Who were the greatest commanders of each era?
No single commander tops this guide, which runs by date. The top scorers of each era are Alexander the Great (antiquity), Genghis Khan (Middle Ages), Suleiman the Magnificent (early modern era), Napoleon (his own era), Simón Bolívar, level with Giuseppe Garibaldi (industrial age), Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (after 1914) and Georgy Zhukov (World War II).
This guide picks the greatest commanders of seven eras, from Cyrus the Great to the generals of World War II: 29 commanders, judged on the battles they fought in person on land or at sea. The list runs by date, and each commander stands at the year of his greatest victory, so the order says nothing about who was greater. Each era has a fixed number of places, filled by the highest scores on five criteria, and a serious defeat costs everyone the same point; see how we chose them. Rulers count only for the battles they led themselves, wars after 1945 are left out, and where we have a full biography the entry links to it.1
The game is old. Hannibal, in a story told by Livy and Plutarch, ranked Alexander first, Pyrrhus second and himself third, and Napoleon's maxims tell officers to study Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Eugene and Frederick.2
Antiquity, to AD 476
1 Cyrus the Great, about 600 to 530 BC
- Lived
- Birth year unknown; died in 530 BC
- Served
- King of Anshan from 559 BC; conquered Media, Lydia and Babylon
- Greatest victory
- Opis on the Tigris, 539 BC, after which his army entered Babylon without a battle; no reliable figures for the armies survive
- Record
- Took Media (550 BC) when Astyages’ army handed its king over; beat Croesus at Thymbra and took Sardis; won Opis (539); defeated and killed by the Massagetae in 530, by Herodotus’ account
- Legacy
- Founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, from the Aegean to Central Asia
Cyrus II became king of Anshan, in Persia, in 559 BC, and in 550 BC he faced his overlord, the Median king Astyages. He hardly needed to fight: the Babylonian Nabonidus Chronicle records that Astyages’ own army rebelled, took him prisoner and handed him over to Cyrus. Lydia came next. After a drawn battle near Pteria, Cyrus beat King Croesus near Thymbra and took Sardis after a siege of 14 days.3
In 539 BC he turned on Babylon. The chronicle says he fought the Babylonian army at Opis on the Tigris, took Sippar without a battle, and two days later his army entered Babylon, again without a battle; King Nabonidus was captured. Myth vs fact: Babylon was not stormed. The fighting was at Opis, and the Cyrus Cylinder, which hails him as the god Marduk’s chosen liberator, was written after the conquest to justify it to a Babylonian audience. By his death he ruled from the Aegean Sea to the Iaxartes in Central Asia, the start of one of the largest empires in history.4
Even his end is uncertain. Herodotus says he was defeated and killed by Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae; other Greek writers place his death elsewhere, and Xenophon gives him a peaceful death in his palace.5
Why they are here: Antiquity has five places, and Cyrus holds the last of them on 38 points, one ahead of Leonidas. Full marks for consequence, because his conquests created the Persian Empire, carry him in; a record of 3, since his last campaign ended in defeat by Herodotus’ account, and certainty of 2, because the Greek writers contradict each other, keep him well below the other four ancient commanders.
2 Alexander the Great, 356 to 323 BC
- Lived
- 356 to 323 BC; died at 32
- Served
- King of Macedon, 336 to 323 BC; campaigned from Greece to the Punjab
- Greatest victory
- Gaugamela, 1 October 331 BC: 40,000 foot and 7,000 horse by Arrian’s count, against a Persian army of unknown size (ancient totals about 245,000 to over a million)
- Record
- Won the Granicus (334 BC), Issus (333), Gaugamela (331) and the Hydaspes (326); never lost a pitched battle
- Legacy
- Ended the Persian Empire; his generals divided his conquests
Alexander took the throne of Macedon in 336 BC, when his father Philip II was assassinated, and two years later carried the war into the Persian Empire. He beat the Persian satraps at the Granicus in May 334 BC and the larger army of King Darius III at Issus in 333.6
Gaugamela, on 1 October 331 BC, decided the war. Arrian gives Alexander 7,000 cavalry and about 40,000 infantry and credits Darius with 40,000 horse and a million foot, a figure no one accepts; other ancient writers give totals from about 245,000 to more than a million, and no reliable modern figure exists. Darius fled the field once more, and Alexander took the title King of Asia. In 326 BC he beat King Porus on the Hydaspes in India. Myth vs fact: he did not march to the end of the world. That same year his army mutinied and refused to go further, and he turned back from the river Beas. He died at Babylon at 32, in June 323 BC, and four of his generals divided the empire. World History Encyclopedia credits his phalanx and cavalry with letting him “never lose a battle”.7
All of this reaches us through later writers. The main one, Arrian, was born between AD 85 and 90 and leaned on the lost memoirs of two of Alexander’s officers, Ptolemy and Aristobulus.8
Why they are here: He is antiquity’s top scorer, on 48 points, with full marks for recognition, battlefield record, consequence and legacy, one point ahead of Caesar. Only certainty, 3, falls short, because no account of his battles written in his lifetime survives.
3 Hannibal, 247 to about 183 BC
- Lived
- 247 to 183 BC
- Served
- Carthage, Second Punic War; invaded Italy over the Alps in 218 BC
- Greatest victory
- Cannae, 216 BC: about 40,000 foot and 10,000 horse against 80,000 Roman foot and more than 6,000 horse, by Polybius’ figures
- Record
- Won the Trebia (218 BC), Lake Trasimene (217) and Cannae (216); lost Zama (202) and with it the war
- Legacy
- Cannae is still studied as the model battle of encirclement
Hannibal took Carthage’s war with Rome into Italy in 218 BC by crossing the Alps. He reached the mountains with 50,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry and came down the other side, 17 days later, with about 26,000 men. With that army he beat the Romans on the Trebia in 218 BC and at Lake Trasimene in 217.9
At Cannae in 216 BC, by Polybius’ figures, about 80,000 Roman foot and rather more than 6,000 horse faced Hannibal’s 10,000 cavalry and not much more than 40,000 infantry. His center gave ground on purpose, his flanks closed in and his cavalry fell on the Roman rear. Polybius counts about 70,000 Romans killed, World History Encyclopedia 44,000; Hannibal lost about 6,000, mostly Gauls. Myth vs fact: elephants played no part at Cannae. Polybius says that all but one died in the snow and cold after the Trebia.10
Rome refused to make peace. In 202 BC Scipio beat Hannibal at Zama in Africa, where 20,000 of his men were killed, and Carthage lost the war. Cannae outlived the defeat: Alfred von Schlieffen built his “Cannae concept” of encirclement and annihilation on it, and in February 1914 the younger Moltke sent his son Schlieffen’s book with the advice “Study Cannae”.11
Why they are here: On 43 points he holds one of antiquity’s five places with room to spare, on full marks for recognition and legacy. Zama costs him a point on battlefield record and Rome’s survival keeps consequence at 3, so in his own era he scores below Alexander, Caesar and Scipio, the man who beat him.
4 Scipio Africanus, 236 to 183 BC
- Lived
- 236 to 183 BC
- Served
- Roman Republic, Second Punic War, in Spain and Africa
- Greatest victory
- Zama, 202 BC: about 40,000 a side; Hannibal lost 20,000 killed and nearly as many captured
- Record
- Took New Carthage (209 BC); won Ilipa (206) and Zama (202); never lost a battle he commanded
- Legacy
- Won the Second Punic War; Carthage kept only ten warships and owed 10,000 talents
Publius Cornelius Scipio, born in 236 BC, was seventeen in his first campaign, the cavalry fight near the Po in which, by Polybius’ account, he charged in to save his surrounded father; Polybius took the story from Scipio’s friend Laelius, so it may flatter him. He also saw Hannibal’s tactics at first hand at Cannae.12
Given command in Spain, he took the Carthaginian base of New Carthage in 209 BC, sending men across the lagoon as the tide ebbed. At Ilipa in 206 BC, by Polybius’ figures, his 45,000 foot and 3,000 horse beat about 70,000 infantry, 4,000 horse and 32 elephants. Then he took the war to Africa. At Zama in 202 BC both armies numbered about 40,000. Scipio left lanes in his line for Hannibal’s more than eighty elephants, and when Laelius and Masinissa brought their cavalry back into the Carthaginian rear, Hannibal lost 20,000 killed and nearly as many captured, against more than 1,500 Romans. Carthage had to give up all its warships but ten triremes and pay 10,000 talents over fifty years.13
Myth vs fact: the claim that he never lost a battle is true only of battles he commanded himself; World History Encyclopedia and the publisher of Dexter Hoyos’ biography both make it in that form, and as a teenager at the Ticinus, near the Po, he was on the losing side.14
Why they are here: Unbeaten in command and the winner of the war against Carthage, he has full marks for battlefield record and consequence. Recognition of 4, because the man he beat is far better known, still gives him 44 points, more than Hannibal’s 43 and a safe place among antiquity’s five.
5 Julius Caesar, 100 to 44 BC
- Lived
- 100 to 44 BC; assassinated
- Served
- Roman general; conquered Gaul, 58 to 50 BC, and won the civil war that began in 49 BC
- Greatest victory
- Alesia, 52 BC: by his own count 80,000 Gauls besieged and a relief army of 250,000 foot and 8,000 horse held off
- Record
- Won Alesia (52 BC), Pharsalus (48), Thapsus (46) and Munda (45); beaten at Gergovia (52) and Dyrrachium (48)
- Legacy
- His rise ended the Roman Republic; his own Commentaries are still read
Julius Caesar, born in 100 BC, conquered Gaul between 58 and 50 BC, crossed the Rubicon in 49 to begin a civil war with Pompey, and was killed by senators on 15 March 44 BC.15
His hardest year in Gaul was 52 BC. Beaten by Vercingetorix at Gergovia, he trapped him in the hill town of Alesia, where, by Caesar’s count, 80,000 men were shut in. He ringed the town with an inner line of works about 18 km long and an outer one of about 22.5 km, and held both against a relief army he put at 250,000 foot and 8,000 horse; World History Encyclopedia rounds it to 250,000. The day after the last battle Vercingetorix surrendered unconditionally.16
The civil war tested him again. In July 48 BC Pompey broke his siege lines at Dyrrachium, and Suetonius says Caesar was put to flight. A month later, at Pharsalus, his 22,000 men beat Pompey’s 45,000, by his own count. Thapsus followed in 46 BC and Munda in March 45, a hard fight in Spain where, Suetonius says, Caesar thought the battle lost and considered suicide. Myth vs fact: Suetonius claims he suffered no disaster in the civil wars except through his lieutenants, yet the same author admits he fled at Dyrrachium; the record was not spotless.17
Why they are here: His 47 points are second only to Alexander’s in antiquity, on full marks for recognition, consequence and legacy. Gergovia and Dyrrachium hold his battlefield record to 4, and certainty is 4 because his own Commentaries are the main account of his wars.
The Middle Ages, 476 to 1500
6 Khalid ibn al-Walid, about 585 to 642
- Lived
- About 585 to 642
- Served
- Mecca against Muhammad, then the caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar in Arabia, Iraq and Syria
- Greatest victory
- Yarmouk, 15 to 20 August 636: about 40,000 Byzantines against 20,000 to 25,000 Arabs (World History Encyclopedia); modern estimates of the Byzantines run from 15,000 to 100,000
- Record
- Won Yamama (632), Walaja and Ullais in Iraq, Ajnadayn (634) and the Yarmouk (636); by tradition never beaten as a Muslim commander
- Legacy
- Called Sayf Allah, “the Sword of God”; Syria passed to the caliphate
Khalid ibn al-Walid first fought against Muhammad: at Uhud he led 700 Meccans into the gap the Muslim archers left when they ran to loot, and won the day. After converting he saved a beaten army from the Byzantines at Mu’tah, and Muhammad named him Sayf Allah, the Sword of God.18
Under Abu Bakr he was the outstanding general of the Ridda Wars of 632 to 633, beating the larger army of the rival prophet Musaylimah at Yamama, then invaded Sasanian Iraq and won at Mazar, Walaja and Ullais. There he also killed captive soldiers. Ordered to Syria, he marched across waterless desert and helped beat the Byzantines at Ajnadayn in 634. At the Yarmouk in August 636 Abu Ubaidah held the nominal command, but Khalid ran the battle: he seized the bridge over the Wadi Ruqqad at night and on the last day led the cavalry round the Byzantine left. Syria passed to the caliphate. Numbers are guesswork: World History Encyclopedia gives about 40,000 Byzantines against 20,000 to 25,000 Arabs, while modern estimates of the Byzantine army run from 15,000 to 20,000 (Kaegi) to about 100,000 (Donner).19
Myth vs fact: “he never lost a battle” is tradition, not a checked record. Medievalists.net calls him victorious in all his wars against Persia and Rome, but the Arabic accounts were mostly written down in the late eighth century or later.20
Why they are here: Yarmouk and Iraq give him full marks for battlefield record and consequence, and 42 points, level with Saladin, put him safely inside the Middle Ages’ five places; certainty of 2, because the Arabic accounts came long after him, keeps him below Genghis Khan and Mehmed II.
7 Saladin, about 1137 to 1193
- Lived
- 1137 (Tikrit) to 4 March 1193 (Damascus)
- Served
- Sultan of Egypt and Syria; took Damascus (1174) and Aleppo (1183)
- Greatest victory
- Hattin, 3 to 4 July 1187: about 30,000 under Saladin against perhaps 20,000 Crusaders (Britannica); King Guy captured
- Record
- Won Hattin and took Jerusalem (1187); beaten at Montgisard (1177) and Arsuf (1191)
- Legacy
- Founder of the Ayyubid dynasty; a model of chivalry in European tales
Saladin was born in 1137 at Tikrit, the son of Ayub, a Kurdish soldier of fortune. His uncle Shirkuh conquered Egypt in 1169 and Saladin went on to govern it, then took Damascus in 1174 and Aleppo in 1183, so that the crusader states faced one ruler on two sides. The Franks did beat him at Montgisard in 1177.21
In July 1187 he drew King Guy’s army into the dry hills west of Tiberias. At Hattin the Franks, perhaps 20,000 men by Britannica’s estimate against about 30,000 under Saladin, broke on 4 July; Guy was taken, the True Cross captured, and Reynald of Châtillon killed, the first blow struck by Saladin himself. According to Ibn al-Athir, the captured Templars and Hospitallers were executed. On 2 October Saladin entered Jerusalem. Myth vs fact: the conquest is remembered for mercy, and it was bloodless, unlike the massacre of 1099, but it was not free: each man had to pay 10 dinars, each woman 5 and each child 1, and about 15,000 people who could not be ransomed were enslaved.22
The Third Crusade struck back. Acre fell on 12 July 1191 with about 70 ships, most of his navy, and on 7 September Richard I beat him at Arsuf, though the two kings never met face to face. The crusade ended in a negotiated peace in 1192.23
Why they are here: Hattin and Jerusalem give him full marks for consequence and legacy, and his 42 points put him among the Middle Ages’ five, level with Khalid ibn al-Walid. Montgisard and Arsuf hold his battlefield record to 3, the lowest of the era’s five.
8 Genghis Khan, about 1162 to 1227
- Lived
- About 1162 (some scholars prefer 1167) to 1227
- Served
- Khan of the Mongols, 1206 to 1227
- Greatest victory
- The conquest of Khwarazm, 1218 to 1221: an army of about 100,000 overran the Shah’s empire
- Record
- Took Beijing from the Jin (1215), then Bukhara and Samarkand; beat Jalal al-Din on the Indus (1221); no reliable count of battles survives
- Legacy
- Founded the empire his heirs made the largest contiguous land empire in history
Temujin was born around 1162, or 1167 by some scholars’ reckoning, and united the steppe tribes until an assembly on the Kerulen river proclaimed him Genghis Khan in 1206.24
Then he turned on the settled empires. In 1211 he sent two armies of 50,000 men each against the Jin of northern China, who could field, it was said, 300,000 foot and 150,000 horse; in 1215 Beijing was taken and burned for a month. From 1218 a Mongol army of about 100,000 swept through the empire of the Shah of Khwarazm in Central Asia, taking Bukhara and Samarkand. In 1221 Genghis himself drove the Shah’s son Jalal al-Din back to the Indus, where the prince escaped only by riding his horse across the river. These conquests were also massacres: civilians were slaughtered and irrigation systems wrecked, and medieval chroniclers counted the dead in millions. On his conquests his heirs built the largest contiguous land empire in world history.25
Myth vs fact: the Mongols did not win by weight of numbers. Their cavalry rarely topped 10,000 riders in one place, their enemies usually had more men in a field battle, and they won with speed, coordination, the composite bow and the feigned retreat.26
Why they are here: He is the top scorer of the Middle Ages, on 46 points, with full marks for recognition, consequence and legacy. His battlefield record scores 4 because many Mongol victories were won by his generals rather than by the khan in person, and certainty 3 because the army sizes come from chronicles no one can check.
9 Timur, 1336 to 1405
- Lived
- 1336 to 19 February 1405
- Served
- Ruler of Transoxania from about 1370; campaigned from Anatolia to India
- Greatest victory
- Ankara, 28 July 1402: about 140,000 against 85,000 Ottomans by one estimate, under 20,000 a side by others; Sultan Bayezid I captured
- Record
- Won the Terek (1395), Delhi (1398) and Ankara (1402); beaten with Amir Husayn by the Moghuls in 1365
- Legacy
- His empire broke apart after his death; the Timurid dynasty ruled on in Central Asia
Timur was born in 1336 near Samarkand. His English name, Tamerlane, comes from the Persian Timur-i Leng, “Timur the lame”. Allied with Amir Husayn he won Transoxania, and around 1370 he took sole control.27
In 1395 he destroyed the army of Toqtamysh, khan of the Golden Horde, on the Terek and sacked Sarai. On 17 December 1398 he beat the army of Sultan Mahmud outside Delhi and sacked the city; TheCollector reports that he had about 100,000 captives killed, a figure that cannot be checked. At Ankara on 28 July 1402 he met the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. EBSCO gives Timur about 140,000 men and Bayezid 85,000; HistoryOfWar notes modern studies that allow neither side more than 20,000. Bayezid’s Anatolian troops left the field or changed sides, and the sultan was captured. He died in 1405, marching on China, and his empire, in J. J. Saunders’ words, “vanished with his life”.28
Myth vs fact: “he never lost a battle” needs a date. The historian Justin Marozzi says he was undefeated from 1370 to his death, but in 1365 the Moghuls beat him and Husayn near Tashkent, in what HistoryOfWar calls a rare defeat.29
Why they are here: Terek, Delhi and Ankara are a great record, but the defeat near Tashkent in 1365 costs him the point every commander here loses for a serious defeat, so battlefield record is 4. His empire broke up at his death, so consequence is 4, and certainty is 3 because the chroniclers’ army sizes are inflated. His 39 points tie Joan of Arc, level with her on recognition and consequence, and he keeps the Middle Ages’ fifth place as the older.
10 Mehmed II, 1432 to 1481
- Lived
- 30 March 1432 to 3 May 1481
- Served
- Ottoman sultan, 1444 to 1446 and 1451 to 1481; led his armies in person
- Greatest victory
- Constantinople, 6 April to 29 May 1453: 60,000 to 80,000 Ottomans (modern estimates) against 5,000 to 7,000 defenders
- Record
- Took Constantinople (1453) and Trebizond (1461); won Otlukbeli (1473); beaten at Belgrade (1456)
- Legacy
- Remembered in Turkey as Fatih, the Conqueror
Mehmed was twelve when his father Murad II first stepped down and left him the throne in 1444, and he took it for good in 1451.30
His siege of Constantinople, the last remnant of Byzantium, opened on 6 April 1453. Modern historians put his army at 60,000 to 80,000; the eyewitness Sphrantzes claimed 200,000. The defenders numbered fewer than 5,000 by Sphrantzes’ count, or about 7,000 with 700 Genoese arriving to help by the Foundation of the Hellenic World’s. His largest gun was 9 m long and threw a ball of 500 kg, and when a chain closed the Golden Horn he had about 70 ships hauled overland on ox carts into it. Myth vs fact: the great gun did not bring down the walls on its own; it fired only seven times a day, and the city fell to a mass assault on 29 May. Perhaps 4,000 people were killed in the sack and over 50,000 enslaved.31
He went on to take Smederevo in 1459 and Trebizond in 1461. Belgrade in 1456 was his first major defeat: John Hunyadi’s relief turned the siege into a rout, and Mehmed, who threw himself into the fighting, was wounded in the forehead. On 11 August 1473 he crushed Uzun Hasan of the Aq Qoyunlu at Otlukbeli.32
Why they are here: Taking Constantinople ended the Byzantine Empire and gave the Ottomans their capital, so he has full marks for consequence, and full marks for certainty too. Belgrade costs him a point on battlefield record and he scores 4 for recognition and legacy on the world scale, which makes his 43 the Middle Ages’ second total, behind Genghis Khan.
The early modern era, 1500 to 1789
11 Suleiman the Magnificent, 1494 to 1566
- Lived
- 1494 to 1566
- Served
- Sultan 1520 to 1566; thirteen great campaigns in person, by Feridun Emecen’s count
- Greatest victory
- Mohács, 29 August 1526
- Record
- Took Belgrade (1521), Rhodes (1522) and Baghdad (1534); won Mohács (1526); failed before Vienna (1529)
- Legacy
- The longest reigning sultan; remembered as Kanuni, the Lawgiver
Suleiman came to the Ottoman throne in 1520 and reigned for 46 years, longer than any other sultan. The Turkish historian Feridun Emecen counts thirteen great campaigns that he led in person; the last of them ended with his death in camp before the Hungarian fortress of Szigetvár in September 1566.33
His first two campaigns took the prizes his great-grandfather Mehmed II had missed: Belgrade fell in 1521, and the Knights Hospitaller surrendered Rhodes in December 1522. On 29 August 1526 he met King Louis II at Mohács. The Hungarians had about 25,000 men; the Ottoman regulars numbered no more than 60,000 by an account published by the Hungarian defense ministry, while EBSCO puts the whole Ottoman army at around 100,000. The battle was short, the Hungarian army was destroyed, and the king drowned in a marsh as he fled; in Emecen’s words the day all but ended the Hungarian kingdom. In 1534 he marched east against Safavid Persia and entered Baghdad on 30 November.34
Vienna was his limit. The city’s own history puts his army of 1529 at 150,000, 60,000 of them in the baggage train, against 17,000 defenders; assaults on 9, 12 and 14 October failed, and on the 14th the Ottomans began to withdraw.35
Why they are here: The early modern era has five places, and Suleiman takes one at the top of it: on 43 points he is level with Yi Sun-sin and George Washington, ahead of Yi on recognition and of Washington as the older man. His campaigns carried the empire to Buda and Baghdad, so full marks for consequence and certainty, but the failure before Vienna holds his battlefield record to 4.
12 Yi Sun-sin, 1545 to 1598
- Lived
- 1545 to 1598; killed at Noryang
- Served
- Navy of Joseon Korea against the Japanese invasions of 1592 to 1598
- Greatest victory
- Hansan Island, 1592
- Record
- Won Okpo, Hansan and Myeongnyang; never defeated at sea: 45 battles, 40 won and 5 drawn, by one historian’s count
- Legacy
- Korea’s national hero; his war diary is on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register
Yi Sun-sin was born in Seoul in 1545 and took command of the Left Jeolla naval district in 1591, a year before the war, which he spent building warships and gathering stores. When the Japanese invaded in 1592 he won his first fight at Okpo and went on winning. His near-daily war diary of 1592 to 1598 is on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.36
Off Hansan Island, by Korean records, the combined fleet of 55 warships he led drew 73 Japanese ships into open water and burned 47 of them and took 12. In 1597, after the Korean fleet had been all but wiped out under another commander at Chilcheollyang, he held the Myeongnyang strait with 13 ships against 133 by the Korean count, which other accounts raise to about 330, and broke 31 of them. In 1598, pursuing the retreating Japanese at Noryang, he was killed by a stray bullet.37
Myth vs fact: the turtle ship was not his invention, since the royal annals mention one in 1413, and no source shows that it was armored in iron. The popular tally of “23 battles, 23 victories” is also baseless, according to a 2021 Insight report: the Korean Naval Academy historian Je Jang-myeong counts 45 battles, 40 won and 5 drawn, with no defeat.38
Why they are here: He holds one of the early modern era’s five places on 43 points, with full marks for record, consequence and legacy: he never lost at sea, and Korea still honors him as its national hero. Few outside East Asia know his name, so recognition 3, and the Japanese losses rest mainly on Korean records, so certainty 4.
13 Jan III Sobieski, 1629 to 1696
- Lived
- 1629 to 1696
- Served
- Grand hetman of the Crown; King of Poland from 1674
- Greatest victory
- Vienna, 12 September 1683
- Record
- Held Podhajce (1667); won Khotyn (1673) and Vienna (1683); beaten at Párkány on 7 October 1683; Moldavian campaign of 1686 failed
- Legacy
- Vienna opened the war that won Hungary back for the Habsburgs
Jan Sobieski made his name long before the crown. In October 1667 he held a fortified camp at Podhajce with 3,000 men against a Tatar and Cossack invasion and forced the attackers to terms. In 1673, as grand hetman, he led the army to Khotyn on the Dniester, where about 30,000 Ottomans lay entrenched; on 11 November his troops stormed the camp, and by the Wilanów museum’s account only about 4,000 Turks escaped. The next year he was elected king.39
In 1683 Kara Mustafa besieged Vienna with about 120,000 men, by the City of Vienna’s figure. Sobieski led the relief army of Polish, imperial and German troops, 65,000 by the city’s count and 69,000 by the Wilanów museum’s, down from the Kahlenberg on 12 September. After a trial charge by the hussars, some 20,000 horsemen charged in the late afternoon and the Ottoman army broke.40
His record is not spotless. On 7 October 1683 the Polish army was beaten at Párkány and he was in serious danger before winning there two days later, and his Moldavian campaign of 1686 ended in a fiasco. The war that Vienna opened lasted until 1699; Austria won back the rest of Hungary, while Poland, the historian Konrad Bobiatyński notes, regained only what it had lost in 1672.41
Why they are here: He takes the early modern era’s fifth place: on 40 points he is level with Oliver Cromwell and with him on recognition (3, since few outside Poland and Austria know him), and goes ahead on consequence, because Vienna began the long Ottoman retreat from Central Europe. Párkány and the failed Moldavian campaign hold his record to 4.
14 Frederick the Great, 1712 to 1786
- Lived
- 1712 to 1786
- Served
- King of Prussia, 1740 to 1786, commanding his army in person
- Greatest victory
- Leuthen, 5 December 1757: about 33,000 Prussians against 65,000 Austrians
- Record
- Won Rossbach and Leuthen (1757), Zorndorf (1758) and Torgau (1760); lost Kolin (1757), Hochkirch (1758) and Kunersdorf (1759)
- Legacy
- Kept Silesia and made Prussia a great power; the oblique order of battle
Frederick II became king of Prussia in 1740 and that autumn occupied the rich Austrian province of Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession; by the Treaty of Dresden in 1745 Prussia kept it. In the Seven Years’ War of 1756 to 1763 he defended it against French, Austrian and Russian armies.42
The year 1757 showed both sides of him. He was beaten by the Austrians at Kolin in June. At Rossbach on 5 November about 22,000 Prussians routed an allied army of some 45,000 French and German troops, for 549 casualties of their own against perhaps 10,000. A month later at Leuthen, with 33,000 men against 65,000 Austrians, he feinted at their right and threw his main force at their left, the textbook case of his oblique order of battle; the Austrians lost about 22,000 men.43
Then the odds told. He beat the Russians at Zorndorf in 1758 but lost to the Austrians at Hochkirch that October. At Kunersdorf on 12 August 1759 a Russian and Austrian army cost him 19,100 killed, wounded and captured, and he expected the Prussian state to collapse. He held on, won a bloody battle at Torgau in 1760, and the Treaty of Hubertusburg of February 1763 left him Silesia.44
Why they are here: He takes one of the early modern era’s five places on 41 points: Rossbach and Leuthen are still taught as models and kept Silesia for Prussia, and his wars are among the best documented of the age (certainty 5). Kolin, Hochkirch and Kunersdorf cost him the point on record, and recognition and consequence stop at 4, so he stands two points below the era’s three leaders.
15 George Washington, 1732 to 1799
- Lived
- 1732 to 1799
- Served
- Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, 1775 to 1783
- Greatest victory
- Yorktown, 19 October 1781, with Rochambeau and de Grasse
- Record
- Won Boston, Trenton, Princeton and Yorktown; lost New York, Brandywine and Germantown
- Legacy
- Won American independence; returned his commission to Congress in 1783
A Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, George Washington was chosen by the Second Continental Congress in June 1775 to command its new Continental Army.45
As the Miller Center puts it, he won important battles, at Boston, Trenton and Princeton, but he lost more. The British drove him out of New York in 1776, and in 1777 he lost at Brandywine and Germantown and could not stop them taking Philadelphia. By mid-December 1776 his army was down to barely 3,000 men; on Christmas night he crossed the Delaware and beat the Hessians at Trenton, then the British at Princeton, wins that put heart back into a discouraged people. Sources still score Monmouth in 1778 differently: a defeat for the Miller Center, a standstill for the World History Encyclopedia.46
In 1781 he and the French general Rochambeau marched south while the French fleet of the Comte de Grasse guarded the Chesapeake, trapping Lord Cornwallis’s army of 9,000 at Yorktown; the American Battlefield Trust puts the besiegers at 19,900. The surrender on 19 October took a third of all British forces in North America out of the war. In December 1783 he traveled to Annapolis and returned his commission to Congress.47
Why they are here: He holds one of the early modern era’s five places on 43 points, level with Suleiman, behind him as the younger man and ahead of Yi Sun-sin on recognition: Yorktown won a nation, so full marks for consequence, legacy and certainty. He lost more battles than he won, and his record of 3 is the lowest of the era’s five.
The Napoleonic era, 1789 to 1815
16 Horatio Nelson, 1758 to 1805
- Lived
- 1758 to 1805; killed at Trafalgar
- Served
- Royal Navy, 1770 to 1805
- Greatest victory
- Trafalgar, 21 October 1805: 27 British ships against 33 French and Spanish
- Record
- Won the Nile (1798), Copenhagen (1801) and Trafalgar (1805); repulsed at Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797)
- Legacy
- Trafalgar began a century of British naval supremacy
Born at the rectory of Burnham Thorpe in 1758, Horatio Nelson entered the Royal Navy in 1770. His one real defeat came on 24 July 1797, when his attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife failed and cost him his right arm.48
At the Nile on 1 August 1798 his 13 ships of the line attacked 13 French ones anchored in Aboukir Bay, one squadron passing inside the French line; only two French ships of the line escaped, and the flagship L’Orient blew up. At Copenhagen on 2 April 1801 he fought on and then used diplomacy, threat and bluff to win an armistice from the Danes. Myth vs fact: Royal Museums Greenwich calls the telescope put to his blind eye only alleged, though it records his remark that with one eye he had a right to be blind sometimes.49
At Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 his 27 ships attacked 33 French and Spanish; 17 were captured and another burned, for 449 British sailors killed. A bullet fired from the rigging of the French Redoutable struck Nelson at about 1.15 pm, and he died at 4.30. The battle ended Napoleon’s hopes of invading Britain and began a century of British naval supremacy.50
Why they are here: He holds one of the Napoleonic era’s three places on 45 points, with full marks for consequence, legacy and certainty; an admiral is named less often than a general, so recognition 4, and Tenerife costs the point on record. He stands before Napoleon on this page only because Trafalgar was fought six weeks before Austerlitz.
17 Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769 to 1821
- Lived
- 1769 to 1821
- Served
- French army; brigadier general in 1793; Emperor of the French 1804 to 1814 and in 1815
- Greatest victory
- Austerlitz, 2 December 1805: about 73,000 French against 85,000 to 90,000 Russians and Austrians
- Record
- About 60 battles, 7 lost; won Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstedt, Friedland and Wagram; lost Aspern-Essling, Leipzig and Waterloo
- Legacy
- Conscription and the army corps changed European warfare
Born in Ajaccio, Corsica, in 1769, Napoleon was made a brigadier general at 24 after the siege of Toulon in 1793, and on 18 May 1804 he proclaimed himself Emperor of the French. By the World History Encyclopedia’s count he fought 60 battles and lost seven, and his use of conscription and of the army corps changed European warfare.51
Austerlitz, on 2 December 1805, was his masterpiece. About 73,000 French beat some 85,000 Russians and Austrians, part of an allied army that had grown to 90,000 at Olmütz, and the allies lost about 27,000 men, 12,000 of them prisoners. Austria made peace and left the Third Coalition. He smashed Prussia at Jena-Auerstedt in October 1806 and the Russians at Friedland in June 1807.52
Aspern-Essling in May 1809 was his first serious defeat in the field, though he won at Wagram that July. Russia in 1812 cost half a million men, Leipzig in October 1813 cost him his German allies, and Waterloo on 18 June 1815 ended his reign. Myth vs fact: Napoleon was not short. At about 1.67 to 1.69 m he was a little above the average Frenchman of his day; the tiny “Little Boney” was largely the work of the British cartoonist James Gillray.53
Why they are here: He is the Napoleonic era’s top scorer on 48 points, with full marks for recognition, consequence, legacy and certainty; Aspern-Essling, Leipzig and Waterloo hold his record to 4. He follows Nelson on this page only because Austerlitz came six weeks after Trafalgar.
18 Duke of Wellington, 1769 to 1852
- Lived
- 1769 to 1852
- Served
- British Army in India, the Peninsular War and the Waterloo campaign; prime minister 1828 to 1830 and in 1834
- Greatest victory
- Waterloo, 18 June 1815, with Blücher’s Prussians
- Record
- Won Assaye (1803), Salamanca (1812), Vitoria (1813) and Waterloo (1815); failed at the siege of Burgos (1812)
- Legacy
- Ended Napoleon’s rule; never lost a major battle
Arthur Wellesley was born in Dublin in 1769 and won his first major victory in India, at Assaye on 23 September 1803; he later called it the best battle he ever fought. In 1808 he was sent to Portugal, and the Peninsular War made his name; he later served twice as prime minister.54
For years he was known as a defensive general, until Salamanca on 22 July 1812 proved he could maneuver and attack in the open field. At Vitoria on 21 June 1813 he beat a French army of 65,000 under King Joseph and Marshal Jourdan, a victory that sealed the fate of Bonapartist Spain. Then came Waterloo. On 18 June 1815 his 68,000 men held their ridge against Napoleon’s 72,000 until 48,000 Prussians under Blücher came up; the French lost nearly 40,000 killed, wounded or captured, and Napoleon was forced to abdicate.55
Myth vs fact: “he never lost a battle” is, in Stephen Roberts’s words, an oft-repeated myth. As a young officer he shared the setback at Boxtel in 1794, was driven back at Redinha and beaten at El Bodón in 1811, and his failure to take Burgos in 1812 forced a retreat to Portugal; the fair claim is that he never lost a major battle.56
Why they are here: He holds the last of the Napoleonic era’s three places on 45 points, level with Nelson: no one in his era has a cleaner record in great battles (5), and Waterloo ended Napoleon’s rule, but he is less famous worldwide than the man he beat, so recognition 4, and Waterloo was a joint victory with Blücher. Blücher and Kutuzov, on 38, are well behind.
The industrial age, 1815 to 1914
19 Simón Bolívar, 1783 to 1830
- Lived
- 1783 to 1830
- Served
- Independence armies of Venezuela and New Granada from 1811; first president of Colombia (Gran Colombia)
- Greatest victory
- Boyacá, 7 August 1819
- Record
- Won Boyacá (1819), Carabobo (1821) and Junín (1824); lost Puerto Cabello (1812) and La Puerta (1814)
- Legacy
- Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia independent by 1825
Simón Bolívar was born in 1783 into a rich Creole family in Venezuela and joined the revolution that declared independence in July 1811. In July 1812 he lost the fortress of Puerto Cabello through an officer’s treachery and the young republic capitulated. In 1813 he proclaimed war to the death on every Spaniard who did not actively support independence, but in June 1814, by Larousse’s account, the llanero horsemen of José Tomás Boves crushed his army at La Puerta.57
The turn came in 1819. He led his army across the flooded plains and over the Andes by the Páramo de Pisba, a pass at 13,000 feet, losing, by a Library of Congress account, a third of his men to cold and hunger. At Boyacá on 7 August about 2,850 patriots met 2,670 royalists, by Semana’s figures; 1,600 royalists were taken prisoner, and three days later Bolívar entered Bogotá. At Carabobo on 24 June 1821, with the British Legion in his line, he opened the road to Caracas and sealed Venezuela’s independence.58
Myth vs fact: Bolívar did not free South America alone. José de San Martín beat the royalists in Chile and Peru, and the decisive victory at Ayacucho in December 1824 was won by Antonio José de Sucre, months after Bolívar’s own win at Junín. By 1825 five new states stood where Spain had ruled.59
Why they are here: He tops the industrial age’s three places on 41 points, level with Garibaldi on recognition and consequence and ahead of him as the older man: Boyacá and Carabobo ended Spanish rule in New Granada and Venezuela (consequence 5). The lost republics of 1812 and 1814 hold his record to 3.
20 Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1807 to 1882
- Lived
- 1807 to 1882
- Served
- Rio Grande and Uruguay until 1848; the Roman Republic, 1849; volunteer armies in Italy, 1859 to 1867; France, 1870 to 1871
- Greatest victory
- The Expedition of the Thousand, Sicily and Naples, 1860
- Record
- Won Calatafimi, Palermo and the Volturno (1860) and held Dijon (1871); lost Rome (1849) and Mentana (1867); stopped at Aspromonte (1862)
- Legacy
- Handed southern Italy to the new Italian kingdom
Born in Nice on 4 July 1807, Giuseppe Garibaldi learned war in South America. He fought for rebel Rio Grande against Brazil, then for Uruguay, where in 1843 he formed the Italian Legion and in 1846 won at Sant’Antonio, a victory that made his name in Italy. Back home, he defended the Roman Republic in 1849, beating the French at the San Pancrazio gate on 30 April, but the republic fell.60
His great campaign came in 1860. On 11 May 1,089 volunteers, the Redshirts, landed at Marsala in Sicily. At Calatafimi on 15 May they beat a Bourbon force twice their number, and by late May they held Palermo. He crossed to Calabria and entered Naples on 7 September; by October his army had grown to 30,000, and on the Volturno it held the line against the Neapolitan army; plebiscites then handed Sicily and Naples to Victor Emmanuel. Myth vs fact: the Thousand did not take the south alone; volunteers swelled the 1,089 of Marsala into that army of 30,000.61
His later marches on Rome failed: Italian regulars fired on his volunteers at Aspromonte in 1862 and he was wounded and arrested; in 1867 the French beat him at Mentana. In 1870 and 1871 he led the Army of the Vosges for France and defended Dijon successfully on 21 to 23 January 1871.62
Why they are here: He takes one of the industrial age’s three places on 41 points, level with the older Bolívar: the conquest of 1860 gave the whole south to the new Italian kingdom (consequence 5), and his name is known far beyond Italy (recognition 4). Rome in 1849, Aspromonte and Mentana hold his record to 3.
21 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
- Greatest victory
- Vicksburg, surrendered 4 July 1863
- Record
- Won Forts Henry and Donelson, Vicksburg, Chattanooga and Appomattox; surprised at Shiloh, beaten at Cold Harbor
- Legacy
- Won the Civil War for the Union; 18th president of the United States
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.63
In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the North’s first significant battlefield victory, and his demand for unconditional surrender became his nickname. Two months later a surprise attack near Shiloh Church caught his army, and he redeemed the defeat only on the second day. In 1863 he crossed the Mississippi at Port Gibson on 1 May, then besieged Vicksburg, and on 4 July, after 46 days, John Pemberton’s 30,000-man army surrendered; with Gettysburg, the American Battlefield Trust writes, it marked the turning point of the war. That autumn he lifted the siege of Chattanooga. Made 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 casualties than Lee had soldiers. On 9 April 1865 he trapped Lee near Appomattox Court House and accepted his surrender that afternoon.64
Myth vs fact: critics called him a butcher who won by arithmetic, but Encyclopedia Virginia argues that the picture ignores the bold campaigns of maneuver that won Vicksburg and Chattanooga.65
Why they are here: Grant keeps the scores of our all-time list. He won the war that kept the Union whole, so consequence and certainty take full marks, and the near-disaster at Shiloh and the defeat at Cold Harbor cost a point on battlefield record. Recognition is 3 on the world scale, and his 40 takes the industrial age’s third place, one point ahead of Tōgō Heihachirō.
World War I, 1914 to 1918, and the wars that followed
22 Ferdinand Foch, 1851 to 1929
- Lived
- 1851 to 1929
- Served
- French army from 1870; Ninth Army at the Marne, 1914; Northern Army Group, 1915 to 1916; Allied supreme commander, 1918
- Greatest victory
- The Hundred Days, 8 August to 11 November 1918
- Record
- Held his part of the line at the Marne, 1914; led the Allied armies to victory, 1918; the Artois offensives, 1915, and the Somme, 1916, brought no breakthrough
- Legacy
- Marshal of France, Britain and Poland; signed the armistice at Rethondes
Ferdinand Foch was born in Tarbes in 1851, enlisted in the war of 1870 and made his name as a teacher of war: he directed the École de guerre from 1907 to 1911, and his books preached the power of the offensive. In September 1914 his new Ninth Army held the right of the French line at the Marne, a part John Rickard calls vital but undramatic.66
At the head of the northern army group he directed the Artois offensives of 1915, which by Rickard’s account achieved little or nothing, and the French share of the Somme in 1916; criticized for offensives too costly in lives, he shared Joffre’s fall from favor at the end of that year. The German spring offensive of 1918 brought him back: on 26 March, at Doullens, Haig agreed to serve under him as supreme commander on the Western Front. Surprised on the Chemin des Dames in May, he struck back in Champagne on 18 July and from August kept British, French, Belgian and American armies attacking along the whole front until Germany asked for an armistice. He received his marshal’s baton on 6 August 1918 and signed the armistice at Rethondes on 11 November. The National WWI Museum puts the cost of the Hundred Days at close to 1,070,000 Allied casualties and 1,172,075 German.67
Why they are here: The Hundred Days won the war, so consequence is 5 and legacy 4. The offensives of 1915 and 1916, which brought no breakthrough, hold his battlefield record to 3, and on the world scale recognition is 3; his 38 is the second score of World War I era, behind Atatürk.
23 Józef Piłsudski, 1867 to 1935
- Lived
- 1867 to 1935
- Served
- 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions in World War I; commander-in-chief of the Polish Army from November 1918; Marshal of Poland
- Greatest victory
- Warsaw, August 1920
- Record
- Won at Warsaw and on the Niemen, 1920; took Kyiv in May 1920 and gave it up in June
- Legacy
- Saved the reborn Polish state in 1920; seized power in the May coup of 1926
Józef Piłsudski was born in 1867 at Zułów near Vilnius, under Russian rule. In World War I he led the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions, and on 11 November 1918 the Regency Council put him in charge of the army of the reborn state.68
In April 1920 he marched on Kyiv with Ukrainian allies. Rydz-Śmigły’s troops entered the abandoned city on 7 May, but on 5 June Budyonny’s cavalry broke the front and Kyiv was given up; the IPN historian Mirosław Szumiło calls it a defeat. In August the plan, worked out by the chief of the General Staff, Tadeusz Rozwadowski, and two staff officers from Piłsudski’s general concept, was to hold the capital’s approaches and strike north from the Wieprz into the Soviet flank. From 16 August Piłsudski led that counterstroke in person, and within ten days the enemy was broken. Szumiło counts 66,000 Soviet prisoners; the Museum of Polish History, which says Soviet losses are not known, gives 60,000. He won again on the Niemen in September and in November received the marshal's baton (he had held the rank since March); in May 1926 he took power after three days of fighting in Warsaw.69
Myth vs fact: “Miracle on the Vistula” was coined by Stanisław Stroński, a declared opponent of Piłsudski, and the historian Mariusz Wołos calls the phrase almost pure propaganda.70
Why they are here: The counterstroke at Warsaw saved Poland’s independence, so consequence is 5 and legacy 4. Credit for the plan is shared with Rozwadowski and the march on Kyiv ended in retreat, so battlefield record is 3; few abroad know him, so recognition is 2. His 35 takes the era’s third place, one point ahead of John J. Pershing.
24 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1881 to 1938
- Lived
- 1881 to 1938
- Served
- Ottoman army: 19th Division and Anafarta Group at Gallipoli, 1915; Seventh Army, 1917 and 1918; commander in chief of the national army, 1921 to 1922
- Greatest victory
- The Great Offensive, from 26 August 1922
- Record
- Held at Gallipoli, 1915; won the Sakarya, 1921, and the Great Offensive, 1922; his Seventh Army was routed at Megiddo, 1918
- Legacy
- Founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, 1923
Mustafa Kemal was born in Salonika in 1881. At Gallipoli in 1915 he commanded the 19th Division, met the Anzac landing in April and was given command of the Anafarta sector in the August battles; the Australian War Memorial calls his leadership decisive in thwarting the Allied plans.71
In September 1918 he was at the head of the Seventh Army in Palestine when Allenby’s offensive broke the front: the Eighth Army was destroyed, the Seventh routed, and Kemal fell back to Aleppo. After the armistice he led the national resistance to the Greek advance into Anatolia. Made commander in chief with the powers of the Grand National Assembly in August 1921, he fought the Greek army on the Sakarya for twenty-one days and nights until it was driven back on 12 September, and the assembly made him a marshal with the title Gazi. On 26 August 1922 his army attacked along the whole front, surrounded Greek divisions at Dumlupınar on 30 August and reached İzmir on 9 September.72
As the Turkish army reached İzmir (Smyrna), fire destroyed its Armenian, Greek and European quarters; Greek and Western accounts blame the Turkish army, Turkish accounts blame Greek and Armenian forces, and a University of Michigan exhibit records violence against civilians by both sides. In 1923 Turkey became a republic with Kemal its first president.73
Why they are here: This page counts the war of 1919 to 1922 as well as his Ottoman service, so consequence and legacy are 5. The rout at Megiddo costs a point on battlefield record and recognition is 4 on the world scale, but his 45 is still the top score of the era.
World War II, 1939 to 1945
25 Georgy Zhukov, 1896 to 1974
- Lived
- 1896 to 1974
- Served
- Red Army; Chief of the General Staff, 1941; Marshal of the Soviet Union from 1943; minister of defense until 1957
- Greatest victory
- Moscow, 1941 to 1942
- Record
- Won Khalkhin Gol, Moscow and Berlin; Operation Mars failed, 1942
- Legacy
- Four times Hero of the Soviet Union; accepted Germany’s surrender, 8 May 1945
Georgy Zhukov, born in 1896, fought in World War I and the Russian Civil War and made his name in August 1939, when he defeated the Japanese at Khalkhin Gol on the Mongolian border; in January 1941 Stalin made him Chief of the General Staff.74
When Germany invaded he became Stalin’s troubleshooter, racing to Leningrad in September 1941 to halt the German threat and then returning to save Moscow. German panzer divisions came within 20 miles (32 km) of the capital, but from 6 December his counterattacks along a 200-mile front drove them back: Moscow, the World History Encyclopedia writes, was Germany’s first major land defeat of the war. Not every blow landed. Operation Mars against the Rzhev salient in late 1942 failed; Soviet figures compiled by Krivosheev count 215,674 casualties out of 545,070 men. In April 1945 his 1st Belorussian Front, 908,500 men by the same count, led the attack on Berlin, and on 8 May he accepted the German surrender. After the war Stalin, wary of his fame, sent him to command the Odessa and Ural military districts.75
Myth vs fact: Berlin was not his alone. Three Soviet fronts and Polish troops, about 2.5 million men in all, took part, Konev’s front broke through beside his, and the Seelow Heights alone cost the Red Army nearly 40,000 killed and wounded.76
Why they are here: Zhukov keeps the scores of our all-time list: Moscow and Berlin changed the war and the map of Europe, so consequence is 5, while the failure of Mars holds his battlefield record to 4. Level with Patton on 43, he is the era’s top scorer on consequence.
26 Erwin Rommel, 1891 to 1944
- Lived
- 1891 to 1944
- Served
- German army from 1910; 7th Panzer Division, 1940; German and Italian forces in North Africa, 1941 to 1943; Army Group B in France, 1944
- Greatest victory
- Gazala and the fall of Tobruk, May to June 1942
- Record
- Won in France, 1940, at Gazala, 1942, and Kasserine Pass, 1943; failed before Tobruk, 1941; beaten at El Alamein, 1942
- Legacy
- The “Desert Fox”, a fame first built by Nazi propaganda
Erwin Rommel, born in Heidenheim in 1891, won Prussia’s highest decoration, the Pour le Mérite, for capturing Monte Matajur in the Italian Alps in October 1917. In February 1940 he took command of the 7th Panzer Division and made his name in the Fall of France.77
Sent to Africa in 1941, he won at El Agheila and Mersa Brega, but his siege of Tobruk from April to December failed. His greatest victory came at Gazala in May and June 1942 and ended with the fall of Tobruk on 21 June: John Rickard counts 33,000 prisoners, 19,000 of them British, and the South African Military History Society’s journal speaks of a 33,000-strong garrison lost. Hitler made Rommel a field marshal. At El Alamein, from 23 October, his 116,000 German and Italian soldiers and 540 tanks faced more than 190,000 men and over 1,000 tanks under Montgomery, and he lost much of his army; the Axis forces in Africa surrendered in May 1943. Suspected of a part in the plot against Hitler, he was given the choice of a trial or suicide on 14 October 1944 and took poison.78
Myth vs fact: the chivalrous Desert Fox was first a creation of Nazi propaganda and his place in the resistance is still disputed; the historian Peter Caddick-Adams finds nothing concrete on how close he came to the conspiracy.79
Why they are here: Rommel keeps the scores of our all-time list: full marks for recognition, legacy and certainty, but El Alamein holds his battlefield record to 3 and his victories changed little, so consequence is 2. He ties Chester Nimitz on 40 and takes the era’s fifth place on recognition.
27 Bernard Montgomery, 1887 to 1976
- Lived
- 1887 to 1976
- Served
- British Army from 1908; Eighth Army, 1942 to 1943; Allied land forces in Normandy, 1944; British and Canadian armies in north-west Europe, 1944 to 1945
- Greatest victory
- El Alamein, 23 October to 4 November 1942
- Record
- Won Alam Halfa and El Alamein, 1942, and the battle for Normandy, 1944; Market Garden failed, September 1944
- Legacy
- Viscount Montgomery of Alamein; accepted the German surrender at Lüneburg Heath, May 1945
Bernard Montgomery was born in Kennington, London, in 1887 and joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1908. Shot through the right lung in 1914 and expected to die, he recovered with the Distinguished Service Order.80
In August 1942 he took over the Eighth Army in Egypt and won the defensive battle of Alam Halfa from 30 August. At El Alamein he commanded over 190,000 men and over 1,000 tanks against 116,000 German and Italian troops. After almost two weeks of attrition from 23 October, Operation Supercharge broke the Axis line on 4 November, though his caution let the motorized part of Rommel’s army escape. In June 1944 he commanded all the Allied ground forces in the Normandy landings, 39 divisions, and he was made field marshal on 1 September. His only major failure, as English Heritage puts it, followed that month: Market Garden, whose bridgehead at Arnhem was lost; of about 10,000 airborne troops landed there, some 7,500 were killed or captured. In May 1945 he accepted the surrender of the German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and north-west Germany at Lüneburg Heath.81
Myth vs fact: Churchill’s “end of the beginning” made El Alamein the turning point of the whole war in British memory; the National Army Museum calls that an overstatement, since North Africa was a sideshow beside the Eastern and Western Fronts.82
Why they are here: El Alamein and Normandy are major victories, but Market Garden holds his battlefield record to 4, and El Alamein turned one theater rather than the war, so consequence is 4. His 41 takes one of the era’s five places, level with Eisenhower.
28 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
- Greatest victory
- D-Day and Normandy, from 6 June 1944
- Record
- Won North Africa, Normandy and the war in the west; Kasserine Pass was lost under his command, February 1943
- Legacy
- General of the Army, December 1944; President of the United States, 1953 to 1961
Dwight D. Eisenhower, born in Denison, Texas, in 1890, graduated from West Point in 1915 and spent World War I training troops at camps in the United States, from February 1918 with the Tank Corps. In June 1942 he took command in Europe, and that November he became commander in chief of the Allied forces landing in North Africa.83
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, 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 early on 5 June 1944, gambling on a forecast break in the storm, and wrote a note taking all the blame if it failed, which he misdated “July 5”. On 6 June the landings rested, as the National Park Service puts it, on over 160,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen. After Normandy he took command of all the Allied land forces and kept a broad front, against Montgomery’s call for a narrow push to the Low Countries. Promoted to five-star General of the Army on 20 December 1944, he saw Germany surrender in May 1945.84
Why they are here: He led the coalition that freed western Europe, so consequence and certainty take full marks; but he commanded from headquarters and Kasserine was lost on his watch, so battlefield record is 3. Recognition 4 on the world scale and legacy 4 give him 41, level with Montgomery and one of the era’s five places.
29 George S. Patton, 1885 to 1945
- Lived
- 1885 to 1945
- Served
- US Army, 1909 to 1945: tank brigade in France, 1918; Seventh Army in Sicily, 1943; Third Army, 1944 to 1945
- Greatest victory
- The Third Army’s drive across France and the relief of Bastogne, 1944
- Record
- Won in Sicily, France, Lorraine and the Ardennes; his Hammelburg raid failed, March 1945
- Legacy
- His Third Army traveled farther than any other army in Europe
George S. Patton, born in San Gabriel, California, in 1885, graduated from West Point in 1909. In 1918 he commanded the 304th Tank Brigade at Saint-Mihiel and was wounded near Cheppy at the start of the Meuse-Argonne offensive.85
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 suffering from combat stress cost him his command. Given the Third Army on 1 August 1944, he broke through the German defenses, cleared Brittany and crossed the Meuse within the month, and in September beat the Fifth Panzer Army’s counterattack at Arracourt in Lorraine. When the Germans struck in the Ardennes, his 4th Armored Division reached 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. Not every venture paid. 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 probably held; 32 were killed and only 35 made it back. He died after a car crash in December 1945.86
Why they are here: Full marks for legacy and certainty, and recognition 4 on the world scale. The failed Hammelburg raid costs a point on battlefield record, a close judgment, since it was a raid of 314 men rather than a lost battle, and his was one of several armies that beat Germany, so consequence is 4; level with Zhukov on 43, he is second in the era on consequence.
Explore each era on its own page: antiquity, the Middle Ages, the early modern era, the Napoleonic era, the industrial age, World War I and World War II.
How we chose these commanders
We judged each commander on the battles he fought in person, on land or at sea, from the founding of the Persian Empire to 1945. Rulers count only for the battles they commanded themselves, so Augustus, whose decisive battles Agrippa won, does not qualify, nor does a thinker such as Sun Tzu, whose battles cannot be pinned down; wars after 1945 are outside the page. One rule applies to everyone: a serious defeat costs the same point on record, whether it is Hannibal's Zama, Napoleon's Waterloo or Rommel's El Alamein. The all-time ranking is in the greatest military commanders, influence beyond the battlefield in the most influential military leaders in history, and the commanders of one nation or empire in our guides to Byzantine, Ottoman, Mongol, Polish, American and British commanders.87
We considered 80 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria; a commander who also appears in our all-time ranking keeps the scores he has there. Recognition counts three times and is measured on one world scale for every era, so a general famous in one country scores lower here than in that country's guide; battlefield record, consequence and legacy count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the commander is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of the greatest commanders, 1 if only specialists know the name.
- Battlefield record (×2). 5 if he won several decisive victories in person, often against the odds, and suffered no serious defeat, 1 if he is known for no victory of his own.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if his victories changed states, wars or borders for generations, 1 if they changed nothing lasting.
- Legacy (×2). 5 if his campaigns are still studied and imitated and he lives on in national memory and culture, 1 if he is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if his campaigns are documented by contemporary and independent sources, 1 if they rest on one late source or legend.
The list runs by date, not by score: each commander stands at the year of his greatest victory, the one named in the table, and a birth year would have put Napoleon, born in 1769, before his own era. The scores decide only who fills each era's places. The three long eras, antiquity, the Middle Ages and the early modern era, get five places each, and so does World War II, the largest war in history, fought on land and at sea on several continents; the Napoleonic era, the industrial age and World War I with the wars that followed it get three each, 29 in all. When two commanders tie for an era's last place, the better known one goes in, then the one whose victories changed more, then the older one. There is no single No. 1 in this overview. The top scorers are Alexander the Great (48) in antiquity, Genghis Khan (46) in the Middle Ages, Suleiman the Magnificent in the early modern era (43, level with Yi Sun-sin and George Washington, ahead on recognition and age), Napoleon (48) in his own era, Simón Bolívar in the industrial age (41, level with Giuseppe Garibaldi, ahead as the older), Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (45) for World War I and the wars after it, and Georgy Zhukov in World War II (43, level with George S. Patton, ahead on consequence). The quota explains, for example, why Belisarius and Subutai are no longer on the page: the Middle Ages is the deepest era, and five commanders score higher than their 37.88
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Battlefield record ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Legacy ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cyrus the Great | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 38 |
| 2 | Alexander the Great | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 48 |
| 3 | Hannibal | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 43 |
| 4 | Scipio Africanus | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 44 |
| 5 | Julius Caesar | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 47 |
| 6 | Khalid ibn al-Walid | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 42 |
| 7 | Saladin | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 42 |
| 8 | Genghis Khan | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 46 |
| 9 | Timur | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 39 |
| 10 | Mehmed II | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 43 |
| 11 | Suleiman the Magnificent | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 43 |
| 12 | Yi Sun-sin | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 43 |
| 13 | Jan III Sobieski | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 40 |
| 14 | Frederick the Great | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 15 | George Washington | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 43 |
| 16 | Horatio Nelson | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 45 |
| 17 | Napoleon Bonaparte | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 48 |
| 18 | Duke of Wellington | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 45 |
| 19 | Simón Bolívar | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 20 | Giuseppe Garibaldi | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 21 | Ulysses S. Grant | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 40 |
| 22 | Ferdinand Foch | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 38 |
| 23 | Józef Piłsudski | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 35 |
| 24 | Mustafa Kemal Atatürk | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 45 |
| 25 | Georgy Zhukov | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 43 |
| 26 | Erwin Rommel | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 40 |
| 27 | Bernard Montgomery | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 28 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 29 | George S. Patton | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 43 |
Close calls
Six commanders came close and did not make their era's places:
Joan of Arc, about 1412 to 1431. The nearest miss of the Middle Ages, level with Timur on 39 and out as the younger. She lifted the siege of Orléans in 1429 and inspired the Loire campaign that ended at Patay, but she did not hold command in every fight, and in May 1430 the Burgundians captured her outside Compiègne, so battlefield record is 2.89
Oliver Cromwell, 1599 to 1658. One of the early modern era’s two nearest misses. He led Parliament’s cavalry at Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in 1645, then in full command won Preston, Dunbar and Worcester; his Irish campaign opened with what the National Army Museum calls massacres at Drogheda and Wexford, which Cromwell defended as consistent with the laws of war. He ties Sobieski on 40 and loses on consequence: the monarchy was restored soon after his death.90
Tokugawa Ieyasu, 1543 to 1616. The early modern era’s other near miss, one point short. Sekigahara in 1600 founded a shogunate that kept Japan at peace for some 260 years, in the National Park Service’s phrase, but the Takeda routed him at Mikatagahara in 1572, the greatest defeat of his life, so record 4, and outside Japan mostly specialists know him.91
Tōgō Heihachirō, 1848 to 1934. The industrial age’s nearest miss, one point behind Grant. At Tsushima in May 1905 his fleet destroyed Russia’s Baltic squadron for three torpedo boats, a victory the naval historian Julian Corbett called perhaps the most decisive in history, and the war ended that September. Outside Japan and naval history few know his name, so recognition is 2.92
John J. Pershing, 1860 to 1948. The nearest miss of World War I era, one point behind Piłsudski. He built the American Expeditionary Forces and led them at Saint-Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne in 1918, but that last offensive was a slow, bloody advance, and his army was one of several that won the war, so consequence is 3.93
Chester Nimitz, 1885 to 1966. World War II’s nearest miss. His carriers turned the Pacific war at Midway in 1942, and he signed Japan’s surrender in Tokyo Bay for the United States, but he commanded from his headquarters at Pearl Harbor and few outside the Navy know his name. He ties Rommel on 40 and loses the fifth place on recognition.94
Where are Subutai, Belisarius, Robert E. Lee and the others?
Twelve commanders on the earlier version of this page are gone because each era now has a fixed number of places, filled by score, not because we judged their records poor. In the Middle Ages Subutai and Belisarius (37 each) and Basil II (33) score below the five commanders who hold places; in the early modern era Tokugawa Ieyasu (39), Turenne (36), Stanisław Żółkiewski (32) and Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (30) fall short; in the industrial age William T. Sherman (36), Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson (34 each) trail the three in place. Ieyasu, John J. Pershing (34) and Chester Nimitz (40) miss by one point or on a tie, so they appear in the close calls.
Most of them have a place in a guide to their own nation or war, where recognition is measured within that history rather than on one world scale: Subutai among the Mongol commanders, Belisarius and Basil II among the Byzantine commanders, Ieyasu among the commanders of feudal Japan, Chodkiewicz and Żółkiewski among the Polish commanders, Turenne among the commanders of France, Lee, Sherman and Jackson among the commanders of the American Civil War and Nimitz among the commanders of the Pacific War; Pershing has a full biography. Gustavus Adolphus, Helmuth von Moltke and Aleksei Brusilov, named as also in contention on the old page, stay out on score, while Ferdinand Foch now holds a place.
Who is the greatest commander of all time?
There is no agreed answer, and anyone who gives one is making a judgment. Alexander the Great is named most often, as he was by Hannibal in the story Livy tells, because he conquered the Persian Empire without losing a pitched battle. Napoleon, Genghis Khan and Hannibal are the usual challengers, each strongest on a different measure.
Want the arguments in detail? Read our head-to-heads: Alexander vs Caesar, Genghis Khan vs Hannibal, Sun Tzu vs Clausewitz and Winged Hussars vs Cuirassiers, or our all-time list of the greatest military commanders.
