Famous Generals
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50 free Famous Generals trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Famous generals are remembered for more than the battles they won. One gave his name to a style of whiskers, another to a boot, and a few are best known for the day everything went wrong. This quiz covers commanders from the ancient world to the late twentieth century: the conquerors of antiquity, the rival leaders of the American Revolution and the Civil War, and the generals of both world wars. Most questions give you a clue and ask you to name the commander. A handful ask about the places, books and horses tied to their stories. It suits history fans, students and anyone putting together a military round for a pub quiz or a classroom. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind the name even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which ancient general crossed the Alps with war elephants to invade Italy in 218 BC?
Hannibal
Hannibal reached Italy with only a few elephants left, yet still crushed Roman armies at Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae.
Q 02Which Union general's bushy whiskers inspired a word for facial hair that is still used today?
Ambrose Burnside
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.
Q 03Which British commander, victor over Napoleon in 1815, gave his name to a popular style of boot?
Duke of Wellington
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.
Q 04Which river did George Washington's army cross on Christmas night 1776 to attack Trenton?
Delaware
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.
Q 05Which general, supreme commander on D-Day, drafted a statement taking the blame if the invasion failed?
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower never had to issue the statement, because the Normandy landings held. Eight years later he was elected the 34th US president.
Q 06Which German field marshal was nicknamed the Desert Fox for his tank campaigns in North Africa?
Erwin Rommel
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.
Q 07Which steppe conqueror, born Temüjin, founded the largest contiguous empire in world history?
Genghis Khan
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.
Q 08Which Venezuelan-born general, hailed as The Liberator, gave his name to a South American country?
Simón Bolívar
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.
Q 09Which bestselling 1880 novel set in the Roman Empire was written by Union general Lew Wallace?
Ben-Hur
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.
Q 10Which American general vowed in 1942 to return to the Philippines and was later dismissed by President Truman?
Douglas MacArthur
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.
Q 11Which Union general took the Confederate surrender at Appomattox and went on to serve two terms as US president?
Ulysses S. Grant
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.
Q 12Which Virginian was offered a senior Union command in 1861 but led the Confederacy's main eastern army instead?
Robert E. Lee
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.
Q 13Which Union general captured Atlanta in 1864 and then marched his army through Georgia to the sea?
Q 21Which American general, famed for ivory-handled revolvers, led the Third Army's rapid drive across France in 1944?
George S. Patton
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.
Q 22Which British general, famous for his black beret, led the Eighth Army to victory at El Alamein in 1942?
Bernard Montgomery
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.
Q 23Which Soviet marshal was chosen to accept the German surrender in 1945 and to inspect the Moscow Victory Parade?
William T. Sherman
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.
Q 14Which Confederate general was accidentally shot by his own pickets at Chancellorsville and died eight days later?
Stonewall Jackson
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.
Q 15Which Civil War cavalry general was killed with five companies of his regiment at the Little Bighorn in 1876?
George Custer
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.
Q 16At which 1863 Civil War battle did Confederate general George Pickett give his name to a doomed infantry charge?
Gettysburg
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.
Q 17Which American general plotted in 1780 to hand the fort at West Point to the British?
Benedict Arnold
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.
Q 18Which British general surrendered his army at Yorktown in 1781, ending major fighting in the American Revolution?
Lord Cornwallis
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.
Q 19Which European nobleman became a Continental Army major general at 19 and was hailed as the hero of two worlds?
Lafayette
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.
Q 20Which Mexican general stormed the Alamo in March 1836 and was captured weeks later at San Jacinto?
Santa Anna
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.
Georgy Zhukov
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.
Q 24Which French general appealed from Britain in June 1940 for France to fight on and later founded the Fifth Republic?
Charles de Gaulle
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.
Q 25Which US Army general won the Nobel Peace Prize for a plan to rebuild Europe after World War II?
George C. Marshall
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.
Q 26Which Japanese general was prime minister during the attack on Pearl Harbor and was hanged for war crimes in 1948?
Hideki Tojo
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.
Q 27Which American general, nicknamed Black Jack, commanded the US forces sent to France in World War I?
John J. Pershing
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.
Q 28Which German field marshal, victor at Tannenberg, later became president and gave his name to a doomed airship?
Paul von Hindenburg
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.
Q 29Which French general, hailed as the Lion of Verdun, later headed the collaborationist Vichy regime in World War II?
Philippe Pétain
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.
Q 30Which Ottoman officer made his name defending Gallipoli in World War I and later founded the Republic of Turkey?
Mustafa Kemal
Mustafa Kemal was granted the surname Atatürk by the Turkish parliament in 1934. It is usually translated as Father of the Turks.