50 Fun Facts About Famous Generals

Which ancient general crossed the Alps with war elephants to invade Italy in 218 BC?

Hannibal reached Italy with only a few elephants left, yet still crushed Roman armies at Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae.

Which Union general's bushy whiskers inspired a word for facial hair that is still used today?

Ambrose Burnside's whiskers were first called burnsides; the syllables were later reversed. Two disastrous defeats did not stop him serving three terms as governor of Rhode Island.

Which British commander, victor over Napoleon in 1815, gave his name to a popular style of boot?

The Duke of Wellington had his London shoemaker rework the tasselled Hessian boot into a plainer design. Rubber versions of it are still called wellies.

Which river did George Washington's army cross on Christmas night 1776 to attack Trenton?

The Delaware crossing let Washington surprise and defeat the Hessian garrison at Trenton, even though the other crossings planned in support were called off or proved ineffective.

Which general, supreme commander on D-Day, drafted a statement taking the blame if the invasion failed?

Dwight Eisenhower never had to issue the statement, because the Normandy landings held. Eight years later he was elected the 34th US president.

Which German field marshal was nicknamed the Desert Fox for his tank campaigns in North Africa?

Erwin Rommel was later given a choice between a trial that would end in disgrace and execution, or suicide. He took a cyanide pill in October 1944.

Which steppe conqueror, born Temüjin, founded the largest contiguous empire in world history?

Genghis Khan lost his father at eight and saw his family abandoned by its tribe. He went on to unite the Mongols and took his famous title at an assembly in 1206.

Which Venezuelan-born general, hailed as The Liberator, gave his name to a South American country?

Simón Bolívar led what are now six countries, from Venezuela to Peru, to independence from Spain. The last of them to break free took his name in 1825 and became Bolivia.

Which bestselling 1880 novel set in the Roman Empire was written by Union general Lew Wallace?

Ben-Hur was finished while Wallace was governor of New Mexico Territory. It has been called the most influential Christian book of the nineteenth century.

Which American general vowed in 1942 to return to the Philippines and was later dismissed by President Truman?

Douglas MacArthur made the pledge after escaping to Australia and came back with an invasion force in October 1944. Truman relieved him in 1951 for publicly contradicting the administration's policies.

Which Union general took the Confederate surrender at Appomattox and went on to serve two terms as US president?

Ulysses S. Grant was dubbed Unconditional Surrender, a play on his initials, after his terms at Fort Donelson. His friend Mark Twain later published his memoirs, which Grant finished only days before he died.

Which Virginian was offered a senior Union command in 1861 but led the Confederacy's main eastern army instead?

Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia until its surrender in 1865. He then became president of a college in Lexington, where he urged reconciliation between North and South.

Which Union general captured Atlanta in 1864 and then marched his army through Georgia to the sea?

William T. Sherman sent Lincoln a message offering him the captured city of Savannah as a Christmas present. He later refused a presidential run so flatly that such refusals are called Shermanesque.

Which Confederate general was accidentally shot by his own pickets at Chancellorsville and died eight days later?

Stonewall Jackson lost his left arm to amputation and then died of pneumonia. His nickname dated from First Bull Run, where another general compared him to a stone wall.

Which Civil War cavalry general was killed with five companies of his regiment at the Little Bighorn in 1876?

George Custer had graduated last in his class at West Point in 1861. His death in Montana, along with every soldier he led that day, became known as his Last Stand.

At which 1863 Civil War battle did Confederate general George Pickett give his name to a doomed infantry charge?

Gettysburg reached its climax on July 3, when the assault broke against the Union centre on Cemetery Ridge. Its furthest advance is called the high-water mark of the Confederacy.

Which American general plotted in 1780 to hand the fort at West Point to the British?

Benedict Arnold was promised £20,000 for the stronghold, but the plot was discovered and he fled to the British lines. His name became an American synonym for traitor.

Which British general surrendered his army at Yorktown in 1781, ending major fighting in the American Revolution?

Lord Cornwallis claimed illness and stayed away from the surrender ceremony, leaving a brigadier to lead the army out. He later rebuilt his career as a governor in India and Ireland.

Which European nobleman became a Continental Army major general at 19 and was hailed as the hero of two worlds?

Lafayette was at first given no American troops to command, because Congress regarded his commission as honorary. He ended up celebrated in both France and the United States.

Which Mexican general stormed the Alamo in March 1836 and was captured weeks later at San Jacinto?

Santa Anna was caught the day after the battle, dressed as a common soldier, and was given away when other prisoners saluted him as their president. By one historian's count he went on to assume Mexico's presidency eleven times.

Which American general, famed for ivory-handled revolvers, led the Third Army's rapid drive across France in 1944?

George S. Patton was temporarily removed from battlefield command after slapping two shell-shocked soldiers. Long before, he had finished fifth in the modern pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics.

Which British general, famous for his black beret, led the Eighth Army to victory at El Alamein in 1942?

Bernard Montgomery was offered the beret by his driver during an inspection tour and kept it. In May 1945 he accepted the surrender of German forces in north-western Europe at Lüneburg Heath.

Which Soviet marshal was chosen to accept the German surrender in 1945 and to inspect the Moscow Victory Parade?

Georgy Zhukov had won the first of his four Hero of the Soviet Union awards in 1939, for a decisive victory over Japanese forces at Khalkhin Gol.

Which French general appealed from Britain in June 1940 for France to fight on and later founded the Fifth Republic?

Charles de Gaulle had been a brigadier-general for only a few weeks when he made the appeal. That August a Vichy court martial condemned him to death in absentia.

Which US Army general won the Nobel Peace Prize for a plan to rebuild Europe after World War II?

George C. Marshall received the prize in 1953 for the recovery plan that bears his name. Winston Churchill had already lauded him as the organizer of victory in the war itself.

Which Japanese general was prime minister during the attack on Pearl Harbor and was hanged for war crimes in 1948?

Hideki Tojo shot himself in the chest as American soldiers surrounded his house in September 1945, but missed his heart. His sharp, legalistic mind had earned him the nickname Razor.

Which American general, nicknamed Black Jack, commanded the US forces sent to France in World War I?

John J. Pershing is the only American promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies, the highest possible rank in the US Army.

Which German field marshal, victor at Tannenberg, later became president and gave his name to a doomed airship?

Paul von Hindenburg was recalled from retirement in 1914 and was President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934. Though opposed to Nazism, he appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor.

Which French general, hailed as the Lion of Verdun, later headed the collaborationist Vichy regime in World War II?

Philippe Pétain was convicted of treason after the war and sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment. His fame rested on a battle in 1916 that had lasted nine months.

Which Ottoman officer made his name defending Gallipoli in World War I and later founded the Republic of Turkey?

Mustafa Kemal was granted the surname Atatürk by the Turkish parliament in 1934. It is usually translated as Father of the Turks.

Which ancient Chinese commander, said to have served the King of Wu, is credited with writing The Art of War?

Sun Tzu was said to have proved his methods by drilling the king's 180 concubines as soldiers. Since the 12th century, some Chinese scholars have doubted that he existed at all.

Which Roman general, beaten at Actium in 31 BC, fled to Egypt with Cleopatra and died there by suicide?

Mark Antony had earlier helped defeat Julius Caesar's killers at Philippi in 42 BC, then shared rule of the Roman world until the alliance broke down.

Which Roman general earned the surname Africanus by winning the Battle of Zama in 202 BC?

Scipio routed the enemy army so thoroughly that Carthage sued for peace, ending the Second Punic War. He is often ranked among the greatest commanders of all time.

Which river did Julius Caesar lead a legion across in 49 BC, starting a civil war and coining a phrase?

The Rubicon helped mark the boundary between the province of Cisalpine Gaul and the lands ruled directly from Rome. Crossing it now means passing the point of no return.

Which undefeated ancient conqueror, once tutored by Aristotle, named a city after his dead warhorse?

Alexander the Great called the city Bucephala after Bucephalas, the horse that had carried him from Macedon to what is now Pakistan.

Which sultan of Kurdish origin crushed the Crusaders at Hattin in 1187 and went on to capture Jerusalem?

Saladin went on to fight King Richard I of England in the Third Crusade, and his forces suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Arsuf in 1191.

Which Greek commander's costly wins over Rome gave English a phrase for a victory that ruins the victor?

Pyrrhus is reported to have said, when congratulated on one such battle, that another win over the Romans would leave him utterly ruined.

Which Spartan king died leading a small Greek force against Xerxes at Thermopylae in 480 BC?

Leonidas marched out with only 300 Spartan hoplites, though helots and troops from other Greek cities joined him to form an army about 7,000 strong.

Which English general commanded the New Model Army's cavalry and later ruled as Lord Protector?

Oliver Cromwell's body was removed from Westminster Abbey after the monarchy was restored and hanged at Tyburn in a posthumous execution.

Which grey Arabian warhorse of Napoleon, named after an 1800 victory in Italy, is displayed as a skeleton in London?

Marengo was imported to France from Egypt in 1799 and was captured at Waterloo in 1815. The skeleton, minus two hooves, is on display at the National Army Museum in Chelsea.

Which Italian patriot led a thousand red-shirted volunteers to conquer Sicily for a united Italy in 1860?

Garibaldi had first raised an Italian force known as Redshirts years earlier, while fighting in Uruguay's civil war. His admirers included Abraham Lincoln and Victor Hugo.

Which general, born into slavery, led the Haitian Revolution and died in a French fortress prison in 1803?

Toussaint Louverture took his surname from the French word for opening, most often explained as a nod to his talent for creating openings in battle.

Which Russian field marshal gave up Moscow to Napoleon in 1812 and appears as a character in War and Peace?

Kutuzov had survived a bullet that passed through his head and left his right eye permanently twisted. He fought at Borodino before deciding to spare the army and abandon the city.

Which Roman dictator resigned after about two weeks, returned to his farm and indirectly gave an Ohio city its name?

Cincinnatus inspired the Society of the Cincinnati, founded in 1783 for officers of the Continental Army, and the Ohio city was named for that society.

Which German commander surrendered at Stalingrad the day after learning Hitler had made him a field marshal?

Friedrich Paulus was promoted, Hitler noted, because no German field marshal was known ever to have surrendered. The hint was to die rather than give up, and he ignored it.

Which American general gave a one-word refusal when German forces demanded Bastogne's surrender in December 1944?

Anthony McAuliffe was only the acting commander of the besieged 101st Airborne, because its commander was away at a staff conference in the United States. The reply became his nickname.

Which Vietnamese general, a former history teacher with no military training, beat the French at Dien Bien Phu?

Vo Nguyen Giap had studied law and taught history at a school in Hanoi during the 1930s. His decisive victory in 1954 ended the war against France.

Which American general led Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and called his bestselling memoir It Doesn't Take a Hero?

Norman Schwarzkopf planned a long air campaign followed by a ground offensive that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in just 100 hours.

Which Israeli general, known for his black eye patch, became defence minister just before the Six-Day War in 1967?

Moshe Dayan lost the eye in World War II, when a sniper's bullet struck the binoculars he was using to scan Vichy French positions in Lebanon.

Which Union general was declared the inventor of baseball in 1908, a claim since thoroughly debunked?

Abner Doubleday never made the claim himself. A body called the Mills Commission announced it fifteen years after his death.