As you may or may not have heard, I am undertaking to rank the greatest army commanders of the Kabinettskriege age. You can find a full list of the potential candidates here. These are the following categories upon which these generals are being judged:
A) Battle win-loss record, reckoned against total number of battles fought as commander.
B) Achievement and Sustainment of strategic/political aims
C) Charisma/inspiration of soldiers under their command
D) Scale of operations under their personal command
E) Display of originality/flexibility in thinking
This post will list the highest scoring members from the pool in the previous post, ranked from lowest (15th) to highest (11th). Without further adieu, here are the winners:
15. Peter I, Tsar of Russia, "the Great"
A) 2.25/5 B) 5/5 C) 2/5 D) 4/5 E) 3.5/5 Total: 16.75
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14. Franz Moritz von Lacy
A) 3/5 B) 3/5 C) 2.5/5 D) 4/5 E) 5/5 Total: 17.5/25
Franz Moritz von Lacy, the son of Russian (Irish) general Peter von Lacy, was the consummate professional soldier of the eighteenth century. His independent commands came late in the Kabinettskriege era, commanding a force briefly in the Seven Years' War, during the successful relief of the besieged fortress of Olmütz in Moravia. He had a chance to truly prove himself during the War of Bavarian Succession in 1777, when his mastery of positional warfare brought Frederick II to a standstill. Despite not retaking Silesia for Maria Theresa int the Seven Years' War, Lacy was a highly competent soldier, and would carry out reforms which made the Austrian private soldier the equal of the Prussian in the 1770s. A quiet, and rather bookish man, Lacy was never intensely popular with his troops, but they trusted his sound judgment. A master of logistics, Lacy took to commanding the huge armies of the War of Bavarian succession with relative ease, indeed, with more ease than Frederick II. Finally, Lacy's careful planning was behind the greatest Austrian victory of the Seven Years' War, the approach by separate columns and surprise attack at Hochkirch. His attack by converging tactical columns would change the face of warfare, and be utilized by figures like George Washington. [2]
13. Karl X Gustav, King of Sweden
A) 3/5 B) 4/5 C) 2.5/5 D) 3/5 E) 5/5 Total:17.5/25
"Who?" you hear yourself saying. A forgotten Swedish national treasure, this bad boy often gets lost in the press to flip from Gustav II Adolph right to Karl XII. He also has a pretty cool anti-tank weapon named after him. Karl X Gustav commanded Swedish armies in the 1550s, during the Second Northern War. In this conflict, he initiated a expansion of Swedish territory, including the parts of Southern Sweden which make up the modern state of Sweden today. In this conflict, he prosecuted a successful campaign against the Poles, starting a period of Polish history called "the Deluge." Though he commanded fairly small armies by later standards, he used with them great originality, most famously in his "March Across the Belts," when he led an army across the frozen Baltic Sea into Denmark, despite the terror and protest of many of his generals. The scheme went off swimmingly (errrrr, not, no soldiers drowned) and Denmark signed a peace treaty which created the modern boundaries of Sweden. He did lose the Swedish colony in Delaware though, so that's a bummer. His achievements would later be squandered by his glorious though ineffective grandson, Karl XII.[3]
12. William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
A) 4/5 B) 2/5 C) 3.5/5 D) 3/5 E) 5/5 Total: 17.75/25
William Howe remains a controversial figure among historians, not least because he lost his dog to the Continental army. Many scholars second-guess the generals' decisions, and blame him for British failure in the revolutionary war. These criticisms may well have some merit, as his score for B) denotes. As a military commander on the battlefield, Howe achieved some notable results. From 1775-1778, the span of his military career in America, he personally commanded British troops against American rebels 10 times and was victorious on the battlefield 7 of them. This is a significant achievement. In particular, his recovery of the situation at Germantown, and his flanking movements at Brandywine and Long Island show tactical acumen. He was well beloved by his men, particularly his light infantry forces, for which he had a special affection. As commander-in-chief of British troops in North America, Howe commanded a wide array of forces and did not always coordinate them to full effect. In particular, his lack of support for General Burgoyne's army may have led to British failure in the War for Independence. On the other hand, Howe's instance that the British army operate in open order allowed British forces to perform to a very high standard in the early American War of Independence. An educated man, Howe wrote a treatise on light infantry tactics. His numerous and successful record in battle, as well as the doctrinal emphasis which allowed the British to achieve some success in the Revolutionary War, earn him his place in this ranking.[4]
11. Prinz Henri von Preussen (Prince Henry of Prussia)
A) 3/5 B) 5/5 C) 3/5 D) 2/5 E) 4.9/5 Total: 17.9/25
Ahh, Henri. He was never going to be at the top of the list, but when Frederick II of Prussia is your older brother, sometimes it's hard to get out of the shadow. Many Prussian officers looked to Henri as a greater commander than Frederick, especially near the end of the Seven Years' War. Henri's victory at the Battle of Freiberg in October of 1762 greatly assisted the Prussian position at the negotiating table, formed part of a wider Prussian resurgence later in the Seven Years' War. Taken together, and considering his lack of command role in other battles, this explains his A) and B) score respectively. In terms of inspiration, he was a controversial figure. Henri was more open about his sexual orientation as a gay man than his more enigmatic brother. Henri was an educated man, and encouraged young officers to learn French, "lest they be considered some sort of Germanic beast."[5] Many Prussian officers greatly admired Henri, who took over the mantle of a humane, educating force in the Prussian army after the death of FM Schwerin. In the dark days of 1761, Prussian officers hoped that Henri might offer some sort of way out of the seemingly impossible military situation. He never commanded more than a theatre of operations, and Frederick often sent him lower quality troops, reserving the best regiments for his personal command. However, at Freiberg, Henri embraced the new Austrian method of attack in column, as demonstrated at Hochkirch. His educated and innovative mind greatly assisted the Prussian prosecution of the Seven Years' War.[6]
What do you think of the line-up so far? Do you agree that these men deserve the place they have earned in the rankings? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for Reading,
Alex Burns
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[1]See Christopher Duffy's Russia's Military Way to the West, and James Cracraft's The Revolution of Peter the Great.
[4] To this date, Lacy has no biography. See relevant portions of Christopher Duffy's By Force of Arms.
[3] Since Karl X Gustav has no English language biography, I will recommend: Michael Robert's, The Swedish Imperial Experience, Robert I. Frost, The Northern Wars, and Paul Douglas Lockhart, Sweden in the Seventeenth Century.
[4] See Ira Gruber's, The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution, and Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy's, The Men who Lost America.
[5] Duffy, Military Experience in the Age of Reason, 10.
[6] Sadly, the best biography in English remains Chester Easum's older, Prince Henry of Prussia: Brother of Frederick the Great.
Interesting choices. There will always be disagreements about rankings, or where a personal favorite is placed, but I have no quibbles with the group so far. :-) Please carry on.
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