History's Ten Worst Generals

By Charles A. Mills

Success leaves clues.  So does failure.  Some of history's best known commanders are remembered not for their brilliant victories but for their catastrophic blunders.

Throughout the centuries countless armies have gone down to defeat, succumbing to greater numbers, more advanced technology, or more skilled opponents.  A few armies have been defeated because of the blundering incompetence of their own commanders.  What are the elements of leadership failure?  A recurrent pattern emerges over the last two thousand plus years.  Read on and see if you can identify the key ingredients to self-induced failure.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles A. Mills
• Release date: Jun 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781501475368

Charles A. Mills

Chuck Mills has a passion for history. He is the author of Hidden History of Northern Virginia, Echoes of Manassas, Historic Cemeteries of Northern Virginia and Treasure Legends of the Civil War and has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles on historical subjects. Chuck is the producer and cohost of Virginia Time Travel, a history television show that airs to some 2 million viewers in Northern Virginia. He lives on the banks of the Potomac River on land once owned by George Washington.

Book preview

History’s Ten Worst Generals

By Charles A. Mills

Copyright 2011, Charles A. Mills

Introduction

Success leaves clues.  So does failure.  Some of history’s best known commanders are remembered not for their brilliant victories but for their catastrophic blunders. 

Throughout the centuries countless armies have gone down to defeat, succumbing to greater numbers, more advanced technology, or more skilled opponents.  A few armies have been defeated because of the blundering incompetence of their own commanders.  What are the elements of leadership failure?  A recurrent pattern emerges over the last two thousand plus years.  Read on and see if you can identify the key ingredients to self induced failure.

John Armstrong Jr.

On June 14, 1813 President James Madison named Brigadier General John Armstrong Jr. as Secretary of War.  Armstrong had not been a general long, having only been commissioned a brigadier in 1812 at the outbreak of war with England, based on his service as a junior officer during the Revolution.  What Armstrong lacked in military experience he made up for in political muscle, being a former Senator from New York and a powerful figure in New York politics.

Despite his relative inexperience, Armstrong fancied himself something of a military genius.  In 1814 he penned a book entitled, Hints to Young Generals that became widely popular and solidified his reputation as the country’s foremost military expert.  Some of his New York associates perhaps knew better, describing his chief attributes as  obstinacy and self-conceit.

On April 11, 1814, as the victorious Allied armies marched into Paris, the Emperor Napoleon abdicated. Thousands of battle hardened British troops were now available for service against America.  President Monroe called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet on July 1, as the threat of a British invasion became imminent.  The president told the cabinet that he wanted three thousand militiamen deployed between Washington and the Chesapeake Bay, with another twelve thousand on alert in the nearby area (the regular army, some twenty seven thousand regulars was spread thinly from Canada to Louisiana).  No one objected.

John Armstrong had no need to argue.  He simply ignored the president.  He also ignored the request of his ground commander, General William Winder, to mobilize the local militia so that they could train.  Armstrong, the self styled military genius, had a theory that militia fought best at the spur of the moment.  Early deployment would only cause militiamen to brood over the horrors of battle.  In addition to his theory on the use of troops, Armstrong’s strategic sense told him that the British would never attack Washington an insignificant rural town of 8,000 when richer prizes awaited, By God, he proclaimed, they would not come with such a fleet without meaning to strike somewhere.  But they certainly will not come here.  What the devil will they do here?  No! No!  Baltimore is the place, Sir.  That is of so much more consequence.  Armstrong had a few lonely critics, but few dared question the Secretary of War, who obviously had access to military intelligence which gave him greater insight into matters.

Armstrong steadfastly refused to do anything to defend the United States capital. When residents of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, pleaded for help in the face of several British raids, Armstrong replied, It cannot be expected that I can defend every man’s turnip patch.  When President Madison finally reprimanded him for not doing enough to defend the capital just days before the invasion, the obstinate Armstrong did even less.

The British landed at Benedict, Maryland on August 19, 1814, achieving complete tactical surprise.  The British marched rapidly north.  The American army, such as it was, wasted time marching and counter marching, achieving nothing but the exhaustion of the militia.  When battle was finally joined on August 24, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.  Some 4,500 British veterans faced 429 American regulars and 1,500 poorly trained and poorly equipped militia in a set piece battle in the open.  Armstrong’s theories about the use of militia did not prove sound against the