Gustavus Adolphus the Great

[Martok]

I have to confess that despite the fact there's a Lutheran college right here in Minnesota that's named after the man, I'd never really paid any attention to who he was until after I joined the Org.

Nice article, although it does portray him as little more than a Swedish version of Alfred the Great. Perhaps that was intentional?

[KarlXII]

I have to confess that despite the fact there's a Lutheran college right here in Minnesota that's named after the man, I'd never really paid any attention to who he was until after I joined the Org.

Nice article, although it does portray him as little more than a Swedish version of Alfred the Great. Perhaps that was intentional?

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I was hard pressed to find a proper biography on the King. Most information you can get is on the 30 years war in general, with little mention of Adolphus' true exploits.

And yes, Gustavus is often seen as Sweden's Alfred the Great

[KrooK]

He was really good commander. However not undefeated....

[Martok]

He was really good commander. However not undefeated....

Yeah, but who isn't? To the best of my knowledge, Alexander is the only "Great General" who can make the claim of never having lost a battle in which he personally commanded. That Gustavus cannot doesn't nullify his genius -- that would be like saying Hannibal was a sucky commander because he eventually lost to Rome in the end.

[KrooK]

John Carl Chodkiewicz was undefeated. For me Gustavus was great .... infantry general. People on west are talking about his great cavarly but it was infantry that made him famous. We have to remember that since his changes into swedish army (whole unit shot same time) swedish tactic was being used up to mid of XIX century.

[Adrian II]

John Carl Chodkiewicz was undefeated.

Ah, the great Lithuanian general. His troubles were quite similar to those of Wallenstein: no funds, constantly neglected, underestimated and distrusted by his superiors, yet forever on the move and often successful against terrible odds, although the results of most of his victories crumbled because of bad or absent follow-up and lack of funds to sustain them.

It is a mistake to think that only Italy had its condottieri. Seventeenth century Europe had loads of them.

[KarlXII]

John Carl Chodkiewicz was undefeated. For me Gustavus was great .... infantry general. People on west are talking about his great cavarly but it was infantry that made him famous. We have to remember that since his changes into swedish army (whole unit shot same time) swedish tactic was being used up to mid of XIX century.

Chodkiewicz? Lithuanian noblety? Please, if you would, provide a link to his undefeatedness.....

Adolphus was a superb combined arms general. his use of cannon, musket and sabre helped him enormousely in his campaigns.

[Adrian II]

Chodkiewicz? Lithuanian noblety? Please, if you would, provide a link to his undefeatedness.....

Why yes, daddy was Lithuanian. And his undefeated reputation is rather deserved, as it were. Unless you count his withdrawal after his failed march on Moscow, for lack of funds resulting in mutiny.

[Owen Glyndwr]

John Carl Chodkiewicz was undefeated. For me Gustavus was great .... infantry general. People on west are talking about his great cavarly but it was infantry that made him famous. We have to remember that since his changes into swedish army (whole unit shot same time) swedish tactic was being used up to mid of XIX century.

That's what I remember him for. Gustavus was significant because he ended the centuries long dominance of the Spanish invented turcio formation, replacing it with a more mobile and flexible infantry force.

That is if I recall correctly.

[Megas Methuselah]

Having recently wrote an essay on Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and the Swedish military of his time, I think I might add in a few more points, amongst many others:

-his reformation of the Swedish native forces, modernizing it into Europe's first national standing army of conscripts
-his spectacular use (and possibly invention) of salvo-fire amongst his field artillery pieces and musketeers, a shock tactic designed to replaced the push of pike
-many other achievements, not solely in military matters, which helped him receive the epither "The Great," the only honour of its sort gifted to any Swedish monarch to date

I'm not Swedish, so I'm less biased. He was a good guy...

[nokhor]

Yeah, but who isn't? To the best of my knowledge, Alexander is the only "Great General" who can make the claim of never having lost a battle in which he personally commanded.

alexander was routed by ariobarzanes at the persian gate.

http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/ariobar...barzanes2.html

[Knight of the Rose]

Even if the article is to be belived, it merely states that Alexander was ambushed at the gate and slaughtered the persians on the following day. What a humiliating defeat?

/KotR

[nokhor]

alexander did not defeat them the following day. He waited 30 days before he attempted another assault, in which he was victorious. The macedonians abandoned their casualties during the first battle, something that hellenic armies never did, unless they had been thoroughly defeated. the macedonians lost platoons at a time from the projectile bombardment of the persians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Persian_Gate