In our age of modernized, mechanized warfare, where decisions are made by civilians, officers far removed from any battle line, congressional committees, and unknown military strategists in committees, the military is a faceless thing. In the past six decades, the idea of mass armies fighting has been considered a relic of the past, and war is often seen as a kind of endemic condition rather than a series of events.
But once upon a time, responsibility and consequences were not so common. Great strategical, tactical, and logistical intelligence gave immediate and complete control over vast armies, and these armies were won or defeated by the skill of one man. In our attempt to study the great generals of history we must limit ourselves, or at least agree to general terms.
10. Attila the Hun
The leader of the Hun Empire gathered a huge force consisting of all the tribes and nations traditionally considered as provincial barbarians – Huns, Goths. , the Ostrogoths, the Vandals, and many others and pretty much conquered mainland Europe. In the template of other “barbarian” conquerors who would come after him, such as Genghis Khan, he showed the lie of his supposed superiority of the West; and when your enemies call you “the scourge of God,” you may suppose that you have proved yourself a respectable menace.
9. Frederick the Great
Frederick II of Prussia was a student of modern warfare and then its guiding voice in the late 18th century. He modernized the military of the separate pseudo-German kingdom and waged constant wars against Austria, then the ruling power of the Holy Roman Empire. Known both for his books and treatises on war, as well as for personally leading troops into battle (he had six horses shot from under), Frederick was a force to be reckoned with.
8. George S. Patton
The most controversial figure of the Allied forces in World War II, Patton himself believed that he was reincarnated from older warriors, carrying their courage and experience into battle. A promising early career helping to hunt down Pershing’s Pancho Villa landed Patton in the Armored Corps, where he became Eisenhower’s mentor (who later rose above him). In World War II, he took advantage of the maneuverability of German armored units, happily using German blitzkrieg against them to outmaneuver German lines and gain large amounts of ground in a short amount of time. His misadventures, including multiple massacres by troops under his command and Patton’s shooting of a supposedly cowardly soldier in a field hospital, led to his downfall, but more than anything else, he led the Allies to victory in Europe.
7. Joan of Arc
The Maid of Orléans is the only commander on this list who has had to share a command even in the best moments of victory, but since she’s also the only female, she feels an exception is in order. A French peasant girl who claimed to have received visions from God went to see King Charles II of France, who had lost the war to the British. Although skepticism initially hindered him, Joan effected several important French victories, personally leading charges and inspiring renewed enthusiasm among the French troops. Tried and executed by an English court for witchcraft, he was later acquitted, honored and made patron of France.
6. Julius Caesar
The famous Roman consul, perhaps the most capable of the late Republic’s military leaders, fought with his co-consul Pompey for glory in subduing the territory to Rome’s expansionist will. His campaign against the Gauls is still to be read in many military academies, and his defeat of Pompey almost gave him a solidly republican Roman kingdom. The political and personal treachery that ended his life and enabled his nephew Octavian to become emperor is legendary, but Caesar’s success rested more on the loyalty and victory of his armies than on political maneuvering.
5. George Washington
Washington was the main and probably the most successful leader of the American revolutionary forces fighting for independence from the British Empire. Although several of his subordinates (including Benedict Arnold, whose military prowess overshadowed his famous treason), Washington proved the unifying force of the Continental Army, leading it to victory at Trenton and Yorktown and holding together fragmented forces. A harsh winter at Valley Forge. Being elected president twice without serious opposition seemed like the least Americans could do for a wartime leader
4. Robert E. Lee
Perhaps the most successful commander in history against numerically and materially superior forces, Lee was the mild-mannered genius in charge of the Army of Northern Virginia and most of the Confederate forces during the Civil War. He gained a reputation as omniscient among enemies and allies alike, and on many occasions he soundly routed Union forces. His losses, though few, were generally more devastating to his opponents than to 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 engage Lee.
3. Salah ad Din
Saladin, as he is known in our language, was the most prominent leader of the Crusades, thwarting the nascent Crusader states and the invasions of Europe in equal measure. Known for his calmness and rationality, lack of fanaticism, and respect for his opponents, he conquered Syria, Egypt, and much of modern Israel steadily and without great difficulty. He was held in high esteem by almost all his rivals, and maintained an epistolary friendship with Richard the Lionheart, sending him gifts, horses, and his own physician.
2. Hannibal Barca
The most formidable rival Rome had ever faced, this Carthaginian general had been raised from early childhood by his father Hasdrubal to defeat the Romans. Hannibal abandoned the earlier Carthaginian tactic of passive naval superiority and marched a force on elephants across the Italian Alps. Defeating the Romans in almost every battle he fought, he made a famous Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus, because he was able to delay Hannibal’s advance without great loss of life (Fabius was given the title “Cuntator” or delayer by the Romans. The senate). Somewhere in Cannae. Hannibal’s forces, which were massed and suffering losses, routed the massive Roman army, killing or capturing more than fifty thousand of the enemy. Eventually defeated by Scipio Africanus and abandoned by his government, he remained a scourge invoked by the Romans to justify the destruction of Carthage.
1. Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon, a Corsican, rose from obscurity during the Revolution to the positions of Consul and Emperor of the French Empire, which stretched from Madrid to Moscow and from Oslo to Cairo, to become the most accomplished general of modern times. Lead brilliant campaigns, use concentrated power to strike lightning on the field, develop independent and complete army corps (this system is still modeled), install puppet rulers, collect troops from every nation he subjugates, and inspire many omnipotent marshals Tactics themselves (Murat, Massena, Bernadotte, Ney and many others), Napoleon revolutionized warfare. It required at least four international alliances of power to bring his empire to its knees, and without simultaneous pressure or the Russian winter, British naval supremacy, Spanish guerillas, and Wellington’s steadfast and indomitable Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese Army, Bonaparte likely would have done so. sat on his European conquests for years to come.
Unfortunately, this list cannot be complete; our knowledge comes to us through questionable historians and a myth that may discredit some great leaders. Notables narrowly missing the top ten: Alexander the Great, who conquered large swathes of Southeast Europe, Asia Minor, and India with a single sweep before dying in tears of “no more worlds left to conquer”; Genghis Khan, whose army captured most of China and Russia; Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, who conquered Western Europe at the end of the Dark Ages, defeating indigenous tribes, isolated kingdoms and also Moorish conquerors; and, of course, the contemporaries and competitors of the top ten. Wellington, Jackson, Pericles, Leonidas, Grant, Pompey, Garibaldi and Tokugawa all played their part and they are not to be underestimated. But the ten we’ve mentioned are perhaps the most iconic, representative, and beloved (or feared) of the conquerors who knew and thrived in the most difficult periods of human history. We will never see their like again.
