Great unknown Generals in History

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deo

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We have a thread about the Greatest General in history, the obvious choices are Hannibal, Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander etc. etc. So, lets talk about Generals that are rather unknown, generals that have archived something great but who didn't have much attention.

I'll add one later...
 
deo said:
We have a thread about the Greatest General in history, the obvious choices are Hannibal, Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander etc. etc. So, lets talk about Generals that are rather unknown, generals that have archived something great but who didn't have much attention.

I'll add one later...
Click to expand...

Does Charles XII of Sweden count... He lost the war, was reckless but he seemed a rather good general. Sorta reminds me of Alexander in the fact that his recklessness got him terribly injured.
 
Alexander Suvarov.

He's almost unknown outside of Russia. He served under 3 tsars & led armies through numerous wars & campaigns all over Europe & western Asia. IIRC, he:

-Conquered Crimea from the Turks.
-Put down a massive peasant revolt in Poland.
-Fought the French in a brutal campaign in the Swiss Alps.
-Helped Catherine the Great overthrow her husband.

...among other accomplishments.

I wrote a term paper on him for a Russian history course in college after stumbling upon an English translation of an old Russian biography of him. Fascinating character.
 
Maimonides said:
Alexander Suvarov.

He's almost unknown outside of Russia. He served under 3 tsars & led armies through numerous wars & campaigns all over Europe & western Asia. IIRC, he:

-Conquered Crimea from the Turks.
-Put down a massive peasant revolt in Poland.
-Fought the French in a brutal campaign in the Swiss Alps.
-Helped Catherine the Great overthrow her husband.

...among other accomplishments.

I wrote a term paper on him for a Russian history course in college after stumbling upon an English translation of an old Russian biography of him. Fascinating character.
Click to expand...

Never heard of him... though, I was educated outside of Russia.

Can we name Admirals as well... Cause if we can I nominate Horatio Nelson. He won the Battle of Trafalgar and was Lord on the Nile.
 
August Von Mackensen, simply for having the most pimpin hat in history. Also a rather good commander iirc.

 
I think Pompey's reputation as the loser to Caesar is quite unfortunate; he was victorious in everything he did up to that point. He really doesn't get the credit he deserves.
 
Maimonides said:
Nelson is faaaar from unknown.
Click to expand...

True... but most people I know tend to veer off towards Napoleon. Nelson was magnificant but he was hid in Napoleon's shadow.
 
civverguy said:
But Nelson was the main reason the British beat Napoleon.
Click to expand...

Not exactly, Nelson was the reason Britian was saved from a Cross-Channel Invasion, I believe the Duke of Wellington was the reason Napoleon was beaten... Though, I see Russia as the decisive point. It brought all of Europe's moral up and the massive loss of Cavalry certainly wounded Napoleon.
 
Does Charles XII of Sweden count... He lost the war, was reckless but he seemed a rather good general.
Click to expand...

Come on... only reason he occiationally won battles was that he was insane, completely unconventional. It worked for a while, longer than would be expected, but in the end he lost everything and because of him Sweden was degraded from a great power to the small/medium power it is today.
 
Nathaniel Greene was very successful frustrating the British in the southern colonies in the American Revolution.
 
Winfield Scott and George Thomas are drastically underrated, but in American History, I would say Count Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid who fought on the southern frontier during the American Revolutionary war, capturing Natchez, Baton Rouge, Mobile and Pensacola, giving the control of the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico to the Spanish. (The British owned Florida for at the time.) Gálvez was well-known at the time--the City of Galveston is named for him--but you can read accounts of the Revolutionary War that don't mention him at all.
 
warpus said:
Józef Klemens Piłsudski, who defeated the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw and likely saved Europe from the Bolsheviks.
Click to expand...

Good point. I've been wondering for a few years at the importance of this battle. It may have been one of the most important of the 20th century - a soviet victory might have led to the fall of Poland and intervention in Germany, placing the communists in power - WW2 would have been between two very different blocks.
 
innonimatu said:
Good point. I've been wondering for a few years at the importance of this battle. It may have been one of the most important of the 20th century - a soviet victory might have led to the fall of Poland and intervention in Germany, placing the communists in power - WW2 would have been between two very different blocks.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that the Bolsheviks were determined to continue on onto Paris and perhaps even London.
 
BEHIND_THE_MASK said:
Can we name Admirals as well... Cause if we can I nominate Horatio Nelson. He won the Battle of Trafalgar and was Lord on the Nile.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:...ster_-_Trafalgar_Square_-_London_-_240404.jpg

Hardly unknown. A 185 foot high statue in the centremost square of one of the most famed cities on earth is hardly a hiddern hero. Its one of the most iconic statues on earth man. After David and Lady Liberty Nelson's statue probably pips Christ the Redemer as the third most famed statue on earth.

cthom said:
General Charles James Napier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_James_Napier
Click to expand...

Also has a statue in Trafalgar Square, even if his star has wained somewhat since it was errected.
 
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