What? We have some fairly detailed evidence of the orders of battle, on several important battles. I've only ever heard that Hannibal(and Carthage's) cruelty may have been overstated by the Romans as propaganda. Alot of the records of his history is considered fairly dependable as they are from Polybius, who was considered a fairly neutral historian on the topic as he was Greek and not Roman.
I never said it was true, just that it was a point of contention amongst some historians that should be considered.
Polybius is not neutral at all. Even though he was Greek, he certainly was a member of Aemilianus' circle and thus a Scipio/Roman fanboy.
Caesar may have had some great soldiers, but so did Pompey, and he roflstomped all over him multiple times. I don't think any Roman tops Caesar until at least the empire is divided, honestly, unless you are going back a while to details that are iffy at best (ie kings, early Republic, Camillus). I liked the shout-out to Fabius M. Cunctator [the Terran Turtler], but he simply did not have enough time to prove himself as he was removed from office because of his winning, yet boring, strategy. Perhaps, Sertorius could get the nod, but there isn't too much written about him.
My personal favorite is Publius Decius Mus. Just straight up sacrifices himself before the battle, and the Romans go bezerk.
Gotta go with Sun Tszu, because he literally wrote the book
And Genghis Kahn, because he conquered half the world with a nomadic army
Last I would pick Robert E Lee. Probably the finest military commander the US has ever produced. If he had managed to be recruited by the Union, the Civil War would have been over in months.
Everyone who's mentioned Belisarius holds a special place in my heart. <3
What's up with the OP? Napoleon being the only good French general? No le Grand Conde, Louis de Bourbon? Greatest general of the 30 Years War and the one responsible for ending Spain's military dominance.
And Washington lost at Fort Necessity to the French and elsewhere to the British. He's definitely not top 5 material.
Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Zhuge Liang, Julius Caesar, Belisarius, Maurice, Napoleon all deserve to be up there. If you want to take it to the way back machine, how about Cyrus the Great and, even further back, Sargon the Great - creator of the first empire.
My favorite is Hannibal. Someone mentioned Stilicho. They get a gold star, too.
EDIT: Leonidas and Richard the Lionheart get honorable mention not necessarily for their strategic brilliance, but for being badass and supremely awesome.
On February 15 2011 14:19 Jerubaal wrote: Fabius Maximus Cunctator
The general who won by delaying: With Hannibal's army in the Italian Peninsula and two Roman armies defeated, Rome was in tremendous danger. Realizing the genius of Hannibal, Fabius refused to engage Hannibal's army directly, instead keeping his army close and withdrawing whenever Hannibal prepared to attack. Along with scorched earth tactics, they harried Hannibal's army until he was forced to return to Carthage.
unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem "one man, be delaying, restored the state to us"
never even heard of him but I loved reading that
he might not be Hannibal himself, but he's the next best thing
Genius! He knew he couldn't defeat Hannibal so he used his smarts and outlasted Hannibal :O
war isn't always like starcraft. sometimes, some people start off with one-hundred workers and others start with one =/
it's the ones that do the most with the least that are the greatest
Sun Tzu, Genghis Kahn (who apperently had red hair) and what's he called? The Russian in charge of stalingrad that guy, he was trapped in stalingrad then somehow managed to trap the germans in it and then did a better job of seiging them.
Sun Pin ( some guy related to Sun Tzu ~80-120 years later? He's some descendant of his who advocated the use of Siege weapons while Sun Tzu advocated against it )
He uses Sun Tzu's tactics while altering some others to form his own variant of it...
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.nndb.com/people/324/000098030/alexander-suvorov-1-sized.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.freewebs.com/ultimatewarzone/sunce.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://c.ask.nate.com/imgs/qrsi.php/6104563/8186426/1/1/A/2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/JamesTKirk.jpg)
