# Worst Military Leader (game thread) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 15, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783 "2010-11-15T21:20:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/281 "2010-12-30T21:50:55Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Perhaps, but the evidence is equivocal. Stiffened by Romanus IV it seemed the border garrisons were holding their own in the two years prior to Manzikert, if not exactly performing with enthusiasm and alacrity. A question would be: was that performance solely due to Romanus’ military reforms? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/282 "2010-12-31T18:51:38Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > A question would be: was that performance solely due to Romanus’ military reforms? Probably. Romanus when he called muster in the wake of the sack off Caesarea was pretty appalled by the quality of the army and as a result did what he could to stiffen it with mercenaries. The problem was that the mercenary contingents never cohered into a composite army, instead acting more like the disparate collection of barely disciplined contingents it was. By the way “border garrisons” as I stated earlier is probably inaccurate here, as some Seljuq raiders penetrated deeply into Anatolia ( which is what had prompted Romanus’ accession in the first place ) - more the scratch forces he raised and tried to counter with. Romanus may have been worried that the motley army he had gathered would dissolve if he didn’t use it when he could ( in fact it dissolved on the battlefield ), but granted that hindsight is 20/20 he really should have just tried to fortify and maybe played the Fatimids off against the Seljuqs. Still, thinking about it, Romanus wasn’t _awful_. Actually, he was competent in many respects. He made mistakes, the chief of them being over-optimism and a failure to understand the current political situation in the ME. And he wasn’t good enough to whip his army into any truly solid shape, which is perhaps a serious indictment. But he truly was let down by his army at a critical point. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/283 "2011-01-02T18:26:30Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Still, thinking about it, Romanus wasn’t _awful_. Actually, he was competent in many respects. He made mistakes, the chief of them being over-optimism and a failure to understand the current political situation in the ME. And he wasn’t good enough to whip his army into any truly solid shape, which is perhaps a serious indictment. But he truly was let down by his army at a critical point. That is pretty much what my thinking is. Every battle has a loser and certainly the loser doesn’t automatically get classified as ‘worst.commander.ever!’. If Romanus is on this list then why isn’t Valens? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/284 "2011-01-03T06:03:35Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > That is pretty much what my thinking is. Every battle has a loser and certainly the loser doesn’t automatically get classified as ‘worst.commander.ever!’. Yeah. You or I or somebody has convinced me :). **Romanus IV Diogenes** - 2. Not a great commander and made mistakes, but not screamingly incompetent either and his time had probably come. Manzikert was a game-changing battle of great import on the level of a Hastings. But if we’re judging sheer ( lack of ) talent as being the key criterion, rather than historical impact, Romanus should probably get relieved from this list soon. **Oreste Baratieri** - 2. Fucked up, but wasn’t a complete scrub either. \*\* Paul Harkins\*\* - 1. Arguably ineffective, but left before things really started rocking. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/285 "2011-01-03T16:58:56Z")
**James Ledlie - 2** - It’s after New Year’s! Let’s push this drunkard off the list before he sobers up. **Paul D. Harkins - 2** - Probably here at this round more as an accident of inertia than by consensus. **Ambrose E. Burnside - 1** - Lost men due to poor scouting at Antietam, failed spectacularly in command at Fredericksburg, bungled the Mud March spectacularly; permitted the Crater to go wrong mostly through lack of attention to detail. But he was unfailingly brave, even trying to die in a charge himself at Fredericksburg; he only accepted command to save the army; and in his least-recognized but perhaps most important contribution to American democracy, when underlings came muttering to him about marching the army to Washington and imposing military rule, Burnsides scoffed “Damned treason!” and went to sleep, giving the soreheaded would-be conspirators exactly the right kind of contemptuous dismissal. Tactically inept, but he did steal a march on Bobby Lee once, and he embraced an innovative approach to breaking the Petersburg stalemate, until it went horribly wrong. Belongs on any list of military bunglers, but maybe not at the top echelon. Somewhat unusually for this list, he was personally likable as well as justifiably modest. I keenly feel my ignorance of some of these folks and need to do more reading. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/286 "2011-01-03T18:50:41Z")
Happy New Year, everyone! The results of our 17th round of voting: **Paul D. Harkins - 9 Oreste Baratieri - 6** Varus - 4 Romanus IV of Byzantium - 3 Braxton Bragg, Ambrose Burnside, Judson Kilpatrick, James Ledlie, Arthur Percival - 2 each Hermann Goering, Manuel Fernandez Silvestre - 1 each **Saint Cad** , you cast three votes for Arthur Percival, but the most permitted for any individual military leader is two, so that’s how I tallied your vote. The boldfaced leader(s) above are eliminated. That leaves: Abdel Hakim Amer: Panicked, lost Sinai in 1967 Braxton Bragg: Bungling, irritating Confederate general Duke of Buckingham: Useless sycophant, incompetent military leader Ambrose E. Burnside: Defeat from jaws of victory Luigi Cadorna: Lost twelve consecutively; hated, cruel Charles Alexander of Lorraine: Sustained career of incompetence Charles le Temeraire: Rash rather than “Bold” William George Keith Elphinstone: Lost an army in Afghanistan Maurice Gamelin: Relied on the Maginot Line Horatio Gates: Fled headlong from Camden, S.C. Gaius Claudius Glaber: Why fortify against slaves? Hermann Goering: Prancing figurehead misused Luftwaffe Douglas Haig: Incompetent British WWI general John Bell Hood: Recklessly stupid, lost Atlanta, West William Hull: Surrendered peacefully to inferior forces Thom Karremans: Toasted Mladić, allowed Srebenica massacre Hugh Judson Kilpatrick: Nicknamed “Kill Cavalry” for reason James Ledlie: Drunk during Battle of Crater Tiberius Sempronius Longus: Lost to Carthage at Trebia Francisco Solano López: Almost unmade Paraguay George B. McClellan: Timid, bungling, arrogant Union commander Napoleon III: Clobbered, captured at Sedan Nicias: Commanded ill-fated Syracuse expedition Arthur Percival: Surrendered Singapore to Japan Philip VI of France: Crushed own army at Crécy Romanus IV of Byzantium: Lost Battle of Manzikert Zinovy Rozhestvensky: Led Russian Navy to annihilation Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna: “Napoleon of the West”? Ha! Manuel Fernandez Silvestre: Lost badly in Spanish Morocco Frederick William Stopford: Blunderer at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli Publius Quinctilius Varus: Army totally annihilated in Germany Zhao Kuo: Became idiom for “bad general” _Eliminated:_ Ulysses S. Grant William T. Sherman Pyrrhus of Epirus Benedict Arnold James II of England Earl of Cardigan Cloudesley Shovell Douglas MacArthur William Halsey George A. Custer Curtis LeMay Lord Chelmsford George Tryon Geoffrey Spicer-Simson Benjamin F. Butler Xerxes I of Persia Ernest J. King Gaius Terentius Varro John A. McClernand Daniel Sickles Christian de Castries Maximilian von Prittwitz Rodolfo Graziani William Westmoreland Crassus William Calley Carlo di Persano Heinrich Himmler William H. Winder Ratko Mladić Paul D. Harkins Oreste Baratieri Same rules for the next round, which will end at noon EST on Weds. Jan. 5. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/287 "2011-01-04T13:49:11Z")
Round 18! My votes: **Romanus IV of Byzantium** -2 votes **Hermann Goering** 2 votes. He ‘commanded’ a section of the German military and it wasn’t horrible. It fell apart later due to poor resources and Hitler’s meddling. Being a drunk hedonist was not it Hermann’s favor but he really doesn’t belong on this list. And my new target: **Duke of Buckingham** - I assume this refers to George Villiers. Not really much of a ‘military leader’ here. A couple of campaigns that could be better classified as ‘adventures’ as well as pushing for the Palatine campaign that flopped. His big failure would be his attempt at assault on a fort at La Rochelle, which ended in disaster but was hardly. Yes, he has a career of suck, but with the possible exception of La Rochelle it is all minor grade suck. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/288 "2011-01-04T14:15:34Z")
Varus - 2 Romanus IV of Byzantium - 2 Judson Kilpatrick - 1 ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/289 "2011-01-04T14:52:02Z")
**Hugh Judson Kilpatrick** - 2 **Braxton Bragg** - 2 And one of my own nominees: **Zinovy Rozhestvensky** - 1 - lost to one of the late-round survivors in our Greatest Military Leaders, who was in a superior strategic position; there’s no obvious way Rozhesvensky could have either won or avoided the engagement. Simply getting his fleet 18,000 miles from the Baltic to the Pacific with no on-land re-coaling stations was an incredible achievement. His wikipedia biographer is obviously a fan and an apologist, but if we’re going to excuse otherwise-competent commanders who presided at a disaster, Rozhestvensky should really be out before Romanus. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/290 "2011-01-04T18:35:14Z")
Kilpatrick may have been kept out of high command (justifiably) but he compounded a lack of military sense with a real flair for getting other men killed, famously shaming Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth into a suicidal charge, allegedly by questioning his manhood. [QUOTE=Wikipedia] Young Kilpatrick had little experience in commanding cavalry, and he demonstrated that by attacking fortified infantry positions in a piecemeal fashion. West of the road, Merritt went in first, with his 6th Pennsylvania cavalrymen fighting dismounted. Anderson’s Georgians repulsed their attack easily. Farnsworth was to follow, but he was astonished to hear Kilpatrick’s order for a mounted cavalry charge. The Confederate defenders were positioned behind a stone fence with wooden fence rails piled high above it, too high for horses to jump, which would require the attackers to dismount under fire and dismantle the fence. The terrain leading to it was broken, undulating ground, with large boulders, fences, and woodlots, making it unsuitable for a cavalry charge. Accounts differ as to the details of the argument between Farnsworth and Kilpatrick, but it is generally believed that Kilpatrick dared or shamed Farnsworth into making the charge the latter knew would be suicidal. Farnsworth allegedly said “General, if you order the charge I will lead it, but you must take the awful responsibility.” [/QUOTE] Farnsworth was killed, and the charge easily repulsed, as were all of Kilpatrick’s boneheaded attacks that day. Kilpatrick watched from a safe distance, and eventually went into politics. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/291 "2011-01-04T21:59:14Z")
Sticking with: Varus – 2 Introducing to my lists: Romanus IV of Byzantium – 2 Zinovy Rozhestvensky – 1 ---
**Author:** ![kfraser34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@kfraser34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kfraser34)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/292 "2011-01-05T16:45:44Z")
2 for Hull - didn’t get much support from his superiors… got out witted by a highly skilled general 2 for Varus, he was more of a governor than a general and ended up in an no win situation 2 for George B. McClellan… doesn’t belong on this list at all… didn’t even notice his name on the list… would have voted for him from the beginning… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/293 "2011-01-05T18:38:06Z")
The results of our 18th round of voting: **Romanus IV of Byzantium - 6 Varus - 6** Braxton Bragg, Hermann Goering, William Hull, Judson Kilpatrick, George B. McClellan, Zinovy Rozhestvensky - 2 each Duke of Buckingham - 1 The boldfaced leader(s) above are eliminated. That leaves: Abdel Hakim Amer: Panicked, lost Sinai in 1967 Braxton Bragg: Bungling, irritating Confederate general Duke of Buckingham: Useless sycophant, incompetent military leader Ambrose E. Burnside: Defeat from jaws of victory Luigi Cadorna: Lost twelve consecutively; hated, cruel Charles Alexander of Lorraine: Sustained career of incompetence Charles le Temeraire: Rash rather than “Bold” William George Keith Elphinstone: Lost an army in Afghanistan Maurice Gamelin: Relied on the Maginot Line Horatio Gates: Fled headlong from Camden, S.C. Gaius Claudius Glaber: Why fortify against slaves? Hermann Goering: Prancing figurehead misused Luftwaffe Douglas Haig: Incompetent British WWI general John Bell Hood: Recklessly stupid, lost Atlanta, West William Hull: Surrendered peacefully to inferior forces Thom Karremans: Toasted Mladić, allowed Srebenica massacre Hugh Judson Kilpatrick: Nicknamed “Kill Cavalry” for reason James Ledlie: Drunk during Battle of Crater Tiberius Sempronius Longus: Lost to Carthage at Trebia Francisco Solano López: Almost unmade Paraguay George B. McClellan: Timid, bungling, arrogant Union commander Napoleon III: Clobbered, captured at Sedan Nicias: Commanded ill-fated Syracuse expedition Arthur Percival: Surrendered Singapore to Japan Philip VI of France: Crushed own army at Crécy Zinovy Rozhestvensky: Led Russian Navy to annihilation Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna: “Napoleon of the West”? Ha! Manuel Fernandez Silvestre: Lost badly in Spanish Morocco Frederick William Stopford: Blunderer at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli Zhao Kuo: Became idiom for “bad general” _Eliminated:_ Ulysses S. Grant William T. Sherman Pyrrhus of Epirus Benedict Arnold James II of England Earl of Cardigan Cloudesley Shovell Douglas MacArthur William Halsey George A. Custer Curtis LeMay Lord Chelmsford George Tryon Geoffrey Spicer-Simson Benjamin F. Butler Xerxes I of Persia Ernest J. King Gaius Terentius Varro John A. McClernand Daniel Sickles Christian de Castries Maximilian von Prittwitz Rodolfo Graziani William Westmoreland Crassus William Calley Carlo di Persano Heinrich Himmler William H. Winder Ratko Mladić Paul D. Harkins Oreste Baratieri Romanus IV of Byzantium Varus Same rules for the next round, which will end at noon EST on Fri. Jan. 7. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/294 "2011-01-05T18:40:24Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > …2 for George B. McClellan… doesn’t belong on this list at all… Why not, pray? ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/295 "2011-01-05T21:18:04Z")
Sticking with: Zinovy Rozhestvensky – 2 Adding: Hermann Goering – 2 George B. McClellan – 1 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/296 "2011-01-05T21:22:09Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Why not, pray? Probably for his skill in building the Army of the Potomac, would be my guess. Which is a fair point - but my understand is that this thread’s focus is upon battlefield command. ---
**Author:** ![kfraser34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@kfraser34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kfraser34)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/297 "2011-01-06T00:28:58Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Why not, pray? IMO the whole idea that McClellan is one of histories “worst military leaders” stems from comparisons between him and Lee… two generals who were in completely different positions… during the CW the complaints that were put forth against McClellan involved him being “timid” and pussyfooting around when he should have been pressing his advantage of manpower and material, but when you have such a decided advantage there is no need to act hastily and take risks… especially not because of the belly aching of some politicians and news paper editors… Lee had to take risks and make bold moves because of the position he was in. McClellan did not… C&Ped from his wiki page > [@](#): > > Although the majority of modern authorities assess McClellan as a poor battlefield general, a small but vocal faction of historians maintain that he was a highly capable commander, but his reputation suffered unfairly at the hands of pro-Lincoln partisans who needed a scapegoat for the Union’s setbacks. His legacy therefore defies easy categorization. There has been a anti-McClellan sentiment that existed since the war was underway, and it has been an opinion that, at times, was forwarded by people that had no idea about the logistics involved with military operations… If you look at the Seven Days Battles as a slice of his career… yes he lost to the Military Mastermind Lee, but he did not have the large advantage in manpower in those battles that he is famous for squandering… If you look at two of the battles, Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill… At Gaines Mill he was outnumbered almost 2 to 1 and while the battle is considered a Confederate win, the Union did manage to inflict as many casualties upon the Confederacy and they themselves suffered… Malvern Hill, where the two armies were of equal strength in terms of manpower, is considered a Union victory… So in these two examples, he gave as good as he got when outnumbered 2 to 1 and achieved victory against a Lee when evenly matched… I think that this lasting impression of McClellan still exists largely because of his poor use of intelligence (acted upon poor intelligence, disregarded accurate intelligence) and his failure to act quickly after discovering Lee’s Lost Orders… but even so he still used that intelligence to defeat Lee at South Mountain and Antietam, which was for the most part the beginning of the end for the South’s hope for independence… I’m not going to try and make the case for McClellan as a great leader, but he certainly doesn’t belong on a list of the worst… ---
**Author:** ![kfraser34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@kfraser34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kfraser34)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/298 "2011-01-06T00:41:43Z")
2 for Hull - didn’t get much support from his superiors… got out witted by a highly skilled general 2 for George B. McClellan… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/299 "2011-01-06T03:19:44Z")
I don’t think McClellan was ever outnumbered by Lee. He _thought_ he was, many times, and always believed the inflated numbers given to him by Pinkerton and others. His Peninsular Campaign was a model of timidity and glacial pacing that allowed the Confederates to reinforce against him. He knew Lee’s dispositions before Antietam thanks to the famous Lost Order and _still_ managed to only eke out a narrow win, and then allowed Lee to withdraw safely. Lincoln gave him two turns as the head of the Army of the Potomac, something no other general got, and he blew it both times. Given McClellan’s massive ego, massive resources, national adulation and the fervent wishes of the Federal leadership for his success (despite his utterly contemptuous treatment of the President), his failures are all the more glaring. A different man in his position could perhaps have won the war within the first two years or so; McClellan was not that man. He deserves to remain on this list for many rounds yet, IMHO. Hermann Goering - 2 Judson Kilpatrick - 2 Zinovy Rozhestvensky - 1 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783/300 "2011-01-06T15:53:19Z")
**Hermann Goering** - 2 Votes **Duke of Buckingham** - 2 Votes New Target: **William Hull** -1 Vote - He served competently in the American Revolution, then ended up in a command that he did not want, with poor militia troops and awful support from the US government,. He got fooled by some very good tactics into thinking his enemies forces were superior. It looks like he was at least partially a fall guy for the blame for the idiocies of that war. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-military-leader-game-thread/560783.md?page=16)