Quote:
Originally Posted by smrk2
I suggest we forget that Washington was ever mentioned. Also, we may be nearing the time for you to make your case against Napoleon
Napoleon at times showed brilliance as a military leader that would make him on paper GOAT worthy, but I think anyone deserving of the title or even the top ten designation would not have the numerous failures he had.
Napoleon marched into Egypt in 1798 with his army in an attempt to conquer Egypt and thus cut British trading routes to the Middle-East and India and give the French naval dominance in the Mediterranean. Napoleon easily took over Egypt but as he was conquering Egypt, the British fleet, commanded by Lord Nelson, destroyed the French fleet and left Napoleon and his army stranded.
Although militarily the Egyptian campaign accomplished very little, the French presence in Egypt had great significance in other areas particularly Napoleon's popularity. Napoleon took with him many experts to Egypt to study the artistic and literary treasures of the country. Their most significant find was the Rosetta Stone, the key to understanding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Because of his failure to accomplish his goals for Egypt, Napoleon returned to France with only a small portion of his soldiers. To his luck, the French people had not heard of his defeat in Egypt and had been falsely told that it had been a great success because of the cultural achievements. This gave him immense support from the French people. Had the French people known of his miltary failure when he arrived back in France, there would have been little chance of him ever reaching anywhere near as high as he eventually did.
Napoleon Bonaparte ineffective leadership during the invasion of Russia of 1812 also resulted in campaign failure which calls in to question if other early success of his career make him a GOAT candidate. I say no. The invasion of Russia in 1812 was a clear turning point for Napoleon military career. The aftermath this failed invasion shattered his reputation as a tactical genius and severely questions his ability as a great military leader. The total number of Napoleon's Army (Grande Armee) outnumbered the Russian 2 to 1. Napoleon's relying on methods from prior campaign to make logistical preparation was a huge blunder. Napoleon had always lived off the land in his campaigns in order to forestall a supply problem. The Russian utilized scorch earth tactics to destroy any supplies they had so it prevent Napoleon's army from using it. The Grande Armee could not live off the land as they did prior campaigns because of weather and the harsh terrain of Russia. When he reached Moscow in September, he found it burning. There was nothing there which could feed and house his troops for the winter so he was forced to turn back toward home just as winter was setting in. His Grand Army ran out of supplies, and soldiers died of disease and the bitter cold of the Russian winter. They were equipped only in summer uniforms. Russian troops and people continually attacked them as they trudged along home. Only about 40,000 survived the march.
Contrast that with someone like Cesar who faced a quality opponent like Pompeii and was out numbered in his decisive battle. Napoleon's Army (Grande Armee) outnumbered the Russian 2 to 1. Cesar accomplished this after winning many impressive battles against lesser foes of various strength. Cesar had the boldness of Napoleon, the tactical genius, better administrative skills, won his major battles, and beat highly skilled opponents. A far better GOAT candidate if you ask me. Cesar is just one example and not even my GOAT even though he is a clear Top 10 selection.
Napoleon showed innovation a young commander, and reformed his army very much like Marius who was mentioned earlier in the thread. Sure Napoleon did not expect the scorch earth tactics and figured if he took Moscow Russia would fall, but a true GOAT candidate should have been prepared unexpected possibilities. Napoleon actually fought the type of war in Moscow (attrition) that he himself was brilliant against in earlier complains. This one failure alone calls in to question his GOAT status.
As many of you know Napoleon was not completely defeated by the disaster in Russia. The following year he raised an army of around 300,000 French troops supported by a quarter of a million French allied troops to contest control of Germany in an another very large campaign. Despite being outnumbered, he won a large victory at the Battle of Dresden. It was not until the decisive Battle of Nations that he was finally defeated and afterwards no longer had the troops to stop the Coalition's invasion of France. Napoleon did still manage to inflict a series of losses and a series of minor military victories on the far larger Allied armies as they drove towards Paris, though they captured the city and forced him out of power 1814.
I have not even brought up the train wreck of Waterloo or the one country that Napoleon could never influence or invade, Great Britain. Having experienced that he could not defeat the British because of its superior navy, Napoleon established the Continental System, a French-imposed blockade of Europe against British goods. He figured if he couldn't beat Great Britain with warfare, he would do it with economic warfare. This strategy of course was ineffective so Napoleon lost both economically as well as militarily to England also knocking him out of consideration for my top 25 GOAT list of military greats.