Who Do you Think Is The Most Overrated General of All Time?

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Guan Yu.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Lee's strategic acumen is an interesting topic. I tend agree with his strategy in that the decisive battle on Union soil, as unlikely as it was, is the only way the Confederacy could have won the war. The alternative of a defensive strategy would have played into Union strengths and allowed the Confederacy to be slowly strangled.

Either way, it wasn't Lee who decided the war but what happened in the West.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Robert E. Lee by far. While he was correct he had to win a bttle on the North to shift the balance of the war, he went about it in completely the wrong way. It's worth mentioning that whilema skilped tactician, he proved to an inept strategist. To stake absolutely everything on defending Richmond as opposed to withdrawing southwards and eluding Grant was insanity.

Richmond had the Tredegar Iron Works that were the only way the Confederacy could make munitions. If Richmond fell the war was over.

This is why I find criticism of Lee strange, because without him it's easily imaginable that McClellan captures Richmond in 1862 and the Confederacy disintegrates. The Army of Northern Virginia did its job really, the Confederacy lost because of the collapse of the Western theatre in 1864. It's somewhat unfair in my view to blame Lee for not singlehandedly winning the war (which is what he would have had to have done), and not saving the Confederate army in a different theatre. I think it's important to remember that Lee was a theatre commander, not in charge of Confederate grand strategy, and the blame for the Confederacy's strategic failure has to be laid at the feet of the incompetent CinC Jefferson Davis.  

I do accept that Lee is obviously overrated in American mythology, though.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I'll add in Zhukov, very interesting guy with endless charisma, but I prefer Vasilevsky as a commander.

Vasilevsky was a fine staff officer (whose major successes were joint operations with Zhukov), but Zhukov had victories all the way from corps commander to Stavka which no other WW2 general can claim. I also don’t think he’s overrated because people are well aware of his stereotype as a We Have Reserves Soviet general. Even in Russia he was politically out of favour and slighted in official histories until the fall of the USSR.

IDK Zhukov obviously had blunders, but there was more responsibility on his shoulders than any other general in military history. The scale of the battles he fought is staggering. And he got the job done.