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Top 10 Generals of Western History

Top 10 Generals of Western History

In our modernized, mechanized age of warfare, where decisions are made by civilians, officers far from any line of combat, congressional committees, and unknown military strategists in committee, an army is a faceless thing. For the last six decades, the idea of massed armies doing battle has been considered a curiosity of the past, and warfare is often viewed more as an endemic state of some sort rather than a series of events.

Once, however, responsibility and consequence were not so diffused. Brilliant strategic, tactical, and logistical minds had immediate and total control of large armies, and those armies became victorious or defeated because of one man’s ability. In our attempt to survey the great generals of history, we must limit ourselves, or at least agree to common terms. For the purposes of this list, those eligible for inclusion must have been field commanders, with undeniable autonomy in their battles; no armchair generals or errand boys here.

10. Attila the Hun

Leader of the Hunnish empire that stretched from the borders of modern day France to the steppes of Russia, this thorn in the side of both Roman and Byzantine empires assembled a massive force of all the tribes and nations traditionally viewed as provincial savages – Huns, Goths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and many more, and nearly conquered mainland Europe. In the template of other “barbarian” conquerors to come after him, like Genghis Khan, he showed the lie of assumed Western superiority; and whenever your enemies names you “the Scourge of God”, you can assume you’ve proved yourself a respected threat. More images after the break...

9. Frederick the Great

Frederick II of Prussia was a student of modern warfare, and later its guiding voice in the late 18th century. He modernized the army of his disjointed pseudo-German kingdom, and fought continuous wars against Austria, the dominating power of the Holy Roman Empire at the time. Known for both his books and treatises on warfare, as well as leading troops into battle personally (he had six horses shot from under him), Frederick was a force to be reckoned with

8. George S. Patton

The most controversial figure of the Allied forces in WWII, Patton himself may have believed himself to be reincarnated from more ancient warriors, carrying their bravery and experience into his battles. A promising early career helping Pershing hunt Pancho Villa jumpstarted Patton into the armored corps, where he became a mentor to Eisenhower (later promoted over his head). In WWII, he gladly used the Germans’ blitzkrieg against them, using the maneuverability of American armored units to out maneuver German lines and gaining large amounts of ground over short periods of time. His infamous incidents, including troops under his command executing more than one massacre, and Patton’s slapping of a supposedly cowardly soldier in a field hospital, contributed to his decline, but more than anyone else, he led the Allies to victory in Europe.

Notable contemporaries: Benard Montgomery, British general and competitior; Erwin Rommel, Nazi tank commander and adversary

7. Joan of Arc

 The maid of Orleans is the only commander on this list to have had to share command in even her finest moments of victory, but as she is also the only woman, one feels an exception is in order. A French peasant girl who claimed visions from God, she traveled to Charles II, the French king losing the war to the English. Though she was hampered by skepticism at first, Joan influenced several important French victories, leading charges personally, and inspiring French troops to renewed fervor. Tried and executed by an English court for witchcraft, she was later exonerated, beatified, and made the patron saint of France

6. Julius Caesar

 The famed consul of Rome was perhaps the ablest of the late Republic’s military leaders, vying with his co-consul, Pompey for glory in subjugating territory to Rome’s expansionist will. His campaign against the Gauls is still required reading in many military academies, and his defeat of Pompey nearly granted him the kingship of firmly republican Rome. The political and personal treachery that ended his life and provided the opportunity for his nephew, Octavian, to become emperor, is legendary, but Caesar’s successes were more reliant on the loyalty and victory of his armies than political maneuvering.

Notable contemporaries: Pompey the Great (adversary), Marc Antony (protégé)

5. George Washington

 Washington was the pivotal, and probably most successful, leader of the American revolutionary forces vying for independence from the British Empire. Though ably assisted by several subordinates (including Benedict Arnold, whose military acumen has been overshadowed by his famous betrayal), Washington proved the uniting force of the Continental Army, leading it to victory at Trenton and Yorktown, and holding the piecemeal forces together in the hard winter at Valley Forge. Being elected President twice without serious opposition seemed the least Americans could do for their war leader

4. Robert E. Lee

Lee, perhaps the most successful commander in history against numerically and materially superior forces, was the gentle genius in charge of the Army of Northern Virginia and most Confederate forces during the Civil War. He developed a reputation of near omniscience among both enemies and allies, and soundly thrashed Union forces soundly on numerous occasions. His losses, few as they were, were generally more devastating to his opponents than himself, and Ulysses S. Grant, the only general to successfully corner Lee, was forced to adopt a strategy of attrition, rather than any attempt to outfight Lee.

3. Salah ad Din

Saladin, as he is known in our language, was the most outstanding leader of the Crusades, hampering the fledgling crusader states and European invasions with equal aplomb. Known for his calm and rationality, his lack of fanaticism, and his respect for his opponents, he conquered Syria, Egypt, and most of modern day Israel steadily and without great difficulty. He was enormously respected by nearly all of his rivals, and maintained an epistolary friendship with Richard the Lionheart, sending him gifts, horses, and his own physician.

2. Hannibal Barca

The most feared opponent Rome ever faced, this Carthaginian general was raised to the task of defeating the Romans from early childhood by his father, Hasdrubal. Hannibal abandoned previous Carthaginian tactics of passive naval superiority, and marched a force on elephants over the Italian Alps. Defeating the Romans at nearly every battle he fought, he made a Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus, famous merely for being able to delay Hannibal’s advance without enormous loss of life (Fabius was granted the title “Cunctator”, or delayer, by the Roman senate). At Cannae, Hannibal’s forces, cobbled together and suffering from losses, routed an enormous Roman army, killing or capturing upwards of fifty thousand enemies. Eventually defeated by Scipio Africanus and deserted by his government, he remained a scourge the Romans invoked to justify razing Carthage.

1. Napoleon Bonaparte

Born a Corsican, Napoleon became by far the most able general of the modern age, rising from obscurity during the Revolution to Consul and Emperor of the French Empire which spanned from Madrid to Moscow and from Oslo to Cairo. Originally an artilleryman, he led campaigns that conquered the Italian States, Austria, Egypt, Prussia, Spain, the Netherlands, Swedish Pomerania, parts of the Caribbean, and large swathes of Russia. Leading brilliant campaigns, using concentrated force in lightning strikes on the field, developing independent and complete army corps (a system still modeled today), installing puppet rulers, conscripting troops from each nation he subdued, and inspiring a host of marshals who were all able tacticians themselves (Murat, Massena, Bernadotte, Ney, and many others), Napoleon revolutionized warfare. No less than four international alliances of powers were required to bring his empire to its knees, and without the simultaneous pressure or Russian winter, British naval domination, Spanish guerillas, and Wellington’s stolid and unbreakable Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese Army, very likely Bonaparte would have sat astride the his European conquests for years to come.

Sadly, this list cannot be exhaustive; our knowledge comes to us through dubious historians, and a mythos that may deny some great leaders their due. Notables who missed the top ten by a hair: Alexander the Great, who conquered most of Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, and large parts of India in a single sweeping campaign, before dying in tears that “there were no more worlds to conquer”; Genghis Khan, whose horde took most of China and Russia; Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, who took Western Europe in the late Dark Ages, defeating native tribes, isolated kingdoms, and Moorish conquerors alike; and of course, contemporaries and rivals of those in the top ten. Wellington, Jackson, Pericles, Leonidas, Grant, Pompey, Garibaldi, and Tokugawa all played their roles, and should not be underestimated lightly. But the ten we have inscribed are perhaps the most iconic, representative, and beloved (or feared) of conquerors, a breed of men that knew the direst times of human history, and thrived in them. We shall not see their like again.

facts you need to know

• The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
• The military salute originated during the medieval times. Knights in armor used to raise their visors to reveal their identity, and the motion later evolved into the modern-day salute.
• The Mills Brothers have recorded the most songs of any artist: about 2,250.
• The minarets ofthe Taj Mahal in India are angled at 88 degrees outwards so that they would not collapse into the structure should an earthquake occur. Read more after the break...

• The minimum number of darts that need to be thrown to complete a single in, double out game of 501 is nine.
• The Miss America Contest was created in Atlantic City in 1921 with the purpose of extending the tourist season beyond Labor Day.
• The model of King Kong used in the original movie was only 18 inches tall.
• The modern Olympic Games were held in the first time in 1896 at Athens and were then followed by the 1900 Paris games. The winter games were added in 1924.
• The mola mola or ocean sunfish lays up to 5,000,000 eggs at one time.
• The Mona Lisa, by daVinci, is 2'6" by 1'9".
• The Mona-Lisa, now hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris, is valued today at $100,000,000.
• The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.
• The Montreal Canadians of the mid-1950s are the only team to win five straight Stanley Cup championships.
• The Monty Python movie "The Life of Brian" was banned in Scotland.
• The moon actually has mirrors on it. They were left there by astronauts who wanted to bounce laser beams off them, so that the distance to the moon can be measured.
• The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminum.
• The most collect calls are made on father's day.
• The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest, Type A-H, has been found in less than a dozen people since the type was discovered.
• The most common disease in the world is tooth - decay.
• The most common injury in bowling is a sore thumb.
• The most common street name in the United States is Second Street. First Street isn't first because many times the designation is replaced with the name Main Street.
• The most expensive book or manuscript ever sold at an auction was The Codex Hammer, a notebook belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. It sold for $30.8 million.
• The most expensive movie memorabilia ever sold at an auction was Clark Gable's Academy Award for It Happened One Night. It sold for$607,500 on December 15, 1996.
• The most expensive painting ever sold at auction was Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh. On May 15, 1990, Ryoei Saito paid $75 million for it. He followed up that spending spree by paying the second-highest price ever, $71 million for Au Moulin de la Galette by PierreAuguste Renoir, just two days later.
• The most frequently seen birds at feeders across North America last winter were the Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch and American goldfinch, along with downy woodpeckers, blue jays, mourning doves, black-capped chickadees, house sparrows, northern cardinals and european starlings. 
• The most searched thing on yahoo.com every year is p0rn.
• The most snow accumulation in a one-day period was 75.8 inches at Silver Lake, Colorado, in April 1921.
• The most used line in the movies is "Lets get out of here."
• The most widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the goatherder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the leaves and berries of a coffee shrub. And, of course, he had to try them!
• The most widely culticated fruit in the world is the Apple.The second is the Pear.
• The motto for the Olympic Games is Citius Altius Fortius. Translated, it means Faster Higher Stronger.
• The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
• The movie As Good As It Gets is called Mr. Cat Poop in China.
• The movie Quo Vadis had 30,000 extras.
• The Museum of Modern Art in New York City hung Matisse's 'Le Bateau' upside-down for 47 days before an art student noticed the error.
• The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
• The nail of our middle finger grows the fastest and the nail of our thumb grows slowest.
• The name "Uncle Sam" for the U.S. came from a person known as Uncle Sam Wilson of Troy, NY, who supplied food for the U.S. army in the war of 1812.
• The name for Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator Frank Baum looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z.
• The name for the middle part of the nose (the part that separates the nostrils) is called a chaffanu.
• The name 'Intel' stems from the company's former name, 'Integrated Electronics'.
• The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
• The name of the dog from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is Max.
• The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
• The name of the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on December 17, 1903, was Bird of Prey.
• The name of the Russian space station, Mir, means "peace."
• The name Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch dialect name for Saint Nicholas Sint Klass.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan". There was never a recorded Wendy before.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book 'Peter Pan'. It came from the author's friends, whom he called his "fwendy" (friend)
• The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before it.
• The nation of Monaco on the French Riviera, is smaller than Central Park in New York. Monaco is 370 acres and Central Park is 840 acres.
• The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
• The national dish of Scotland, haggis, is made of the heart, liver, lungs and small intestines of a calf. It's then boiled in the stomach of the animal, and seasoned with salt, pepper and onions. Oh, and don't forget to add the suet and oatmeal.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in 1978 that it would alternate men's and women's names in the naming of hurricanes. It was seen as an attempt at fair play. Hurricanes had been named for women for years, until NOAA succumbed to pressure from women's groups who were demanding that Atlantic storms be given unisex names.
• The national sport of Nauru, a small Pacific island, is lassoing flying birds.
• The Navy SEALs were formed in 1962.
• The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.
• The nearest relative of the hippopotamus is the common pig.
• The Netherlands is the lowest country in the world. An estimated 40% of its land is below sea level.
• The New York City Chamber of Commerce is the oldest chamber of commerce in the United States. King George III granted a royal charter for it in 1770.
• The New York phone book had 22 Hitlers listed before World War II .. and none after.
• The New York Yankees have won the most champoinships (26 times) in their respected sport (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL) for any professional sports team.
• The Nile catfish swim upside down.
• The number 111,111,111 multiplied by itself will result in the number 12,345,678,987,654,321.
• The number 2,520 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 without having a fractional leftover.
• The number 37 will wholly divide (no decimals) into 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 777, 888, and 999.
• The number of atoms in a pound of iron is nearly five trillion trillion: 4,891,500,000,000,000,000,000,000.
• The number of cricket chirps you count in a fifteen-second span, plus 37, will tell you the approximate current air temperature.
• The number of possible ways of playing just the first four moves on each side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
• The number of times a drowning person will rise to the surface depends on how much air is in his lungs. He could rise once, twice, or five times. Or not at all. Obese people will stay afloat longer than skinny people because fat contains air molecules.
• The number of triplets born in the US in 1994 (4,594) was more than triple the number born in 1971 (1,034), an increase attributed to older age of the mothers and the use of fertility-enhancing drugs and techniques.
• The number of VCRs in the United States grew from 52,565,000 in 1987 to 86,825,000 in 1997, a 39.5% increase.
• The numbers "172" can be found on the back of a US $5 bill, in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln memorial.
• The numbers 111 222 333 444 555 666 777 888 999 are all multiples of 37.
• The numbers on opposite sides of a die always add up to seven.
• The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosy is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosy..."), these sores would smell very badly so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores ("...a pocket full of posies..."), People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!")
• The Oblivion ride at Alton Towers has a G-force of 5. Thats higher than the G-force of an average NASA take-off!
• The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.
• The odds against a royal flush in poker are exactly 649,739 to 1.
• The odds of being born male are about 51.2%, according to census.
• The official definition of a desert is any land that where more water evaporates than is acquired through precipitation.
• The official name of the St. Louis Gateway Arch is "The Jefferson National Expansion Monument." The Gateway Arch looks taller than it is wider, but it is exactly 630 feet by 630 feet.
• The official sport for the State of Maryland is jousting.
• The official state song of Georgia since 1922 has been "Georgia on My Mind".
• The Ohio river forms at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela.
• The oiuja board was invented by Isaac and William Fuld, and was patented July 1, 1892.
• The oldest "cricket" match was played between the USA and Canada in 1844.
• The oldest continuous comic strip still in existence is The Katzenjammer Kids. It first appeared in newspapers in 1897.
• The oldest exposed surface on earth is New Zealand's south island.
• The oldest goldfish lived for 14,795 days.
• The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood, but a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, dated to be aged 4,600 years old.
• The oldest man-made building of any kind still existing is the central edifice of the 4,600-year-old mastaba (a tomb for kings) built at Sakkara, Egypt. It was created to honor King Zoser, the first ruler of the Third Dynasty.
• The oldest musical instrument is probably the flute. It's been discovered that primitive cave dwellers made an instrument from bamboo or some other small hollow wood.
• The oldest person to live was Jeanne Louise Calment, she lived for a whopping 122 years until she died of sm0king related complications. Don't Sm0ke! 
• The oldest recorded document on paper made from fibrous material was a deed of King Roger of Sicily, in the year 1102.
• The oldest tennis court in the world is the one built at Hampton Court in 1530 for Henry VIII.
• The oldest works of art are pictures of animals found in caves in Spain and France. They have been dates as far back as 18,000 years ago.
• The olive branch in the eagle's right talon has 13 leaves.
• The Olympic Games were held in St. Louis, MO. In 1904, the first time that the games were held in the United States. 
• The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service.
• The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"!
• The only animals that can naturally sleep on their backs are humans. No other animal actually does--apes usually sleep sitting up and leaning on something.
• The only big cat that doesn't roar is a Jaguar.
• The only bird that can fly backwards is the hummingbird.
• The only bird that cannot fly is the penguin.
• The only bone in the human body not connected to another is the hyoid, a V-shaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the voice box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles.
• The only bone not broken so far during any ski accident is one located in the inner ear.
• The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
• The only countries in the world with one syllable in their names are Chad, France, Greece, and Spain.
• The only difference between brown eyes and every other colored eyes is that brown eyes have more pigment.
• The only dog to ever appear in a Shakespearean play was Crab in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
• The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
• The only father and son to hit back-to-back home runs in a major league baseball game: Ken Griffey, Jr., and his father, Ken Griffey, Sr., both of the Seattle Mariners in a game against the California Angels on September 14th, 1990.
• The only food cockroaches won't eat are cucumbers.
• The only jointless bone in your body is the hyoid bone in your throat.
• The only loss Packers' coach Vince Lombardi ever suffered in the postseason was to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-13, in the 1960 NFL championship game.
• The only member of the British House of Commons who is not allowed to speak is the man called the Speaker of the House.
• The only MLB team to have both its city's name and its team name in a foreign language is the San Diego Padres.
• The only mobile national monuments in the United States are the cable cars in San Francisco.
• The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the "The Pieta," completed in 1500.
• The only painting by Leonardo da Vinci on permanent display in the United States hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. It's a portrait of Ginevra di Benci, the wife of a politician in Florence.
• The only president buried in Washington, D.C. proper: Woodrow Wilson, who was laid to rest in the National Cathedral.
• The only president buried on the grounds of a state capitol: James Polk in Nashville, Tenn.
• The only President in office to weigh less than 100 pounds was James Madison.
• The only President to be head of a labor union was Ronald Reagan.
• The only presidents buried together: John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams are in a basement crypt in Quincy, Mass.
• The only real person to be a PEZ head was Betsy Ross.
• The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of alcohol.
• The only rock that floats in water is pumice.
• The only state allowed to fly its flag at the same height as the U.S. flag is Texas.
• The only three non-Presidents pictured on U.S. paper money are: Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill, Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill, and Salmon Chase on the $10,000 bill.
• The only time the human population declined was in the years following 1347, the start of the epidemic of the plague 'Black Death' in Europe.(I dont know these are really true or not, i got this mail in my Mail Box, Just enjoy)