Who is the most overrated general ever?

[Cimon]

you also left out confederate gen. Nathan beford forrest.(yeah I know he was politically contraversial, but his cavalry tactics were innovative for their time)

and the union you left out general George Thomas. he is often forgotten actually.

Excellent additions Ibrahim, and thank you for helping to round out my list. I don't know how I forgot the "Rock of Chickamauga." Guess we could add John Bell Hood for the Confederates also, but he is certainly a lesser commander than the others, as witnessed in the Atlanta campaign once he replaced Johnston.

[Ardri]

Hood was an outstanding division commander (corps as well I believe), but my civil war history is not nearly as sharp as it use to be.

I will say that when you have the Texas Brigade in your division it is easy for a division commander to look good! Haha, maybe a little bias to my state.

[Cimon]

Hood was an outstanding division commander (corps as well I believe), but my civil war history is not nearly as sharp as it use to be.

I will say that when you have the Texas Brigade in your division it is easy for a division commander to look good! Haha, maybe a little bias to my state.

Hood is a classic example of the Peter Principle: "In any given hierarchical structure, a person will rise to his/her highest level of incompetence and stay there." In other words, a person who does well at a job will be promoted, until they get to a job that he/she doesn't do well, and then he/she will cease being promoted, but will not be demoted, and will just continue to do his/her new job incompetently. That's Hood in a nutshell. He was outstanding with smaller detachments, but as he rose through his promotional ranks, he became less and less effective. He still did well enough to be promoted to replace a cautious Johnston in the Atlanta campaign, and proceeded to agressively play into Sherman's numerical advantage by directly attacking the Union forces, thereby destroying his own. (Shades of Varro and Paulus, anyone?)

[Ardri]

I do believe that by the time he took over in the Atlanta campaign he had already lost both an arm and a leg. Not sure if that played a role in hindering his ability to command, but I highly doubt that those kinds of injuries have any benefit.

[Berg-i-dum]

I know I will be crucified lol, but I always say Alexander The Great.

It is not so dificult to destroy a so ruined and decadent empire like the Persian one, then you have that big skeleton to create a new empire above the previous one, you only cut a head and then have all the body. And If prevoiously your father managed to create a exceptional army and discipline, it is even easier. I would like to imagine the macedonian fighting a stronger and united Persian Empire like the one in the old good days of Darius and Cyrus The Great (this one really was the great).

[A Very Super Market]

Well, I knew about Robert II

He isn't really overrated. Yes, he did not perform well, but it isn't as if people thought he was a good general.

Its a bit like putting Spartans as "Surprisingly Good".

[Mulceber]

I actually agree, Berg. Alexander was a really great general, I won't deny him that, but I think that people kind of don't (and didn't) realize how weak the persian empire really was. Thermopylae had proven that, as had Xenophon's march from Mesopotamia through Turkey. Light infantry wouldn't stand up to the Greek phalanx, and Alexander's true brilliance was in seeing through the facade of invincibility that the Persians had.

The one area in which I disagree with you is in your assessment that he wouldn't have faired so well against Darius or Cyrus. I disagree. It wasn't that the Persians were any weaker than they had always been, it was that their army was composed almost entirely of light troops which couldn't really stand up to Greek heavy infantry, particularly phalangitai. As stated above, there were numerous land battles against the persians where the Greeks demonstrated their superiority, partly due to their tactics, but also to a large degree due to their equipment. Marathon, Thermopylae, etc. -M