But Ledlie’s particular disgrace is not only his cowardice and drunkenness during battle, but that if he’d been sober and competent, the war could’ve ended much sooner, saving perhaps tens of thousands of lives. I think he should stick around.
Tiberius Sempronius Longus - 2
Frederick William Stopford - 2
Abdel Hakim Amer - 1
He would have had prepared defensive positions had he bothered to have them built. Wasn’t he the guy who said fortifications were bad for morale? His only real disadvantage was a lack of tanks, he failed on almost every other level. He might have even won just by holding on had his nerve not cracked. The Japanese were practically out of supplies.
Frederick William Stopford 2 votes
Tiberius Sempronius Longus 2 votes
James Ledlie 1 vote
Arghh! Here I am not paying attention and not playing solid defense.
Yes. Like Manuel Fernandez Silvestre :). A wasted rear guard argument, but I was hoping for top ten honors for that extravagantly mustachioed glory-hound.
In the Anual campaign Silvestre had 25,700 men ( 20,600 Spaniards, 5,100 Moroccan auxiliaries ). His opponent Abd el-Krim had ~3,000 Riffian tribesmen. Silvestre lost ~13,000-19,000, most likely much closer to the high end of that. That’s battlefield deaths for the most part, plus desertions of which only the natives would have had much of a chance to make it out of the combat zone ( and not a great one - the Riffian Berbers were insular and hostile and it is doubtful many Moroccan Regulares were recruited from their ranks unless they were already tribal outcasts ). Abd el-Krim’s losses are uncounted, but presumably were negligible.
That mean each Riffian “rebel” killed an average of maybe six Spanish soldiers each. It’s pretty remarkable when a force outnumbered approximately 8:1 takes to the strategic as well as tactical offensive. Even more so when they annihilate most of the opposing army. And Abd el-Krim’s remarkable leadership notwithstanding, Silvestre blustery incompetence must take considerable credit for that feat. While Abd el-Krim repeated his feat at Chaoen, were he killed ~17,000-20,000 exposed Spaniards in a well-timed offensive, hitting some 40,000 troops strung out in a vulnerable rear guard covering a larger retreat, he had more than twice the forces he had had at Anual ( ~7,000 ) and his proportionate casualties inflicted were lower ( at a mere ~50% 
).
Hmmm…should have mentioned Abd el-Krim in the greatest generals thread. Nicely obscure, excellent general. Ah, well.
So Silvestre was of the suck. I hate you all for voting him off :p. Anyway…
Tiberias Sempronius Longinus - 2. Yeah, up against a genius. His time has come.
Napoleon III - 2. How’d he last this long? Barely a general, arguably less of one than Himmler. Not terribly competent, no. But I won’t lay the Franco-Prussian disaster at his feet in terms of his battlefield performance.
Philip VI - 1. Bad decision at Crecy, but as I argued earlier he was under intense social/political pressure to make it and he’d done better in the past. Edward III’s first French campaign floundered badly largely due to Philip’s sound approach to countering him. And in the end Crecy was not decisive. That distinction went to Poitiers ten years later and that wasn’t on Philip’s watch.
Here here. When I saw the title of title of the thread and before I entered it, I thought ‘Percival’.
James Ledlie - 2
Tiberius Sempronius Longus - 2
Nap the III - 1 Time for this loser to enter the prunning…gahhh I don’t know!
Napoleon III - 2
Tiberias Sempronius Longinus - 2
Philip VI - 1
I have to agree with some other poster’s arguments on their respective (de-)merits.
That only gets you so far, though. Holding Afghanistan, building institutions, stabilizing your rule - yah, those things are incredibly difficult. That being said, the traditional way for foreign powers to get tossed out is to sink a lot of time and money into the country, get exhausted, and then withdraw in good order after deciding it just isn’t worth the hassle.
Elphinstone lost an army. An entire army, along with the women and children accompanying them. That’s really something special. Hopkirk’s “The Great Game” makes an excellent case that Elphinstone made a bad situation far worse by ignoring warnings that his army’s position was untenable, refusing to reinforce properly, and repeatedly trusting rebel leaders who wanted nothing more than to make the Brits very, very dead. (Incidentally, “Flashman” also has a very good, albeit fictional, account of the whole mess.)
Elphey Bey is top ten material, IMHO.
The results from Round 26 of voting:
Tiberius Sempronius Longus AKA Longinus - 16
Frederick William Stopford - 11
James Ledlie, Napoleon III - 6 each
Arthur Percival, Philip VI - 2 each
Abdel Hakim Amer, William G.K. Elphinstone - 1 each
The boldfaced leader(s) above are eliminated. That leaves:
Abdel Hakim Amer: Panicked, lost Sinai in 1967
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
John Bell Hood: Recklessly stupid, lost Atlanta, West
James Ledlie: Drunk during Battle of Crater
Francisco Solano López: Almost unmade Paraguay
Napoleon III: Clobbered, captured at Sedan
Arthur Percival: Surrendered Singapore to Japan
Philip VI of France: Crushed own army at Crécy
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna: “Napoleon of the West”? Ha!
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
Hermann Goering
Zinovy Rozhestvensky
William Hull
George B. McClellan
Judson Kilpatrick
Thom Karremans
Ambrose Burnside
Gaius Claudius Glaber
Douglas Haig
Braxton Bragg
Duke of Buckingham
Maurice Gamelin
Horatio Gates
Manuel Fernandez Silvestre
Nicias
Tiberius Sempronius Longus
Frederick William Stopford
Same rules for the next round, which will end at noon EST on Weds. Jan. 26.
James Ledlie 2 (an impressive amount of suckage for a minor command in one battle, but it’s time)
Napoleon III 2
Philip VI 1
James Ledlie - 2
Nap the 3rd - 2
hmmmm. Did some more reading over the weekend. Think I need to go with:
Philip the VI - 1
Edit - same as Tom Scud! OMG I am a follower! 
I’m on board with the above, with a slight reversal…
Napoleon III - 2.
Philip VI - 2. Not that it matters very much in terms of generalship, but I’ll add that he personally was no Karremans. When the French infantry melted around him at the final English counter-charge, he stood his ground at nearly 50 years old and had two horses killed from under him and took an arrow in the face.
James Ledlie - 1.
I like the use of Karremans as a synonym for cowardice. Can we keep that up in other threads as well? Sort of a consolation prize for the gutless Colonel, since he won’t be winning this contest.
Sticking with:
Napoleon III – 2
Adding:
Philip VI – 2
Returning (although apparently in vain) to:
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna – 1
At least he won at the Alamo…
Napoleon III - 2
Arthur Percival - 2
Abdel Hakim Amer - 1
Phillip VI - 2 votes. Yeah, one could say he could have done a lot better, but he had some rather telling circumstances. I also like to point out that despite Crecy, Poiters & Agincourt there are still no English Kings in France. In the end the English Kings just acted like the bandit armies that roamed the country in that age.
James Ledlie - 2 Votes
And a new one for me.
Napoleon III - 1 Vote - He lost only one battle, and it did have devastating consquences. But losing the war can be put on others. The mitigating factor against me voting for him is that he styled himself as the successor to his great Uncle Nappy.
With an overwhelming force, against a rather poor fortification. Not very impressive. In addition, mucking around with the Alamo gave the Texans time to build up their strength.
I’ll be joining you with Santa Anna soon…compare him to Luigi Cadorna and Santa Anna pales IMO…though Luigi didn’t have Santa Anna’s longevity, misplaced sense of greatness and cowardness…hmmmm…maybe I won’t be joining you
Percival - 2
Napoleon III - 1
Philip VI - 2
The results from Round 27 of voting:
Napoleon III - 13
Philip VI - 10
James Ledlie - 7
Arthur Percival - 4
Abdel Hakim Amer, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna - 1 each
The boldfaced leader(s) above are eliminated, as two crappy monarchs get the Order of the Boot. That leaves:
Abdel Hakim Amer: Panicked, lost Sinai in 1967
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
John Bell Hood: Recklessly stupid, lost Atlanta, West
James Ledlie: Drunk during Battle of Crater
Francisco Solano López: Almost unmade Paraguay
Arthur Percival: Surrendered Singapore to Japan
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna: “Napoleon of the West”? Ha!
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
Hermann Goering
Zinovy Rozhestvensky
William Hull
George B. McClellan
Judson Kilpatrick
Thom Karremans
Ambrose Burnside
Gaius Claudius Glaber
Douglas Haig
Braxton Bragg
Duke of Buckingham
Maurice Gamelin
Horatio Gates
Manuel Fernandez Silvestre
Nicias
Tiberius Sempronius Longus
Frederick William Stopford
Napoleon III
Philip VI
Same rules for the next round, which will end at noon EST on Fri. Jan. 28.
James Ledlie 2
I honestly don’t think anyone else deserves to be voted out at this point.