Who is the greatest American military hero?
In our ranking George Washington is America's greatest military hero: he held the Continental Army together for eight years and won independence at Yorktown in 1781. George S. Patton ties him on points and goes second, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Audie Murphy and Alvin York complete the top five of the fifteen.
America's military heroes come in two kinds: commanders who won the country's wars and soldiers whose acts of courage under fire became legend. This list ranks fifteen of them, from John Paul Jones off the English coast in 1779 to Chesty Puller at the Chosin Reservoir in 1950, one person each, judged only on service in arms for the United States or the Continental forces before it. The fifteen are ranked by score for recognition, the deed or record, consequence, memory and certainty, not by date, so a general and a private are weighed on the same scale; see how we chose them.1
1 George Washington, 1732 to 1799
- Lived
- 1732 to 1799
- Served
- Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War; commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, 1775 to 1783
- Defining deed
- Held the army together for eight years and trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown, 19 October 1781
- Record
- Won Boston, Trenton, Princeton and Yorktown; lost Long Island, Brandywine and Germantown
- Legacy
- Returned his commission to Congress in 1783; first President; the capital bears his name
George Washington, a Virginia planter, made his name at the Monongahela in 1755, when French and Native American forces cut down most of the British officers and he won acclaim for his courage under fire and for steadying the retreat. In June 1775 the Second Continental Congress created the Continental Army and chose him to command it.2
He drove the British out of Boston in March 1776, and Congress voted him a gold medal for it. Then he lost more battles than he won, as the Miller Center puts it: New York and Long Island in 1776, Brandywine and Germantown in 1777, when the British took Philadelphia. By mid-December 1776 his army was down to barely 3,000 men, and he resolved to keep it alive at any cost. On Christmas night he crossed the Delaware and beat the Hessians at Trenton, then the British at Princeton, wins that revived a disheartened people. In 1781 he and Rochambeau marched south while de Grasse's French fleet held the Chesapeake, and on 19 October Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown: a third of all British forces in North America, the National Park Service notes. The American Battlefield Trust counts 19,900 allied troops there against 9,000 British. In December 1783 he handed his commission back to Congress at Annapolis.3
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, consequence, memory and certainty: without his eight years in command there is no United States, and American Legion readers still ranked him second among all veterans in 2014. Defeats at New York, Brandywine and Germantown hold his record to 3; level with Patton on 46 and on recognition, he is No. 1 because his war created the country.4
2 George S. Patton, 1885 to 1945
- Lived
- 1885 to 1945
- Served
- US Army, 1909 to 1945: tank brigade in France, 1918; Third Army, 1944 to 1945
- Defining deed
- Third Army's dash across France and the relief of Bastogne, 26 December 1944
- Record
- Won in Morocco, Sicily, France and the Ardennes; his Hammelburg raid failed, March 1945
- Legacy
- Named most often (17%) in Gallup's 2000 poll of the greatest US general
George S. Patton, born in California in 1885, graduated from West Point in 1909, rode with Pershing after Pancho Villa in 1916 and set up the Army's tank school in France. Leading his tanks in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, he was badly wounded on its first day in September 1918 and later received the Distinguished Service Cross.5
In World War II he landed in Morocco in November 1942; in Sicily his Seventh Army took Palermo on 22 July 1943 and Messina on 17 August, but slapping two soldiers with combat stress cost him his command. Given the Third Army on 1 August 1944, he broke out of Normandy, cleared Brittany and was across the Meuse within a month. When the Germans struck in the Ardennes, his 4th Armored Division broke through to encircled Bastogne on 26 December. By the National WWII Museum's count, the Third Army traveled farther than any other army in Europe and captured over 1,250,000 prisoners. In March 1945 he sent Task Force Baum, 314 men, more than 50 miles behind German lines to free the prison camp at Hammelburg, where his son-in-law was believed to be held; 32 were killed and only 35 made it back.6
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: in Gallup's 2000 poll Americans named him most often among generals, and American Legion readers put him fifth among veterans in 2014. The costly Hammelburg raid costs him a point on record, a close call since it was a raid, not a lost battle; his army was one of several that beat Germany, so consequence is 4; level with Washington on 46 and on recognition, he goes second on consequence.7
3 Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890 to 1969
- Lived
- 1890 to 1969
- Served
- US Army from 1915; Allied commander in North Africa, 1942 to 1943; Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, 1943 to 1945
- Defining deed
- Gave the order for D-Day, 6 June 1944
- Record
- Won North Africa, Sicily, Normandy and the war in the west; Kasserine Pass was lost under his command, 1943
- Legacy
- General of the Army, December 1944; President, 1953 to 1961
Dwight D. Eisenhower, born in Denison, Texas, in 1890, graduated from West Point in 1915 and spent World War I with the Tank Corps at camps in the United States, not at the front in France. In June 1942 he took command in Europe, and that November he led the Allied landings in North Africa.8
His first campaign went badly. In February 1943 the Germans hit the inexperienced Americans at Kasserine Pass and forced them back; Eisenhower fired the field commander, Lloyd Fredendall, and brought in Patton, and on 13 May the German and Italian forces in North Africa surrendered. Named Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in December 1943, he gave the final order for the invasion of France in the early hours of 5 June 1944, gambling on a forecast break in the storm. Hours later he wrote a note to be released if it failed, taking all the blame himself, and dated it July 5. On 6 June the outcome rested, as the National Park Service puts it, on over 160,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen. He was promoted to five-star General of the Army on 20 December 1944, and the German surrender followed in May 1945. The Army awarded him its Distinguished Service Medal five times.9
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, consequence and certainty: he led the coalition that freed western Europe. He commanded from headquarters, not in battle, and Kasserine was lost on his watch, so record is 3; Americans remember him as much as a president as a soldier, so memory is 4, and level with Murphy on 44 and on recognition, he goes ahead on consequence.
4 Audie Murphy, 1925 to 1971
- Lived
- 1925 to 1971 (official records give 1924)
- Served
- US Army, 1942 to 1945: Company B, 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division
- Defining deed
- Held off six tanks and waves of infantry from a burning tank destroyer near Holtzwihr, 26 January 1945
- Record
- Eight campaigns, two amphibious assaults, wounded three times; killed or wounded about 50 Germans at Holtzwihr
- Legacy
- Played himself in To Hell and Back (1955); first in the American Legion's 2014 poll of beloved veterans
Audie Murphy grew up on a sharecropper's farm in Hunt County, Texas, and left school after the fifth grade to pick cotton. He enlisted in June 1942. The Handbook of Texas gives his birth as June 1924, the official date, but the Audie Murphy Research Foundation says he was born in 1925 and falsified his birth certificate to enlist at 17, as Arlington National Cemetery also implies.10
He fought in Sicily, Italy and southern France with the 3rd Infantry Division and rose from private to second lieutenant in command of Company B. On 26 January 1945, near Holtzwihr in eastern France, six German tanks and waves of infantry came at the company. He sent his men back to the woods, called down artillery by telephone, then climbed onto a burning tank destroyer and held the attack off with its .50 caliber machine gun for an hour, alone and wounded in the leg. His citation credits him with killing or wounding about 50 Germans before he led the counterattack that saved the company. Myth vs fact: he is often called the war's most decorated American soldier, but counts differ: 28 medals by Arlington's tally, 33 awards and decorations by the Handbook of Texas, including every American award for valor. He later played himself in To Hell and Back and died in a plane crash in 1971.11
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, the deed, memory and certainty: American Legion readers voted him first among America's most beloved veterans in 2014. One soldier's stand changed no campaign, so consequence is 2; level with Eisenhower on 44 and on recognition, he goes after him on consequence.12
5 Alvin York, 1887 to 1964
- Lived
- 1887 to 1964
- Served
- US Army, drafted 1917: Company G, 328th Infantry, 82nd Division
- Defining deed
- Charged a German machine-gun nest near Chatel-Chehery, 8 October 1918
- Record
- Citation: the nest taken with 4 officers and 128 men (132 prisoners) and several guns
- Legacy
- The film Sergeant York (1941); his comrades' share is still disputed
Alvin York, of Pall Mall, Tennessee, was a crack shot and a hell-raiser until a religious conversion in 1914 brought him into a small church that held war to be wrong. Drafted in 1917, he wrote on his draft card that he did not want to fight; his claim as a conscientious objector was turned down, and his company commander, George Edward Buxton, persuaded him that some wars are just.13
On 8 October 1918, in the Meuse-Argonne, 17 men under Sergeant Bernard Early were sent to take a railroad near Chatel-Chehery, strayed behind German lines and surprised a large German force, until machine gunners on the hill above told the prisoners to lie down and fired on the patrol. With Early badly wounded, Corporal York was ordered to silence the guns. His Medal of Honor citation says that, leading seven men, he charged the machine-gun nest, which was taken together with 4 officers and 128 men and several guns. The 1941 film Sergeant York, which won Gary Cooper the Oscar, made him a household name. Myth vs fact: York never claimed he acted alone, but the one-man legend stuck; Early and Corporal William Cutting received the Distinguished Service Cross only in 1927, and the patrol's descendants and the historian James Gregory still contest how much of the day was York's.14
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, the deed and memory: the Tennessee Encyclopedia calls him the greatest common soldier of World War I. The other survivors' share is still argued, so certainty is 4, and one action decided no campaign, so consequence is 2; level with Grant on 43, he goes first on recognition.
6 Ulysses S. Grant, 1822 to 1885
- Lived
- 1822 to 1885
- Served
- Mexican War, 1846 to 1848; Union army, 1861 to 1865; general-in-chief from March 1864
- Defining deed
- Took Vicksburg, 4 July 1863, and received Lee's surrender at Appomattox, 9 April 1865
- Record
- Won Forts Henry and Donelson, Vicksburg, Chattanooga and Appomattox; surprised at Shiloh, beaten at Cold Harbor
- Legacy
- Saved the Union; President, 1869 to 1877
Born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1822, he graduated 21st of 39 in West Point's class of 1843 and won two citations for gallantry in the Mexican War.15
In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the North's first significant victory, and his demand for unconditional surrender gave him a nickname. Two months later his army was caught by surprise at Shiloh and won only on the second day. In 1863 he besieged Vicksburg, and on 4 July, after 46 days, Pemberton's army of 30,000 surrendered, by the American Battlefield Trust's count; with Gettysburg it turned the war. That autumn he lifted the siege of Chattanooga, and in December Congress voted him a gold medal. Made lieutenant general and general-in-chief in March 1864, he fought Lee from the Wilderness to Petersburg; at Cold Harbor on 3 June he suffered a lopsided defeat, and the Overland Campaign cost him more men than Lee had in his entire army. On 9 April 1865 he trapped Lee near Appomattox Court House and accepted his surrender that afternoon. Myth vs fact: the picture of Grant as a plodding butcher, Encyclopedia Virginia argues, ignores the bold campaigns of maneuver that won Vicksburg and Chattanooga.16
Why it ranks here: Full marks for consequence and certainty: he won the war that saved the Union. The surprise at Shiloh and the defeat at Cold Harbor cost him a point on record, and Americans name him as a hero less often than Washington or Murphy, only 2 percent in Gallup's poll of generals, so recognition is 4; level with York on 43, he goes after him on recognition.17
7 Douglas MacArthur, 1880 to 1964
- Lived
- 1880 to 1964
- Served
- US Army, 1903 to 1951: 42nd Division, 1917 to 1918; Army Chief of Staff, 1930 to 1935; Pacific, 1941 to 1945; Korea, 1950 to 1951
- Defining deed
- The landing at Inchon, 15 September 1950
- Record
- Lost the Philippines, 1942; returned at Leyte, 1944; won at Inchon; driven back when China entered Korea, 1950
- Legacy
- Five-star General of the Army; relieved by Truman, 11 April 1951
The son of a Civil War Medal of Honor hero, Douglas MacArthur graduated first in West Point's class of 1903. With the 42nd "Rainbow" Division in France he won two Distinguished Service Crosses and seven Silver Stars, and from 1930 to 1935 he was the Army's Chief of Staff.18
In the Philippines on 8 December 1941 his air force near Manila was destroyed on the ground, and his army fell back to Bataan and Corregidor. Ordered out to Australia, he promised to return, and he received the Medal of Honor for the defense of the islands; in April 1942 Bataan fell, the largest surrender of an army in American history. He kept his promise, wading ashore at Leyte on 20 October 1944, became a five-star General of the Army and presided over Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945. In Korea he insisted on landing behind enemy lines at Inchon, despite its extreme tides and narrow channel; the Marines took the port on 15 September 1950 and Seoul was soon retaken. He then discounted warnings that China would intervene. In late November hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops drove his armies back, and after he criticized American policy in public, Truman relieved him on 11 April 1951.19
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition and certainty, but the loss of the Philippines in 1942 and the retreat in Korea in 1950 hold his record to 3. His campaigns helped win the Pacific war rather than decide it alone, so consequence is 4, and his clash with Truman still divides how Americans remember him, so memory is 4.
8 Chesty Puller, 1898 to 1971
- Lived
- 1898 to 1971
- Served
- US Marine Corps, 1918 to 1955: Haiti, Nicaragua, China, World War II, Korea
- Defining deed
- Led the 1st Marines in the fight out of the Chosin Reservoir, December 1950
- Record
- Navy Crosses for Nicaragua (two), Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester and Chosin; led the 1st Marines at Peleliu and Inchon
- Legacy
- Retired a lieutenant general; recruits still say "Good night, Chesty"
Lewis Burwell Puller, born in West Point, Virginia, in 1898, left the Virginia Military Institute in 1918 to join the Marines. Cut back to the ranks after the war, he served in Haiti with the new Gendarmerie, regained his commission in 1924 and won his first two Navy Crosses fighting Augusto Sandino's rebels in Nicaragua.20
On Guadalcanal in 1942 his battalion of the 7th Marines held Henderson Field against an overwhelming force of seasoned Japanese troops, his third Navy Cross; the fourth came at Cape Gloucester in January 1944, and he then led the 1st Marine Regiment at Peleliu. In Korea he took the 1st Marines ashore at Inchon on 15 September 1950. That winter, in the fight to break out of the Chosin Reservoir, he earned the Army's Distinguished Service Cross and a fifth Navy Cross, and is quoted as saying: "We're surrounded. That simplifies things." Myth vs fact: the legend that his chest was shot away and replaced with steel is only a legend; the Marine Corps museum says the nickname's origin is unclear, while Encyclopedia Virginia credits his barrel chest. He retired a lieutenant general in 1955 and died in 1971, and Marine recruits still end their day with "Good night, Chesty, wherever you are!"21
Why it ranks here: Full marks for the deed and certainty: Encyclopedia Virginia calls him the most decorated Marine in history, and every cross is on the record. Outside the Corps the name is less known, so recognition is 4, and his battles, however hard fought, decided no war, so consequence is 3.22
9 Chester Nimitz, 1885 to 1966
- Lived
- 1885 to 1966
- Served
- U.S. Navy, 1905 to 1947; commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, 1941 to 1945
- Defining deed
- Set the carrier ambush at Midway, June 1942, on intelligence about Japan’s plan
- Record
- Coral Sea and Midway in 1942, then the offensive across the central Pacific to Japan’s surrender; directed from headquarters, not at sea
- Legacy
- First naval officer with five stars; signed the surrender in Tokyo Bay for the United States; the National Museum of the Pacific War grew from his memorial
Chester Nimitz was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, in 1885 and graduated from Annapolis in 1905, seventh in a class of 114. As a young ensign he ran the destroyer Decatur aground and was court-martialed, and he went on to make his name in submarines. When Japan struck Pearl Harbor he was chief of the Bureau of Navigation; Roosevelt chose him over 28 more senior flag officers, the Pacific War museum notes, and he took over the shattered Pacific Fleet in the last days of December 1941.23
His carriers had survived because they were at sea on 7 December, and he used them at once in raids on the Marshalls, the Gilberts and Wake. In 1942 American code breakers deduced Yamamoto’s plan to take Midway, which let Nimitz set an ambush with his carriers ready and waiting; the battle that opened on 4 June cost Japan four irreplaceable fleet carriers and the Americans one of their three. He ran the war from his headquarters at Pearl Harbor and coordinated the offensive that ended in Japan’s surrender, which he signed aboard the USS Missouri on 2 September 1945. At the peak, the museum counts, he commanded more than two million men and women, 5,000 ships and 20,000 aircraft. In December 1944 he became the first naval officer with five stars, and at his own wish he was buried among his men at Golden Gate National Cemetery.24
Why it ranks here: Midway turned the Pacific war, so full marks for consequence and certainty; he commanded from Pearl Harbor rather than at sea, so record 4, and few Americans outside the Navy know the name, so recognition 3 holds him at 40.
10 Jimmy Doolittle, 1896 to 1993
- Lived
- 1896 to 1993
- Served
- U.S. Army Air Corps and Air Forces; commanded the 12th, 15th and 8th Air Forces in World War II
- Defining deed
- Led 16 B-25 bombers off the USS Hornet to bomb Japan, 18 April 1942
- Record
- The raid hit its targets, but all 16 bombers were lost and the damage was slight; later led air forces over North Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe
- Legacy
- Medal of Honor; four stars in the reserve in 1985; played by Spencer Tracy in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Jimmy Doolittle was a famous flyer before the war: in 1922 he made the first cross-country flight within a single day, and in 1929 he made the first landing flown entirely blind, on instruments. After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt wanted a strike at Japan to lift American morale, and the Navy proposed launching Army bombers from a carrier; Doolittle took charge of the plan and its volunteer crews.25
On 18 April 1942, spotted by a Japanese picket boat, he launched his 16 B-25s from the USS Hornet about 750 miles from Japan, ten hours early and some 250 miles farther out than planned. All sixteen crews reached their targets. Then the fuel ran out: fifteen crews bailed out or ditched over or off China in the dark, and one landed in the Soviet Union. The Japanese captured eight raiders and executed three, and in revenge for Chinese help killed up to 250,000 Chinese, the Air & Space Forces Magazine account and the National WWII Museum both report. Doolittle thought he had failed, with all 16 aircraft gone and little real damage done; instead Roosevelt promoted him to brigadier general and gave him the Medal of Honor. The raid lifted American morale and pushed Japan’s leaders toward the attack on Midway. He went on to command the 12th, 15th and 8th Air Forces.26
Why it ranks here: A Medal of Honor raid that the whole country cheered and that is fully documented, so certainty 5 and recognition 4; all 16 bombers were lost and the damage was slight, so record 4 and consequence 3 hold him at 39.
11 John Paul Jones, 1747 to 1792
- Lived
- 1747 to 1792
- Served
- Continental Navy, 1775 to the end of the war; later a rear admiral in Russian service
- Defining deed
- Took HMS Serapis off Flamborough Head, 23 September 1779, as his own ship sank
- Record
- Raided Whitehaven and took HMS Drake in April 1778; won the Serapis duel, but the convoy it guarded escaped
- Legacy
- Congressional Gold Medal, 1787; laid in the crypt of the Naval Academy chapel in 1913
John Paul was born in Kirkbean, Scotland, in 1747; after killing the ringleader of a mutiny in 1773 he fled to Virginia and added Jones to his name. In December 1775 he joined the new Continental Navy as a first lieutenant.27
In April 1778 he took the sloop Ranger into the Irish Sea, raided Whitehaven, the only American operation of the war on English soil, and off Carrickfergus took the British sloop Drake. On 23 September 1779 his old, rotten Bonhomme Richard met the new 50-gun Serapis guarding a Baltic convoy. Outgunned, Jones lashed his ship to the enemy and fought for some three and a half hours until Captain Pearson struck; the Richard sank, and Jones sailed the captured Serapis to Holland. The convoy escaped, and the historian Jack Warren calls the duel of no military importance. Congress voted him a gold medal in 1787. Myth vs fact: his famous reply, “I have not yet begun to fight!”, was first printed in 1825, in Lieutenant Richard Dale’s account for Henry Sherburne’s book, more than forty years after the battle; Benjamin Rush heard Jones tell it as “we have had but a small fight as yet.” He died in Paris in 1792; his body was found in 1905 and laid in the Naval Academy chapel crypt in 1913.28
Why it ranks here: Full marks for memory as the navy’s first hero, buried at Annapolis, but the duel changed little in the war, so consequence 2, and the famous reply rests on an account printed decades later, so certainty 4; he ties Doss on 38, recognition and consequence are level too, and the tie goes to the older.
12 Desmond Doss, 1919 to 2006
- Lived
- 1919 to 2006
- Served
- U.S. Army, 1942 to 1946; medic, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division, on Guam, Leyte and Okinawa
- Defining deed
- Stayed alone on the Maeda Escarpment, Okinawa, in May 1945 and lowered the wounded down the cliff
- Record
- Bronze Stars on Guam and Leyte, Medal of Honor on Okinawa; never carried a weapon
- Legacy
- First conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor, from Truman on 12 October 1945; the film Hacksaw Ridge
Desmond Doss, born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1919, was a Seventh-day Adventist who would not kill or work on the Sabbath, yet did not seek a deferment when he was drafted in 1942. In training he refused to touch a rifle and was harassed by men of his own unit. As a medic with the 307th Infantry he won Bronze Stars for valor on Guam and Leyte.29
On Okinawa his battalion attacked the Maeda Escarpment, a cliff some 400 feet high. His citation says that fire on the summit caused about 75 casualties and drove the others back, while Doss stayed in the fire-swept area and lowered the stricken one by one on a rope-supported litter down the cliff. He kept going back under fire until he was badly wounded on 21 May. On 12 October 1945 Truman gave him the Medal of Honor; he was the only conscientious objector to receive it in World War II. Myth vs fact: the citation’s 75 counts the men who fell on the summit, not the men he saved. The National WWII Museum and the Associated Press credit him with 75, the Eisenhower Foundation with 75 to 100; Doss himself said it was close to 50, and some historians have put it as high as 120. The film Hacksaw Ridge made him widely known.30
Why it ranks here: A deed far beyond duty by an unarmed man, so record 5, but one medic’s rescues changed no campaign, so consequence 2, the count is an estimate and wide fame came late, so certainty and recognition 4; level with Jones on 38, and on recognition and consequence, he goes second as the younger.
13 Theodore Roosevelt, 1858 to 1919
- Lived
- 1858 to 1919
- Served
- Lieutenant colonel, 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry (the Rough Riders), 1898
- Defining deed
- Led the charge up Kettle Hill on the San Juan Heights, 1 July 1898
- Record
- One victorious charge in a short war, beside regular troops including the Black 9th and 10th Cavalry
- Legacy
- Medal of Honor awarded posthumously by President Clinton, 16 January 2001; the only president to hold it
When war with Spain came in 1898, Theodore Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the Navy, became lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, the Rough Riders, under Colonel Leonard Wood. He counts here only for that service, not for his presidency.31
On 1 July 1898 the Americans attacked the San Juan Heights outside Santiago de Cuba. Roosevelt led a charge up Kettle Hill, his “crowded hour”, and the cavalry then crossed to the northern end of San Juan Hill; the assault cost the Americans some 10 percent casualties before they reached the top. The Black regulars of the 9th and 10th Cavalry fought up Kettle Hill beside the Rough Riders, and in his own book Roosevelt wrote that men of the Ninth “were first up” on its right; yet the same book, published in 1899, disparaged Black soldiers, and the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library calls the popular story of “Roosevelt’s victory” incomplete. Myth vs fact: he did not charge up San Juan Hill itself, as legend and even his citation put it, but up Kettle Hill beside it. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor soon after the battle, but the War Department never acted; Congress authorized it in 2000, and President Clinton presented it posthumously on 16 January 2001. That makes him, as Military Times notes, the only president to receive it.32
Why it ranks here: Every American knows the Rough Rider, so recognition 5, but he counts only for one charge in a short war, so record 3 and consequence 2, and much of the legend comes from his own book, so certainty 4, which leaves him on 37.
14 John Basilone, 1916 to 1945
- Lived
- 1916 to 1945
- Served
- U.S. Army in the Philippines, 1934 to 1938; U.S. Marine Corps, 1940 to 1945, rising to gunnery sergeant
- Defining deed
- Held the line with two machine-gun sections on Guadalcanal, 24 to 25 October 1942
- Record
- Medal of Honor on Guadalcanal; killed on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945 after destroying a blockhouse
- Legacy
- Navy Cross, posthumous; buried at Arlington; the destroyer USS Basilone named for him in 1949
John Basilone, born in Buffalo, New York, in 1916, served two Army enlistments, partly in the Philippines, which gave him the nickname “Manila John”; in 1940 he joined the Marines.33
On the night of 24 to 25 October 1942, in the Lunga area of Guadalcanal, Sergeant Basilone had two sections of heavy machine guns when a Japanese regiment attacked. His citation says one section was knocked out, leaving only two men able to fight; he moved an extra gun into position, repaired another and manned it himself, then fought his way through enemy lines to bring back ammunition, contributing to “the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment.” Arlington credits him with killing at least 38 Japanese soldiers. He came home to a parade and a war bond tour, then asked to go back to the fighting. On 19 February 1945, the first day on Iwo Jima, he worked round a Japanese blockhouse on Red Beach II and destroyed it with grenades and a demolition charge, then guided a trapped tank through a minefield before he was killed near Airfield No. 1. He received the Navy Cross posthumously; the Marine Corps museum and Arlington both describe him as the only enlisted Marine to hold both it and the Medal of Honor, the museum adding “in World War II.” He lies at Arlington, and the Navy named a destroyer for him in 1949.34
Why it ranks here: Two awards for valor under fire, each documented by its citation, so record and certainty 5; one machine-gun section changed no campaign, so consequence 2, and outside the Marine Corps the name is less known, so recognition 3 holds him at 36.
15 Joshua Chamberlain, 1828 to 1914
- Lived
- 1828 to 1914
- Served
- Union Army, 1862 to 1865: 20th Maine Infantry, then brigade commander and brigadier general
- Defining deed
- Held the far left of the Union line on Little Round Top, Gettysburg, 2 July 1863, and charged with the bayonet
- Record
- Repulsed at Marye’s Heights, Fredericksburg; held Little Round Top; wounded six times; received the Confederate surrender of arms at Appomattox
- Legacy
- Medal of Honor, 1893; four terms as governor of Maine; the hero of The Killer Angels and the film Gettysburg
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, born in Brewer, Maine, in 1828, was a professor of languages and rhetoric at Bowdoin College when the Civil War began, and he left it to become lieutenant colonel of the new 20th Maine. The regiment’s first real fight was one of the failed assaults on Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg.35
On 2 July 1863 at Gettysburg he held the far left of the Union line on Little Round Top against Confederate attacks. Low on ammunition, the 20th Maine went forward with the bayonet, drove the attackers off and captured more than 100 of them, securing the Union flank. In 1893 he received the Medal of Honor for “daring heroism and great tenacity” in holding the hill. Wounded six times in the war, gravely at Petersburg in June 1864, he was made a brigadier general, and at Appomattox he received the Confederate surrender of arms and had his men salute the defeated army. Myth vs fact: the novel The Killer Angels and the film Gettysburg made his charge the moment that saved the Union, but who started it is still debated: Chamberlain reported days later that he ordered it, while his officer Ellis Spear, writing fifty years on, credited an advance by Lieutenant Holman Melcher’s men to reach their wounded, which Brian Swartz finds at odds with Spear’s 1863 letter.36
Why it ranks here: A Medal of Honor stand at the battle Americans know best, but how decisive his charge was, and who ordered it, is still disputed, so certainty 4, and recognition 3; he ties Dorie Miller on 35, level on recognition and consequence as well, and goes in as the older.
How we chose and ranked these heroes
We counted one person who served the United States, or the Continental forces before it, in arms and is remembered as a hero for what he or she did in war. That can be an act of courage under fire, the kind the Medal of Honor rewards, or a war's decisive campaigns led as commander, so Audie Murphy and George Washington are judged on the same five criteria. Presidents count only for their military service: Theodore Roosevelt for his charge on the San Juan Heights, Eisenhower for the war in Europe. Confederate officers are out, because this page counts heroism in the service of the United States, and Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson commanded against it. Every entry is one person judged on what that person did, so units such as the Tuskegee Airmen are left to their own articles. Generals judged on generalship alone are ranked in the greatest American commanders, decorations in the most decorated soldiers in history, and the battles in the greatest battles in American history.37 › Battle of San Juan Hill, 1898
We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of whom Americans remember as their greatest military heroes; the deed or record, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if Americans know the name as a war hero far beyond military history and it appears on most published lists and polls of American military heroes, 1 if only specialists know it.
- The deed or record (×2). 5 for an act of courage under fire far beyond duty, recognized with the nation's highest awards, or for a commander who won a war's decisive campaigns in the field without a serious defeat; a serious defeat costs a commander the same point every time; 1 if the fame rests on something other than what the person did in war.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if what the person did decided a war or changed the nation, or opened the armed forces to people barred from them, 1 if it changed nothing beyond one fight.
- Memory (×2). 5 if the person lives on in films, monuments, ship and base names and what Americans learn at school, 1 if forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the deed or campaigns are documented by official citations, unit records and independent witnesses, 1 if they rest on the hero's own account or on later legend.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better known hero, then to the one whose deeds changed more, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why Ulysses S. Grant, who won the Civil War and saved the Union, is only sixth: Americans name him as a hero less often than Washington, Murphy or York, and the surprise at Shiloh and the defeat at Cold Harbor cost him a point on record, as defeats cost every commander here.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | The deed or record ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Washington | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 2 | George S. Patton | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 3 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 44 |
| 4 | Audie Murphy | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 44 |
| 5 | Alvin York | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 43 |
| 6 | Ulysses S. Grant | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 43 |
| 7 | Douglas MacArthur | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 42 |
| 8 | Chesty Puller | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 9 | Chester Nimitz | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 40 |
| 10 | Jimmy Doolittle | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 39 |
| 11 | John Paul Jones | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 38 |
| 12 | Desmond Doss | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 38 |
| 13 | Theodore Roosevelt | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 37 |
| 14 | John Basilone | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 36 |
| 15 | Joshua Chamberlain | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 35 |
Close calls
Four heroes came close and did not make the fifteen:
Dorie Miller, 1919 to 1943. A mess attendant on the West Virginia at Pearl Harbor, he helped move his dying captain and fired a machine gun he barely knew how to use: the first Black sailor to receive the Navy Cross. Claims that he downed aircraft are unconfirmed, so certainty 4. In January 2020 the Navy named a future carrier, CVN-81, for him; in August 2026 KWTX, citing CNN, reported that it was weighing a new name. He ties Chamberlain on 35 and loses only on age.38
Eddie Rickenbacker, 1890 to 1973. America’s “ace of aces” of World War I, with 26 victories (22 aircraft and four balloons), seven Distinguished Service Crosses by Military Times’ count, and a Medal of Honor for attacking seven German planes near Billy, France, on 25 September 1918. Air duels on the Western Front changed little, so consequence 2, and his name has faded, so recognition and memory 3.39
Dick Winters, 1918 to 2011. On D-Day he led about a dozen paratroopers of Easy Company against a battery of four 105 mm guns at Brécourt Manor, an attack still taught at West Point, and received the Distinguished Service Cross. His fame comes almost entirely from Band of Brothers, and the action changed little, so consequence 2.40
Henry Johnson, c. 1892 to 1929. On 15 May 1918, on sentry duty with the 369th Infantry, the Harlem Hellfighters, he fought off a German raiding party of at least twelve, wounded 21 times, and rescued a comrade with only a knife; France gave him the Croix de Guerre. He died destitute in 1929 and received the Medal of Honor only in 2015, so recognition 2.41
Why are Robert E. Lee and the Tuskegee Airmen not on the list?
Both are out by rule, not by score. The list counts the heroism of one person in the service of the United States, so it leaves out Confederate commanders, who fought against it, and units, however famous, because a group cannot be judged on what one person did. Both would otherwise have scored high enough to make the fifteen.
Why Robert E. Lee is not here. Lee was a well-regarded officer of the United States Army until April 1861, when he declined Lincoln’s offer of command of the Union forces, resigned as Virginia seceded and took a Confederate commission; from June 1862 until the surrender at Appomattox on 9 April 1865 he led the Army of Northern Virginia against the United States. This page counts heroism in the service of the United States, so he and other Confederate commanders such as Stonewall Jackson are out by rule; on our scores he would have reached 37, so the omission is not a verdict on his generalship.42
Why the Tuskegee Airmen are not here. Every entry is one person judged on what that person did, and the Tuskegee Airmen were a whole program: almost 1,000 pilots, the nation’s first Black military aviators, and more than 10,000 men and women in support roles. Their record helped open the way to the desegregation of the armed forces under Executive Order 9981 in 1948, and in 2006 Congress gave them, as a group, the Congressional Gold Medal. Scored as a unit they would have reached 43, so we leave them to their own article, which also deals with the myths around their record.43
Why are Nathanael Greene and Francis Marion no longer on the list?
Both were on the earlier, ten-name version of this page, and both now score 31 points, below the close calls, mainly because fewer Americans know them today than know the fifteen. Greene won back the South: after Cornwallis held the field at Guilford Courthouse in 1781, Greene turned into South Carolina and through that year drove the British back to Charleston, which they abandoned the following December. But his name is now known mainly to students of the Revolution, so recognition 2. Marion, the Swamp Fox, led a partisan band whose small-scale hit-and-run raids cut British supply lines and communications in South Carolina; much of his fame rests on legend, begun by Mason Locke Weems, who took enormous liberties with a comrade's history of Marion's brigade, so certainty 2. Both have their own stories: Nathanael Greene and Francis Marion.44
Where to go next
For the commanders who shaped American warfare, see the greatest American commanders, and for the battles themselves, American victories against the odds.
