Who is the most overrated general ever?

[Maeran]

In the first days of WW1 horses were the fastest reliable way to cross a field. And a cavalry lance is no more archaic an idea than a bayonet. A carbine would lack accuracy in a charge, so you'd have to stop if you wanted to hit anyone in that small bunch of men around the gun. Not a good idea.

Not that the machine gun was likely to lose this encounter, but a better solution didn't exist.

The final successes of 1918 built on years of trial and error. In any case, I would say that generally the generals of that war have a worse reputation than they deserve rather than a better one. So you can't say that any of them are overrated.

There are probably a great many overrated generals. I think that Henry V of England was one of them. The siege of Harfleur -the very first action in his war against France- was such a Pyrrhic victory that he had to change the entire campaign into a symbolic march to Calais. He could not do anything more.

He may have shown great skill in choosing his ground at Agincourt, but so much luck came into the circumstances of that battle that surely only Shakespeare could make him the heroic warrior king he is remembered as.