Greatest Commander thread

Who are your favorite/greatest generals/admirals, Veeky Forums? Preferably include a list of a few. Include their greatest strengths/most impressive accomplishments. Try to include some of their failures and weaknesses too -- impartiality is nice.

I'll start with Grant. Certainly not my favorite, nor do I think he's the greatest, but all this retarded revisionism claiming he was a butcher is just fucking retarded.

strengths/accomplishments
>only consistently competent Union general throughout the war from start to finish at all levels of command
>first Union general to score major tactical and strategic victories (Henry & Donelson)
>basically single-handedly assfucked Tennessee and the Mississippi River from February 1862 to November 1863
>underrated logistics officer; procured supplies as if by magic for his regiment in the Mexican-American War, and undertook huge logistical feats from the start to the end of the ACW, bringing order, discipline, and proper supply to the men under his command where previously there had been none
>dispelled the retarded "Lee is a genius" meme in 1864 (though, granted, you could attribute this to Meade too)
>singular ability to get dirty with his men; usually wore simple clothes, and even when he wore his uniform it was unkempt and even dirty (most Union men hated their retarded generals because they loved puffing up their chests and wearing their flashy uniforms while the men under them suffered)
>orchestrated perhaps the best example of strategic "wear them down" planning ever executed in the history of modern warfare
weaknesses/failures
>Cold Harbor (obviously)
>tendency to get fucked up when there was nothing to do, generally after a major battle
>way too idealistic and altruistic/trusting of people (one of the primary reasons his presidency was shit)
>not hanging Lee and his officers for treason as soon as they surrendered

anons i am curious pls bost

he gets props for cheering sherman up from anheroing

certainly. Sherman is another favorite of mine but imo he falls a tiny bit short because of the fact that he had a mental breakdown when he was in Ohio/Kentucky early in the war. his personality is far better than Grant's though imo

>And let it be known that if a farmer wishes to burn his cotton, his house, his family, and himself, he may do so. But not his corn. We want that.

>not hanging Lee and his officers for treason as soon as they surrendered
he was magnanimous, if you kill the leaders of a former enemy you basically create martyrs and the south would probably resent the north for a lot longer than they did.

>drunkard wins a war against a far inferior force
>and not without massive casualties
>consumates his public career as president dupe
>le hero of our time

Neither the president nor his cabinet granted any of their generals the power to negotiate on their own terms, much less randomly hang a surrendering enemy. Just goes to show how fucking childish this board is.

>not being able to take a joke
i mean, i suppose.
i admire Grant for his magnanimity, which (at least in this case) he learned from Zachary Taylor when he allowed the Mexicans defending Monterrey to withdraw with their arms and standards. Lee is admirable in his own way, but I still consider him a traitor in the end. But Appomattox was a very fine way to end the ANV and essentially bring an end to the war.

...

Lee is the only admirable one of the two imo. Grant was an ordinary man performing his duty.

I can’t favor either side because it makes no difference to anyone in the long run. The union won and the country went to shit. Had the south won, there would be several shit countries.

Napoleon obviously.
His campaign of Italy is just out of this world :
>"Originally, the army of Italy had to serve only as diversion so that Austria mobilizes in Italy. This army must be made for an artificial offensive, it was badly equipped and badly fed, and had to receive no reinforcement "
Napoleon just fcked Austria with this army

Austerlitz is the ultimate tactical masterpiece still studied nowadays

And can we talk about the Trachenberg Plan?
The plan advocated avoiding direct engagement with Napoleon I even in superiority

His only problem is that he lost touch with reality after so much success what led him to the loss (and he was too kind with his enemies)

Napoleon is honestly my favorite. the Six Days and the one or two battles afterward were fucking insane

Grant the Butcher was literally Zhukov.

Killed more Yanks than even Bobby Lee

Most of the italian battles were won by sheer luck or even downright lost, until Austria somehow managed to cheat themselfs out of clear victory.

Actually reading about them, they dont seem that impressive anymore (apart from the very first ones, these ones were awesome, though you can also argue that the campaign had been won by based Massena)

He's My absolute fav too

a pair of incredible pieces of shit, fabricated Pentagon princes living off their own memes, they will die and nobody will remember when

>von Ludendorf walking up to a Belgium bunker with only a saber and knocking on it, demanding that the men who were manning it should surrender

He had balls out of titanium

for me khalid ibn al-walid has to be up there
in all of his campaigns he steamrolled thought the byzantines and the romans who had what possibly 20x the fighters in total each? maybe even more
i'd say he's up there with Alexander for me
an undefeated general is truly something

>khalid ibn al-walid

Imaginary battles doesn't count user

that's a pretty bold statement user care to prove it?

One of my favorites is Nathan Bedford Forrest. You have to give the guy credit where credit's due. He was the only man in the whole war who worked his way from private to general and got high compliments for his skill from a wide variety of men from Sherman to Lee to Davis. He also influenced military strategists for decades after due to his innovations. That said I also agree with OP. Helps I had ancestors who served under both men.

>The primary sources of khalid ibn al-walid battles are muslim historian of 9th century like Al-Baladhuri and Al-Waqidi which have both faced criticism regarding their scholarly reliability...

Care to elaborate on his innovations?

Yeah, he was an egotistical punk who did what he did primarily to satiate his own galaxy sized ego. But he was very, very good at what he did, you have to give him that.

Alexander Suvorov.

I reckon he could've given Napolean a bloody nose.

???
they question the number of troops deployed not whether or not the battles were real
and those are 2 sources out of many
hell there were greek and persian sources and even by their estimates he was still greatly outnumbered
and it's agreed upon that he didn't lost
are you stupid or something?

he didn't lose*

I like Timur. Not too many limp steppe niggers with missing fingers on their main hand.

>I was only pretending to be retarded.

Okay, maybe you meant it as a joke, but variations of that get thrown around sincerely enough that it makes more sense to assume it's sincere.

Cleburne worked his way up to Major General, and he didn't have nearly the money or connections. Still, I find Forrest's personality to be one of the most fascinating in the war..

>dispelled the retarded "Lee is a genius" meme in 1864 (though, granted, you could attribute this to Meade too)

>Fights numerous battles with Lee trying to destroy him.
>Gets outmaneuvered all along the way taking heavy, disproportionate casualties in the first batch, until totally screwing the pooch at Cold Harbour.
>Could have lost Lincoln the election if not for Sherman.
>It was attrition warfare guys!

He was a good general (no one in the Civil War deserves to be among the "greatest", none of them were near, say levels) but he underestimated Lee's abilities because he was used to fighting the dunces and cowards in the western theater. He pulled it off in the end by changing strategies, but at that point the Confederacy was already near sunk.

His campaign in Spain is probably my favourite of all time.

Nimitz - Spruance - Fletcher

GOAT naval dream team.