10 Worst American Civil War Generals

In determining the worse Generals of the American Civil War, this list will take us from battlefield blunders to portraits on urinals.   No doubt, I will likely have a great deal of criticism regarding my choices, as this is certainly a passionate and controversial subject for most individuals who love American Civil War history.

10.  Hugh Judson Kilpatrick (USA)

General Kilpatrick was known for his reckless disregard for the lives of those soldiers under his command and his performance at Gettysburg bordered on criminal behavior with Elon Farnsworth paying the price.  His “raid” on Richmond under the pretext of freeing Union prisoners was a joke that cost the life of COL Ulric Dahlgren.  When General Kilpatrick commanded his cavalry in parades or battle and they looked quite professional. However, his camp was another story. Kilpatrick’s lack of proper discipline resulted in his camps being unkempt, disorderly, and embedded with prostitutes.
In July of 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, Kilpatrick, in command of his cavalry, was later accused of using poor judgment when he ordered a devastating charge on July 3.  In an effort to repair the damage to his reputation caused this day, and in anticipation of post war political aspirations, he planned a raid on Richmond, Virginia in 1864. His plan was to attack the Confederate capital, cause as much devastation as possible, and free the Union soldiers held prisoner there. On March 1, while en route to implement this plan, he lost his nerve at the gates of Richmond, and retreated.

9.  William S.  Rosecrans (USA)

Appointed commander of the Army of the Cumberland in October 1862, General Rosecrans almost lost the battle of Stone’s River and then waited almost six months to engage an enemy of a much smaller force.  Referred to by General McClellan as “a silly fussy goose,” it did seem to accurately predict General Rosecrans military future as a commanding officer.
His flawed strategy during the Tullahoma Campaign only succeeded due to the drastic mistakes of his opponent.  Rather than consolidate his position in Chattanooga, he opted to move through the passes in Lookout Mountain.  When he came out, with the mountain to his back, he fought the battle of Chickamauga, the worst Union loss in the Civil War.  Trapped in Chattanooga he did little to relieve the suffering of his men.  When General Grant relieved him of duty, he had fewer than five days of rations remaining with his troops already being on half-rations.
Also problematic was his propensity to micro-manage the movements of units instead of relying on his chain of command.  Finally, he was accused of disgracefully leaving the battlefield at Chickamauga and he was relieved of duty.

8.  Don Carlos Buell (USA)

General Buell led four divisions along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad towards Chattanooga while repairing the line.  With his supply line destroyed by Confederate cavalry, his movement came to a halt.  With Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky, General Buell was forced to fall back north to protect the line of the Ohio River.  Dissatisfied with his progress, the authorities ordered him to turn over command to George H. Thomas on September 30, 1862, but the next day this order was revoked.  On October 8 he fought the indecisive battle of Perryville, which halted a Confederate invasion that was already faltering.  He failed, however, to pursue the retreating enemy and for this was relieved of his command on October 24, 1862.

7.  Gideon Pillow (CSA)

Suspended from command by order of Jefferson Davis for “grave errors in judgment in the military operations which resulted in the surrender of the army” at Fort Donelson.  Despite his advantages at Fort Donelson , General Pillow’s  inexplicable decisions led him to an embarrassing defeat. In his memoirs regarding the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862, General Grant wrote of his Confederate foe, “I had known General Pillow in Mexico, and judged that with any force, no matter how small, I could march up to within gunshot of any entrenchments he was given to hold.”  His decision to flee the fort, leaving the onerous task of capitulation to General Buckner would tarnish is reputation beyond repair and for the rest of his life he would carry the taint of a failure made worse by the abandonment of his own men.

6.  Nathaniel Prentiss Banks (USA)

In the Shenandoah Valley, General Banks lost 30 percent of his troops when he was routed by Stonewall Jackson and due to his tremendous loss of supplies was dubbed “Commissary Banks” by the Confederates.  As part of Pope’s army, he was defeated at Cedar Mountain again by Jackson in the disastrous Red River Campaign as well as the Second Battle Bull Run.  After a brief stint in the capital’s defenses he went to New Orleans to replace Benjamin F. Butler.  His operations against Port Hudson were met with several bloody repulses eventually falling only after the surrender of Vicksburg made it untenable.

5.  Franz Sigel (USA)

General Sigel opened the Valley Campaigns of 1864, launching an invasion of the Shenandoah Valley in which he was severely defeated by General Breckenridge at the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864.  This battle was particularly embarrassing due to the prominent role young cadets from the Virginia Military Institute played and was his relieved of his command for “lack of aggression” and replaced by General David Hunter.  He was unable to shake the reality that he was defeated by a charge of young Virginia Military Institute cadets and his military aspirations ended abruptly serving the rest of the war without any active commands.

4.  Braxton Bragg (CSA)

General Bragg’s problems were legendary on the battlefield.  He lacked the ability to communicate with his generals.  This problem was magnified by his chronic indecisiveness.  His march to Kentucky, touted by some as a strategic masterpiece was little more than a pathetic attempt to protect General Smith’s flank from General Buell.   He simply assumed William S. Rosecrans would not attack once his force had been routed at Stone’s River.   It took him two days to discover the enemy was advancing on his position at Tullahoma, then chose to obey an order over six months old, retreating to Chattanooga.  There it only took a brigade of men to fool him into a full retreat from that city.  After Chickamauga, he refused to destroy the Army of the Cumberland in spite of the sound advice of Generals Forrest and Longstreet. At Missionary Ridge, he grossly misplaced his line then blamed his men for the loss.

3.  Ambrose Everett Burnside (USA)

General Burnside’s leadership fiasco at Antietam allowed General A. P. Hill’s Confederate division to come up from Harpers Ferry and contain the Union breakthrough.  He is also the chief architect of the futile, murderous assaults at Fredericksburg; leader of the ill-fated Mud March; and his obvious failure at Petersburg where he bungled the follow-up to the explosion of the mine. In reaction to this failure he was sent on leave and never recalled.  He finally resigned on April 15, 1865.  He also fought at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania where his poor leadership continued to be exemplified, appearing reluctant to commit his troops after the Fredericksburg experience.

2.  George Brinton McClellan (USA)

The master of over-estimation and slow movement, he constantly proclaimed himself the Savior of the Union, yet seemed unwilling to fight.  At Antietam, he had his opponent’s battle plans and still could not win.  Tommy Franks [speaking to U.S. soldiers], “I will avoid the McClellan strategy of sit and wait here and will employ those tactics of Cleburne repulsing the enemy from the heart of Iraq [Baghdad].  Safely entrenched at Harrison’s Landing General McClellan began condemning the War Department, Lincoln, and Stanton, blaming them for the defeat. Finally it was decided in Washington to abandon the campaign and transfer most of his men to John Pope’s army in northern Virginia. There were charges that McClellan-now called by the press “Mac the Unready” and “The Little Corporal of Unsought Fields” was especially slow in cooperating.

1.  Benjamin Franklin Butler (USA)

The nickname “Beast of New Orleans” was bestowed on the general, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis declared him to be an outlaw to be executed when caught.  General Butler was so detested in the South that long after the war, chamber pots with Butler’s portrait in the bottom were found in many Southern homes.

In the conduct of tactical operations in Virginia, Butler was almost uniformly unsuccessful. His first action at Battle of Big Bethel was a humiliating defeat.  Furthermore, at Petersburg rather than immediately striking as ordered, General Butler’s offensive bogged down east of Richmond in the area called the Bermuda Hundred, immobilized by the greatly inferior force of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, and he was unable to accomplish any of his assigned objectives. But it was his mismanagement of the expedition against Fort Fisher in North Carolina that finally led to his recall by General Grant in December.
He resigned his commission on November 30, 1865. The man’s face found a home at the bottom of urinals in New Orleans; he was failure at Big Bethel; a fascist, a militaristic governor in New Orleans who made the Nazi Gestapo look like a Catholic school girl’s choir.  Laughable at Bermuda Hundred; a failure as both a politician and general officer; and considered by many as the ugliest general officer on both sides, General Butler tops the list as the worse general officer of the American Civil War.

10 Generals of Western History

In our modernized, mechanized age of warfare, where decisions are made by civilians, officers far from any line of combat, congressional committees, and unknown military strategists in committee, an army is a faceless thing. For the last six decades, the idea of massed armies doing battle has been considered a curiosity of the past, and warfare is often viewed more as an endemic state of some sort rather than a series of events.

Once, however, responsibility and consequence were not so diffused. Brilliant strategic, tactical, and logistical minds had immediate and total control of large armies, and those armies became victorious or defeated because of one man’s ability. In our attempt to survey the great generals of history, we must limit ourselves, or at least agree to common terms. For the purposes of this list, those eligible for inclusion must have been field commanders, with undeniable autonomy in their battles; no armchair generals or errand boys here

10. Attila the Hun

Attila the Hun

Leader of the Hunnish empire that stretched from the borders of modern day France to the steppes of Russia, this thorn in the side of both Roman and Byzantine empires assembled a massive force of all the tribes and nations traditionally viewed as provincial savages – Huns, Goths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and many more, and nearly conquered mainland Europe. In the template of other “barbarian” conquerors to come after him, like Genghis Khan, he showed the lie of assumed Western superiority; and whenever your enemies names you “the Scourge of God”, you can assume you’ve proved yourself a respected threat.

9. Frederick the Great

Frederick the Great

Frederick II of Prussia was a student of modern warfare, and later its guiding voice in the late 18^th century. He modernized the army of his disjointed pseudo-German kingdom, and fought continuous wars against Austria, the dominating power of the Holy Roman Empire at the time. Known for both his books and treatises on warfare, as well as leading troops into battle personally (he had six horses shot from under him), Frederick was a force to be reckoned with

8. George S. Patton

The most controversial figure of the Allied forces in WWII, Patton himself may have believed himself to be reincarnated from more ancient warriors, carrying their bravery and experience into his battles. A promising early career helping Pershing hunt Pancho Villa jumpstarted Patton into the armored corps, where he became a mentor to Eisenhower (later promoted over his head). In WWII, he gladly used the Germans’ blitzkrieg against them, using the maneuverability of American armored units to out maneuver German lines and gaining large amounts of ground over short periods of time. His infamous incidents, including troops under his command executing more than one massacre, and Patton’s slapping of a supposedly cowardly soldier in a field hospital, contributed to his decline, but more than anyone else, he led the Allies to victory in Europe.

Notable contemporaries: Benard Montgomery, British general and competitior; Erwin Rommel, Nazi tank commander and adversary

7. Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

The maid of Orleans is the only commander on this list to have had to share command in even her finest moments of victory, but as she is also the only woman, one feels an exception is in order. A French peasant girl who claimed visions from God, she traveled to Charles II, the French king losing the war to the English. Though she was hampered by skepticism at first, Joan influenced several important French victories, leading charges personally, and inspiring French troops to renewed fervor. Tried and executed by an English court for witchcraft, she was later exonerated, beatified, and made the patron saint of France

6. Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

The famed consul of Rome was perhaps the ablest of the late Republic’s military leaders, vying with his co-consul, Pompey for glory in subjugating territory to Rome’s expansionist will. His campaign against the Gauls is still required reading in many military academies, and his defeat of Pompey nearly granted him the kingship of firmly republican Rome. The political and personal treachery that ended his life and provided the opportunity for his nephew, Octavian, to become emperor, is legendary, but Caesar’s successes were more reliant on the loyalty and victory of his armies than political maneuvering.

Notable contemporaries: Pompey the Great (adversary), Marc Antony (protégé)

5. George Washington

George Washington

Washington was the pivotal, and probably most successful, leader of the American revolutionary forces vying for independence from the British Empire. Though ably assisted by several subordinates (including Benedict Arnold, whose military acumen has been overshadowed by his famous betrayal), Washington proved the uniting force of the Continental Army, leading it to victory at Trenton and Yorktown, and holding the piecemeal forces together in the hard winter at Valley Forge. Being elected President twice without serious opposition seemed the least Americans could do for their war leader

4. Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee

Lee, perhaps the most successful commander in history against numerically and materially superior forces, was the gentle genius in charge of the Army of Northern Virginia and most Confederate forces during the Civil War. He developed a reputation of near omniscience among both enemies and allies, and soundly thrashed Union forces soundly on numerous occasions. His losses, few as they were, were generally more devastating to his opponents than himself, and Ulysses S. Grant, the only general to successfully corner Lee, was forced to adopt a strategy of attrition, rather than any attempt to outfight Lee.

3. Salah ad Din

Salah ad Din

Saladin, as he is known in our language, was the most outstanding leader of the Crusades, hampering the fledgling crusader states and European invasions with equal aplomb. Known for his calm and rationality, his lack of fanaticism, and his respect for his opponents, he conquered Syria, Egypt, and most of modern day Israel steadily and without great difficulty. He was enormously respected by nearly all of his rivals, and maintained an epistolary friendship with Richard the Lionheart, sending him gifts, horses, and his own physician.

2. Hannibal Barca

Hannibal Barca

The most feared opponent Rome ever faced, this Carthaginian general was raised to the task of defeating the Romans from early childhood by his father, Hasdrubal. Hannibal abandoned previous Carthaginian tactics of passive naval superiority, and marched a force on elephants over the Italian Alps. Defeating the Romans at nearly every battle he fought, he made a Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus, famous merely for being able to delay Hannibal’s advance without enormous loss of life (Fabius was granted the title “Cunctator”, or delayer, by the Roman senate).At Cannae, Hannibal’s forces, cobbled together and suffering from losses, routed an enormous Roman army, killing or capturing upwards of fifty thousand enemies. Eventually defeated by Scipio Africanus and deserted by his government, he remained a scourge the Romans invoked to justify razing Carthage.

1. Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte

Born a Corsican, Napoleon became by far the most able general of the modern age, rising from obscurity during the Revolution to Consul and Emperor of the French Empire which spanned from Madrid to Moscow and from Oslo to Cairo. Originally an artilleryman, he led campaigns that conquered the Italian States, Austria, Egypt, Prussia, Spain, the Netherlands, Swedish Pomerania, parts of the Caribbean, and large swathes of Russia. Leading brilliant campaigns, using concentrated force in lightning strikes on the field, developing independent and complete army corps (a system still modeled today), installing puppet rulers, conscripting troops from each nation he subdued, and inspiring a host of marshals who were all able tacticians themselves (Murat, Massena, Bernadotte, Ney, and many others), Napoleon revolutionized warfare. No less than four international alliances of powers were required to bring his empire to its knees, and without the simultaneous pressure or Russian winter, British naval domination, Spanish guerillas, and Wellington’s stolid and unbreakable Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese Army, very likely Bonaparte would have sat astride the his European conquests for years to come.

Sadly, this list cannot be exhaustive; our knowledge comes to us through dubious historians, and a mythos that may deny some great leaders their due. Notables who missed the top ten by a hair: Alexander the Great, who conquered most of Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, and large parts of India in a single sweeping campaign, before dying in tears that “there were no more worlds to conquer”; Genghis Khan, whose horde took most of China and Russia; Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, who took Western Europe in the late Dark Ages, defeating native tribes, isolated kingdoms, and Moorish conquerors alike; and of course, contemporaries and rivals of those in the top ten. Wellington, Jackson, Pericles, Leonidas, Grant, Pompey, Garibaldi, and Tokugawa all played their roles, and should not be underestimated lightly. But the ten we have inscribed are perhaps the most iconic, representative, and beloved (or feared) of conquerors, a breed of men that knew the direst times of human history, and thrived in them. We shall not see their like again.

10 Greatest Warriors

As long as there have been civilizations, there have been unending wars for power and land. These wars have produced some of the fiercest warriors the world has ever seen. Men who are not only exceptional at hand to hand combat but who were also great leaders and brilliant strategists. There were so many brave individuals who could fit on this list but I think these represent warrior states from around the world and throughout the ages.

10. Richard I (Lionheart)

Richard I was given the nickname Lionheart (or Coeur de Leon) for his exceptional fighting ability and courage. The duke of Normandy and the Count of Anjou, he ascended to the throne of England in 1198 after defeating his father Henry II with the help of his powerful mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard took the cross in 1188 when he heard of Saladin’s successful conquest of Jerusalem. He raised funds by selling official titles, rights and lands to the highest noble bidder. He left for the Holy Land in 1190 along with French King Philip II and most of the military forces of Christendom. After being waylaid first in Sicily and then in Cyprus, Richard and Philip arrived in the Holy Land in June 1191. The joint forces first took Acre and then moved onto Arsuf before fortifying Ascalon. Arguments between who was to become King of Jerusalem escalated and Philip quit the Crusade and returned to France. Richard pressed on but when he realized he had no way of securing Jerusalem even if he had managed to capture it, he signed a peace treaty with Saladin and returned to Europe. He spent his final five years reclaiming his throne from his brother John and fighting against Philip’s advances into Normandy.

9. Spartacus

Born in Thrace in 109 BC, Spartacus is most widely known as the gladiator who led the revolt against Rome during the Gladiatorial War. It is not known for sure how Spartacus became a gladiator but the leading theory is that he once fought for the Roman army but deserted and became a thief. He was arrested and sold as a gladiator due to his strength. In 73 BC he and seventy followers escaped from a gladiator school near Capua and fled to Mount Vesuvius where they were joined by local slaves. His army continued to grow until it was 90, 000 men strong and they began wreaking havoc in southern Italy, defeating two Roman armies and plundering any city they came across. From there they marched north into Gaul where he tried to free his men but they refused to leave and they marched again into Italy for more plunder. Spartacus was killed in a battle at Lucania in 71 BC and his men were crucified. He has been remembered as a legendary commander not only for his successes in battle but for his own courage strength and compassion.

8. Saladin

Known to the western world as the antihero of the Third Crusade, he is revered in the Middle East as the hero who returned Jerusalem into Muslim hands. The Kurdish Sultan was born in 1138 in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and grew up during the First Crusade. He was trained as a soldier by his uncle Asad al-Din Shirkuh and early in his military career he worked on uniting Arab forces under his control first in Egypt then in Syria and Palestine. He then set his sights on Jerusalem and conquered King Guy de Lusignan at the Battle of Hattin. The battle was a tremendous success for Saladin as his army almost wiped out the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The city of Jerusalem fell into his hands when he came to terms with Balian of Ibelin who defended the city after the capture of Guy. His capture of Jerusalem influenced King Richard of England to join forces with King Philip of France and set out for the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. The Christian forces made their way to Ascalon when Richard fell ill and signed a peace treaty with Saladin that left Jerusalem in Muslim hands as long as Christians would be able to safely make their pilgrimage. His reign of Jerusalem was short lived however as he died of a fever on March 4, 1193. Saladin is most often recognized as much for his generosity and chivalry as he is for his impressive military accomplishments.

7. Lieutenant Audie Murphy

Born the son of a poor Texas sharecropper in 1924, Audie went on to become the most decorated American soldier of World War II. In an attempt to free himself of his hardships, he joined the army as a private in 1942. After his basic training he was shipped to Casablanca, Morocco where he continued with his training. He saw action in North Africa, Sicily, France and Germany and was distinguished by his quick thinking and bravery. He not only destroyed several of the enemy’s machine guns in minutes but also jumped onto a burning tank destroyer and turned its machine gun on the enemy as well as cutting off a German counterattack of six tanks and 250 Infantry practically by himself. For these acts of courage he has received countless decorations including the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars, and three Purple Hearts; as well as the French Legion of Honor and two Croix de Guerre. He returned to America as a hero and turned his wartime fame into a successful film career. With help from his friends, Audie penned an autobiography entitled To Hell and Back, which was later made into a movie in which he played himself. While on a business trip he died in a plane crash on May 28, 1971 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with military honors.

6. Miyamoto Musashi

The greatest sword fighter of his time, Miyamoto Musashi, also known as the Sword Saint, is one of the best-known samurai in Japanese history. Born in 1584 in Harima Province, Musashi was raised by his uncle in Shoreian temple. By the time he was 13 he had already won his first duel against Arima Kigei, a student of the Shinto Ryu school of military arts. For the next 16 years he made a name for himself, fighting in more than 60 duels (including against the Yoshioka School and his most famous duel against Sasaki Kojiro) in which he was undefeated. During this time he also enlisted in Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s army and although he was on the losing side, he escaped, crawling among corpses and drinking from muddy puddles to survive. After the war, he turned his attention to teaching swordsmanship and he is credited with creating the nitoryu technique in which you fight with two swords. Later in his life, he became a master painter and writer. His most famous written work is The Book of Five Rings, which covers the sum of his experience as a sword fighter including strategy, tactics and philosophy. At the age of 62, Musashi died of thoracic cancer in Reigando Cave (the same cave where he lived as a hermit while writing The Book of Five Rings).

5. Gaius Julius Caesar

The greatest general in Rome’s history, Caesar came to power first as a quaestor and praetor before being elected as consul and proconsul in 59 BC and organizing the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus. He distinguished himself by leading campaigns in Gaul, Britain and Germany but his growing power scared the senate and he was asked to disband his forces. Not only did he refuse this request, he marched on Rome. He started an outbreak of civil war that lasted until December 49 BC when he held a dictatorship in Rome for eleven days while he was elected as consul. He then chased Pompey to Egypt where he remained living with Cleopatra for several years. On his return to Rome he improved the living conditions of his people and drew up elaborate plans for consolidation of the empire. In 44 BC he became dictator for life, a title that was short lived because on the Ides of March (March 15th) 44 BC, he was stabbed to death by a group of his friends and protégés including Cimber, Casca, Cassius and Brutus.

4. Hannibal Barca

A Carthaginian General, Hannibal was a master strategist who developed outflanking tactics. Dubbed the father of strategy by military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge, he grew up with a fierce hatred of the Romans. After the death of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal, he took command of the Gaulo-Cathaginian army and set his sights on Rome. He set out in the spring of 218 BC and fought his way through the Pyrenees and the Alps with a force of 46,000 soldiers and 37 war elephants. When he was in Roman territory, he ravaged hundreds of towns leaving complete destruction in his wake. Some of his greatest victories were at Trebia, Lake Trasimenus and Cannae, even turning some Roman cities against his enemies. Scipio eventually defeated him in his homeland at the Battle of Zama, after which he signed a peace treaty in 201 BC. After several years as a suffete, he was accused by his political enemies of conspiring with King Antiochus of Syria. At the threat of a Roman investigation, Hannibal fled to the court of King Prusias of Bithynia where he poisoned himself before the Romans could force him to surrender.

3. Sun Tzu

A Chinese General, Sun Tzu was the author of the first and most sophisticated book on military theory ever written, The Art of War. While not much is known about the man, it is generally accepted that he was an accomplished General who served the King of Wu in the period of the Warring States in the 4th century BC. It was at this time that he wrote The Art of War, which covers logistics, espionage, strategy and tactics with a deep reliance on philosophy. The main points it stresses are the high cost of war, the unpredictability of battle, the correlation between political and military policies and the ineffectiveness of setting hard and fast rules. Not only has it influenced Asian military thinking for centuries, but it has also formed the base of the military strategies of Napoleon, Mao Zedong, General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. and Henry Kissinger. In more recent times, The Art of War has been adopted by business students in Tokyo, New York and London as a text on business strategy.

2. Leonidas I

Best known for his heroic last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas’ early years have barely been documented although legend has it that he was the descendant of Heracles. His reign began somewhere around 490 BC and he shared control with Leotychides, as was Spartan custom of the time. The Persian army, led by King Darius, had been conquering Greece for close to ten years when Leonidas became King. When Darius died in 481 BC his son Xerxes continued his father’s expansion into the Greek mainland. In an attempt to stop the advancing army in their tracks, Leonidas (despite warnings by the Oracle of Delphi that told of his death) went to meet Xerxes with 7000 troops including the famed 300 Spartans, at the Pass of Thermopylae (aptly nicknamed the Hot Gates). Xerxes sent in wave after wave of troops including his Immortals who were in turn slaughtered by the Greeks. After a few days of fighting a Greek traitor told Xerxes of a mountain trail which he could use to outflank his enemy. Leonidas learned of the betrayal and sent away most of his men keeping only the 300 Spartans that made up his personal guard. Leonidas’ 300 valiantly fought off the advancing Persians down to their last man. Leonidas was killed and his body was beheaded and crucified which only served to anger his fellow Spartans who expelled the Persians from Greece a few months later at the Battle of Plataea.

1. Alexander the Great

Arguably one of the greatest generals of antiquity, Alexander’s conquests extended the Macedonian kingdom from Greece to India, almost the entire known world at the time. Born in 356 BC his early years were spent under the tutelage of the philosopher Aristotle. His early military career was spent releasing Greece from the grasp of the Persians. From there he moved through Syria, Egypt (where he founded the city of Alexandria and visited the oracle of Ammon and claimed his divinity), and Asia Minor before his final conquest into India. He then returned to the west and began making preparations to invade Arabia but before he could achieve this conquest, he fell ill and died in June 323 BC. Throughout his reign, the casualties of his troops compared to those of his enemies were considerably less, mostly due to his quick tactical thinking and his love for the men who fought under him.

10 Most Famous Actors Who Served in the Military

While today it is generally more common for an actor to entertain soldiers rather than be one, there was a time when even fame and stardom was not enough to keep some people out of war. As a result, during the Second World War a number of actors served in the armed forces—most through enlisting—with a few of them seeing considerable combat. Of course, most of those on this list became actors long after the war, but there are a few who left promising acting careers to serve their country and need to be recognized for their bravery and sacrifice. Because it is impossible to determine who deserves to be first, this is an alphabetical listing of those who actually saw considerable combat. (Unfortunately I am forced to omit dozens of actors who also served in WWII or have served since in peacetime—such as Elvis Presley—though their service is greatly appreciated as well.)

10. Eddie Albert

People generally remember Eddie Albert as the inept farmer and perennial straight man on the goofy hit 1960’s TV show Green Acres, but few know that he also won the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa. In November, 1943, Albert (then a young Navy Lieutenant by the name of Eddie Heimberger—his real name), rescued dozens of stranded and wounded Marines from the landing craft he commanded, much of the time while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.

9. James Arness

Think Matt Dillon wasn’t for real? The fictional old west sheriff was every bit as tough as the six-foot, seven-inch tall actor who played him. As a rifleman for 3rd Infantry Division, Arness landed at Anzio, Italy in January, 1944, where he was wounded by enemy fire and evacuated. After undergoing surgery several times, Arness was honorably discharged in 1945, having received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart medals. His wounds bothered him after the war, resulting in acute leg pain that made it increasingly difficult to mount a horse (Matt Dillon without a horse? Unthinkable!) It became so bad he had to undergo a series of operations to remove bullet fragments that had fused into the bone. Now that’s one tough hombre.

8. Mel Brooks

Hard to believe the off-the-wall director and actor famous for such goofy films as Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and Space Balls was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), but it’s true. A corporal in the combat engineers, his job was to destroy enemy obstacles and included occasionally defusing mines—a job that required a steady nerve, a calm demeanor, and no doubt a good sense of humor. He also fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944 and was even rumored to have been known to answer German propaganda that was being broadcast at regular intervals from a loudspeaker by shouting “Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye!” I guess Mel Brooks was Mel Brooks even back then.

7. Art Carney

Before becoming Jackie Gleason’s lovable but bumbling side kick on the hit 1950s TV sitcom The Honeymooners, Carney fought at Normandy in July of 1944 as part of a machine gun squad. While performing that dangerous task, he was hit in the leg by mortar shrapnel and sent home—where he walked with a limp the rest of his life. He later quipped about his military service by saying that he “Never fired a shot and maybe never wanted to. I really cost the government money.”

6. Charles Durning

This versatile actor with a long acting career and over 100 movies to his credit was one of the most decorated soldiers turned actors of World War Two. A combat infantryman during the war, he survived the bloody landings at Omaha Beach in June of 1944 and was even capture by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944 (though he managed to escape). Awarded three Purple Hearts and a Silver Cross for bravery, he was to spend months after the war recovering from the many wounds he received before being discharged and beginning his long acting career—a career, by the way, that is still going strong today.

5. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Few would have guessed the dashing actor and first husband to Joan Crawford would give up the sparkling lights of Hollywood to serve his country, but that’s exactly what he did. Commissioned an officer at the outbreak of World War Two, the actor served on Lord Louis Mountbatten’s staff in England where he observed the British make cross-channel raids on German positions designed to confuse and deceive the enemy. Taking that knowledge back to America, he was made part of a unit called the “Beach Jumpers” whose job it was to make bogus beach landings designed to confuse the enemy as to the location of the real landings. Serving in this capacity in North Africa, Sicily, and France, he was awarded several medals for bravery, chief among them the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the British Distinguished Service Cross, and even the French Croix de guerre. Fairbanks stayed in the Naval Reserve after the war and ultimately retired a captain in 1954.

4. Russell Johnson

Hard to imagine the mild-mannered and slightly nerdy (but in a good way) professor on the popular but utterly inane 60’s sitcom Gilligan’s Island was an Army Air Corp bomber pilot who flew no less than 44 missions over the Pacific during World War Two. In one mission, his B-25 was shot down over enemy held territory in the Philippines, forcing him to crash land, which resulted in two broken ankles. He was also awarded the Air Medal before being discharged in 1945 and going on to use his GI Bill money to finance his way through acting school (which is where it is assumed he first learned how to make a radio out of a coconut. Too bad he couldn’t figure out how to fix a hole in a boat.)

3. Lee Marvin

This actor, known for his tough guy roles, was a real life roughian who left school to join the United States Marine Corps, serving as a Scout Sniper in the 4th Marine Division in the South Pacific. He was wounded in action during the Battle of Saipan and saw most of his platoon killed. Marvin was wounded by machine gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, for which he was awarded the Purple Heart medal and given a medical discharge. The tough old Marine died of a heart attack in 1987 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery where his headstone reads “Lee Marvin, PFC US Marine Corps, World War II”. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

2. Audie Murphy

Murphy was a true American hero and the only actor to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. In fact, Murphy was the most decorated American soldier of World War II who, besides receiving the CMOH, was also awarded 32 additional U.S. and foreign medals and citations, including five from France and one from Belgium. He later went on to appear in 44 films—mostly westerns and a few army films—before he died in a plane crash near Roanoke, Virginia three weeks shy of his 46th birthday. Not surprisingly, he was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

1. Jimmy Stewart

Stewart was an up and coming actor when he chose to give it all up and join the Army Air Corp in 1942. Considering how dangerous the skies over Europe were and the very high rate of attrition suffered by allied pilots, it’s a miracle he survived at all. Flying no fewer than 20 combat missions over Germany at the controls of the famous B-17 bomber, he received six battle stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal and even the famous French decoration, the Croix de Guerre with Palm. He even stayed active in the U.S. Air Force reserve after the war, reaching the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in 1968.
Honorable Mentions: Jason Robards (he was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941); Tom Posten (flew C-47s over Normandy dropping paratroopers on D-Day. Anyone who saw episode 2 of the HBO special Band of Brothers knows just how dangerous that was.); Clark Gable (flew on some combat missions over Germany in order to get some “realistic” training video. Couldn’t have done that if he were union.); Henry Fonda (another actor who left the glitter of Hollywood to serve in the U.S. Navy in WWII); and Jackie Coogan (flew commandoes in gliders into Japanese held territory in Burma.)
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Jeff Danelek is a Denver, Colorado author who writes on many subjects having to do with history, politics, the paranormal, spirituality and religion. To see more of his stuff, visit his website at www.ourcuriousworld.com.

10 Species That Could Most Realistically Be Cloned

Aside from a few minor successes here and there, cloning still evokes thoughts of pure science fiction, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Star Wars. However, with each passing day, cloning is starting to become closer and closer to a legitimate scientific accomplishment. That fact got us to wondering what the most legitimate targets for cloning would be. What previously extinct species could make a comeback one day? Some of the prime candidates might be:

10. Huia

In the early 20th century, the Huia bird (native to New Zealand) was hunted to the point of extinction for a fashion trend. Thank the Prince of York, who later became King George V, for wearing a Huia feather in his hat, after a royal visit. That sparked a fashion craze that led to mass hunting and poaching; the last official sighting of a Huia was in the 1920′s.
However, there are many well-preserved Huia birds in museums. In the late 1990′s, the students at the Hastings Boys High School in New Zealand made an inquiry about cloning the Huia back into existence. The idea was approved, though it has not yet become a reality. Hopefully, if it does happen, we can get a tame flock of pretty Huia, not bent on vengeance, Alfred Hitchcock-style.

9. Carolina Parakeet

The Carolina Parakeet was the only parakeet native to South Carolina. Most reports have it going extinct about a hundred years ago, both due to their feathers being popular in women’s hats, and having had a reputation as a nuisance and danger to cornfields.
Museums not only have stuffed parakeets, but also full and untouched eggs, making DNA cloning possible in theory.  Of course, locals in South Carolina have dismissed the idea as being “from Jurassic Park.” It is a dangerous thought: if they ever find out what we did to them, we could hardly hope to contain hundreds of years of killer parakeet gut instinct.

8. Dodo Birds

The dodo was essentially a portly small pigeon with a distinctive beak. It went into extinction purely due to contact with sailors and pirates in their natural habitat. The dodo had never encountered a predator before, and would approach humans without fear. Big mistake: the pigs and dogs brought by humans would eat their eggs, and the humans found that their trusting nature made them easy to club on the head. A mere 80 years after first meeting us, the dodo were gone.
In 2007, a nearly full skeleton of a Dodo was recovered, which could be used to more fully map DNA, in hopes of one day cloning the species back into existence. Hopefully with less clubbing this time around.

7. Moa Birds

The Moa birds were hunted to extinction by the arrival of the Maori tribes in New Zealand, around the 13th century. At nearly four hundred pounds upon adulthood, the Moa were seen as an easy source of meat. However, the Moa may have well gone to extinction with even a mild hunting presence. Moa were slow to mature, and relatively easy to capture as eggs or as adolescents. Once a human element was introduced, the large flightless birds had little hope of achieving adulthood.
In 2009, a study concluded that new methods of gathering DNA could extract the DNA without destroying an entire feather. This made the possibility of cloning a Moa more plausible, though the impractically and slow growth of the species would probably still limit any examples to life in zoos. There would be little possibility of repopulating in the wild.

6. Pyrenean Ibex

The last known living Pyrenean Ibex died in 2000. The overall reason for extinction is unknown (hunting, competition for food, and disease were all listed as probable factors.) In 2009, researchers from Advanced Cell Technology were able to use DNA samples to un-extinct the Ibex for a few minutes, and actually gave birth to a female. Unfortunately, the Ibex only lived for a few minutes, due to lung problems. The experiment did raise hope though, not only for the Ibex, but also for other extinct species coming back to life.

5. Tasmanian Tiger

The “Tasmanian Tiger” or Thylacine, with its limited genetic diversity, weak bite, and susceptibility to the spread of disease, did not require human meddling to hasten its extinction in 1936.
Even today, with no hunting by humans, they would have a hard time surviving in the wild. DNA forms from Thylacines are also horribly fragmented and would make it hard to make even one sustainable animal. Though cloning them is very theoretically possible (their DNA has already been successfully inserted into mice,) the Tasmanian Tiger would likely have a limited existence outside of a protected zoo.

4. Passenger Pigeons

It is easy to say that the literal destruction of the passenger pigeon in the 19th century was due to the lack of any conservation laws, because its absolutely true. The last known passenger pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.
In 2010, a potential full DNA strain of a passenger pigeon was constructed. There is a possibility of bringing the extinct bird back to life. However, the pigeon itself relied on mass flocks, numbering in the hundreds and thousands. It also relied on large forests, which we have less and less of every year. So, while the possibility of there one day again being Passenger Pigeons seems to be inching closer to reality, its population ever making a full-scale recovery seems highly unlikely.

3. Humans

In the present, the idea of human cloning faces more ethical issues than scientific ones. There are a number of ethical, as well as religious, concerns. However, strictly on the question as to whether it’s possible? Absolutely. Bringing back the dead, or making a “copy” of yourself, are all issues that will become the subject of increasingly serious debate in the coming years, which will only increase in frequency and volume as we inch closer to successfully doing so.

2. Wooly Mammoths

Nearly intact Wooly Mammoths have been found in permafrost in places like Siberia. The trick to reviving these guys is to find an intact frozen cell, as well as a living one, in order to extract the DNA properly. It seems like a million-to-one shot but, if a living elephant could carry a mammoth to term, then the possibility does remain. A success story could also open the door to reviving species such as sabertooth tigers, wooly rhinoceroses, and giant sloths.

1.  Neanderthals

Recently, Harvard University geneticist Thomas Church raised the intriguing possibility that Neanderthal cloning was a possibility. Science fiction (and insurance company commercials) have long been enamored with the thought of “cavemen” astride in the modern world. However, that thought is usually reserved for the idea of thawing out a specimen who magically jumps back to life, rather than cloning new Neanderthals.
There is a lot of a professional skepticism as to whether Church’s plan would indeed work. There is also a debate as to purpose. Would you create a human-type creature merely for study, or would colonies of Neanderthals actually be established in the modern world?