Wellington

In this well fought field of Talavera the French had thrown, for the first time, their whole disposable force upon the British army without success, and Sir Arthur Wellesley inferred with a justifiable confidence that the relative superiority of his troops to those of the Emperor was practically decided. Jomini, the French military historian, confesses almost as much, and the opinions of Napoleon himself, as visible in his correspondence, underwent from that moment a serious change.

Lee

When at the head of the last 8,000 of his valiant army — the remnants which battle, sickness, and famine had left him — he delivered up his sword to General Grant at Appomattox Court House, his public career ended; he passed away from men’s thoughts; and few in Europe cared to inquire the fate of the General whose exploits had aroused the wonder of neutrals and belligerents, and whose noble character had excited the admiration of even the most bitter of his political enemies.

Garibaldi

In the first place, this hero of a hundred fights has been made almost too much of as a warrior, but justice has hardly, perhaps, been done to his abilities as a leader. Garibaldi was no strategist. He knew little and cared less about organisation, equipment, or discipline; never looked to means of transport or commissariat, but simply marched at the head of a few officers, hardly turning to see how the troops would follow.

Jellicoe

Of all the great commanders on either side during the World War of 1914–18 Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe occupied a position which was unique. It has been pointed out by Mr Winston Churchill that his responsibilities were on a different scale from all others. “It might fall to him as to no other man — Sovereign, statesman, admiral, or general — to issue orders which in the space of two or three hours might nakedly decide who won the War. The destruction of the British Battle Fleet was final. Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the War in an afternoon.”

Atatürk

He should have been born in the ages when the vast frontierless expanses of Central-Asia and Russia offered no political obstacle to the adventurer-conqueror, when the son of a small Mongol chief could win Empire from the Yalu to the Carpathians, and warriors like Sabutai Bahadur might be devastating Korea all one summer and riding through Hungary the next. Cast for the part of Timur or Jenghiz, he was compelled to lead a small exhausted people of 8,000,000 souls, the remnant of an Empire and of an endless succession of wars.

Allenby

Both as soldier and as administrator Lord Allenby rendered invaluable service to his country. From a regimental officer, possessing no advantages beyond those of his own character and personality, he steadily attained to the highest office in his own mounted arm. Then came the campaign in France, which rapidly brought him forward as a gifted leader of men, and before long he was in command of an Army. From the trenches in Picardy he was transferred as an independent commander-in-chief to Egypt and to the open warfare of Palestine, where he won a reputation of a far higher order.