< Return to Adherents.com homepage
Lists on this page:
- The Military 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of all Time
- The Civil War 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential People in the War between the States
- The World War II 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Figures of the Second World War

The Military 100:
A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time


The list below is from the book The Military 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time (Carol Publishing Group/Citadel Press: Secaucus, New Jersey, 1996), written by Michael Lee Lanning. Lanning served as public affairs officer for Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. He spent more than twenty years on active duty in the U.S. Army.

1 George Washington 1732-1799 American general Episcopalian
2 Napoleon I 1769-1821 French emperor Catholic (nominal)
3 Alexander the Great 356-323 B.C. Macedonian conqueror Greek state paganism
4 Genghis Khan ca. 1167-1227 Mongol conqueror Mongolian shamanism
5 Julius Caesar ca. 100-44 B.C. Roman emperor Roman state paganism
6 Gustavus Adolphus 1594-1632 Swedish king Lutheran
7 Francisco Pizarro ca. 1475-1541 Spanish conqueror Catholic
8 Charlemagne (Charles the Great) 742-814 Frankish king Catholic
9 Hernando Cortes 1485-1547 Spanish conqueror Catholic
10 Cyrus the Great ca. 590-ca. 529 B.C. Persian king Zoroastrian
11 Frederick the Great (Frederick II) 1712-1786 Prussian general  
12 Simon Bolivar 1785-1830 South American liberator Catholic (nominal); Atheist
13 William the Conqueror ca. 1027-1087 English king Catholic
14 Adolf Hitler 1889-1945 German dictator Nazism; born/raised in, but rejected Catholicism
15 Attila the Hun ca. 406-453 Hun conqueror Hun
16 George Catlett Marshall 1880-1959 American general  
17 Peter the Great 1672-1725 Russian czar Russian Orthodox
18 Dwight David Eisenhower 1890-1969 American general Jehovah's Witness; Presbyterian
19 Oliver Cromwell 1599-1658 English general Puritan (Protestant)
20 Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 American general  
21 Karl von Clausewitz 1780-1831 Prussian general  
22 Arthur Wellesley (First Duke of Wellington) 1769-1852 British general  
23 Sun Tzu ca. 400-330 B.C. Chinese writer  
24 Hermann-Maurice Comte de Saxe 1696-1750 French marshal  
25 Tamerlane 1336-1405 Tartar conqueror Islam
26 Antoine Henri Jomini 1779-1869 French general  
27 Eugene of Savoy 1663-1736 Austrian marshal  
28 Fernandez Gonzalo de Cordoba 1453-1515 Spanish general  
29 Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban 1633-1707 French marshal  
30 Hannibal ca. 241-ca. 183 B.C. Carthaginian general  
31 John Churchill (Duke of Marlborough) 1650-1722 English general  
32 Winfield Scott 1786-1866 American general  
33 Ulysses Simpson Grant [Ulysses S. Grant] 1822-1885 American general Presbyterian; Methodist
34 Scipio Africanus ca. 237-ca. 183 B.C. Roman general  
35 Horatio Nelson 1758-1805 British admiral  
36 John Frederick Charles Fuller 1878-1966 British general  
37 Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne de Turenne 1611-1675 French marshal  
38 Alfred Thayer Mahan 1840-1914 American admiral  
39 Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke 1800-1891 Prussian marshal  
40 Vo Nguyen Giap ca. 1912- Vietnamese general  
41 John Joseph Pershing 1860-1948 American general  
42 Maurice of Nassau 1567-1625 Dutch general  
43 Joan of Arc 1412-1431 French Heroine Catholic
44 Alan Francis Brooke (Alanbrooke) 1883-1963 British marshal  
45 Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval 1715-1789 French general  
46 Omar Nelson Bradley 1893-1981 American general  
47 Ralph Abercromby 1734-1801 British general  
48 Mao Zedong 1893-1976 Chinese revolutionary Communist; Maoist; atheist
49 H. Norman Schwarzkopf 1934- American general Lutheran
50 Alexander Vasilevich Suvorov ca. 1729-1800 Russian marshal  
51 Louis Alexandre Berthier 1753-1815 French marshal  
52 Jose de San Martin 1778-1850 South American revolutionary  
53 Giuseppe Garibaldi 1807-1882 Italian general Catholic
54 Ivan Stepanovich Konev 1897-1973 Soviet marshal  
55 Suleiman I 1494-1566 Turkish sultan  
56 Colin Campbell 1792-1863 British marshal  
57 Samuel (Sam) Houston 1793-1863 Texan general  
58 Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) 1157-1199 English king  
59 Shaka ca. 1787-1828 Zulu king Zulu
60 Robert Edward Lee 1807-1870 Confederate general Episcopalian
61 Chester William Nimitz 1885-1966 American admiral  
62 Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher 1742-1819 Prussian marshal  
63 Bernard Law Montgomery 1887-1976 British marshal  
64 Carl Gustav Emil von Mannerheim 1867-1951 Finnish marshal  
65 H. H. Arnold 1886-1950 American general  
66 Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) 1881-1938 Turkish general  
67 John Arbuthnot Fisher 1841-1920 British admiral  
68 Heihachiro Togo 1848-1934 Japanese admiral  
69 Moshe Dayan 1915-1981 Isaeli general Jewish
70 George Konstantinovich Zhukov 1896-1974 Soviet marshal  
71 Ferdinand Foch 1851-1929 French marshal Catholic
72 Edward I 1239-1307 English king  
73 Selim I ca. 1470-1520 Turkish sultan  
74 Giulio Douhet 1869-1930 Italian general  
75 Heinz Guderian 1888-1954 German general  
76 Lin Piao 1907-1971 Chinese marshal  
77 Isoroku Yamamoto 1884-1943 Japanese admiral  
78 Harold Rupert Alexander 1891-1969 British marshal  
79 Erwin Rommel 1891-1944 German marshal  
80 Lennart Torstensson 1603-1651 Swedish marshal  
81 Saddam Hussein 1937- Iraqi marshal Islam
82 Fidel Castro 1927- Cuban revolutionary Catholic; Orisha
83 Horatio Herbert Kitchener 1850-1916 British marshal  
84 Tito 1892-1980 Yugoslav marshal Catholic
85 Karl Doenitz 1891-1980 German admiral  
86 Kim Il Sung 1912-1994 Korean dictator Communist; Juche
87 David Glasgow Farragut 1801-1870 American admiral  
88 Garnet Joseph Wolseley 1833-1913 British marshal  
89 Chiang Kai-shek 1878-1975 Chinese nationalist Methodist
90 Frederick Sleigh Roberts 1832-1914 British marshal  
91 Saladin 1138-1193 Muslim sultan Islam
92 George Dewey 1837-1917 American admiral  
93 Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Conde 1621-1686 French general  
94 Kurt Student 1890-1978 German general  
95 George S. Patton 1885-1945 American general  
96 Michel Ney 1769-1815 French marshal  
97 Charles XII 1682-1718 Swedish king  
98 Thomas Cochrane 1775-1860 British admiral  
99 Johann Tserclaes von Tilly 1559-1632 Flemish mercenary  
100 Edmund Henry H. Allenby 1861-1936 British marshal  

The Civil War 100:
A Ranking of the Most Influential People in the War between the States

The list below is from the book The Civil War 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential People in the War between the States, Citdael Press (1998), written by Robert Wooster.

This book provides brief profiles of the one hundred most significant persons of the American Civil War, ranked in order of importance.



1 Abraham Lincoln raised Baptist; later no specific denomination
2 Ulysses S. Grant Presbyterian (nominal)
3 William T. Sherman  
4 Robert E. Lee Episcopalian
5 Jefferson Davis Episcopalian
6 Andrew Johnson Baptist (nominal)
7 George McClellan  
8 William Seward  
9 Edwin Stanton Quaker
10 Frederick Douglass  
11 Stephen A. Douglas  
12 Joseph E. Johnston  
13 David Farragut  
14 John Brown Congregationalist
15 Harriet Beecher Stowe  
16 (tie) Robert Barnwell Rhett  
16 (tie) William Yancey  
18 Philip Sheridan  
19 James Longstreet  
20 Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson Christianity
21 Salmon P. Chase Episcopalian
22 George Meade  
23 Gideon Welles  
24 William Lloyd Garrison  
25 John Wilkes Booth Episcopalian
26 James Buchanan Presbyterian
27 Henry Halleck  
28 Josiah Gorgas  
29 George Thomas Methodist
30 Braxton Bragg  
31 Horace Greeley Universalist
32 Roger B. Taney Catholic
33 "J. E. B." Stuart  
34 Mathew Brady  
35 P. G. T. Beauregard  
36 Joseph Hooker  
37 Winfield Scott  
38 John Bell Hood Episcopalian
39 Viscount Palmerston  
40 (tie) Elizabeth Cady Stanton  
41 (tie) Susan B. Anthony Quaker; Unitarian
42 David Dixon Porter  
43 Charles Sumner  
44 Nathan Bedford Forrest  
45 Montgomery Meigs  
46 John C. Fremont  
47 Dred Scott Catholic
48 Jay Cooke  
49 Benjamin Wade  
50 Lyman Trumbull  
51 Sojourner Truth Methodist; Seventh-day Adventist
52 Ambrose Burnside  
53 Mary Todd Lincoln  
54 Franklin Pierce Episcopalian
55 Mary Chesnut  
56 Edmund Kirby Smith  
57 Irvin McDowell  
58 Benjamin Butler  
59 Nathaniel P. Banks  
60 John C. Breckinridge Presbyterian
61 Thaddeus Stevens  
62 John Pope  
63 Oliver O. Howard  
64 Stephen Mallory  
65 John C. Pemberton  
66 Herman Haupt  
67 Charles Francis Adams Unitarian
68 Wade Hampton  
69 Walt Whitman Quaker; Humanist; Transcendentalist
70 Napoleon III  
71 Alexander Hamilton Stephens  
72 Edmund Ruffin  
73 Clement Vallandigham  
74 Harriet Tubman Methodist
75 John Schofield  
76 William S. Rosecrans  
77 James Henry Carleton  
78 Richard Taylor  
79 Albert Sidney Johnston  
80 Henry Bellows  
81 Jubal Early  
82 William Gilmore Simms  
83 Justin Smith Morrill  
84 Sterling Price  
85 Frank Leslie  
86 Little Crow  
87 Dorothea Dix Unitarian
88 John Crittenden  
89 Clara Barton Universalist
90 Mary Bickerdyke  
91 Herman Melville Transcendentalist
92 Earl Van Dorn  
93 Raphael Semmes  
94 Hannibal Hamlin  
95 Don Carlos Buell  
96 Gail Borden  
97 Philip Armour  
98 Nelson A. Miles  
99 Henry Wirz  
100 John Chivington Methodist

The World War II 100:
A Ranking of the Most Influential Figures of the Second World War


The list below is from the book The World War II 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Figures of the Second World War, New Page Books (2001), written by Howard J. Langer.

1 Adolf Hitler Cruel and Cunning Nazism; born into but rejected Catholicism;
allegedly a proponent of Germanic Neo-Paganism
2 Franklin D. Roosevelt Risking Impeachment Episcopalian
3 Winston S. Churchill From Defeat, Defiance Anglican
4 Joseph Stalin Ruthless and Paranoid Russian Orthodox; Atheist; Marxism
5 George C. Marshall First in War, First in Peace Episcopalian
6 Isoruku Yamamoto Planning Pearl Harbor state Shinto
7 Dwight D. Eisenhower Leader of the Coalition Jehovah's Witness; Presbyterian
8 Douglas MacArthur "I Shall Return."  
9 Jimmy Doolittle The Raider from "Shangri-La"  
10 Douglas Bader Legend of the RAF  
11 George S. Patton The Fightingest Field Commander  
12 Heinz Guderian Master of the Blitzkreig  
13 Albert Einstein The Pacifist Who Won the War Jewish
14 Harry S Truman "The Buck Stops Here." Baptist
15 Stewart Menzies Master of the Ultra Secret  
16 Bertram Ramsay A Miracle at Dunkirk  
17 Georgi Zhukov Stalin's Toughest General  
18 Chester Nimitz Up from the Canvas  
19 Husband E. Kimmel, Walter Short Foul-Ups---or Fall Guys?  
20 Ernest J. King "No Fighter Ever Won by Covering Up."  
21 Henry L. Stimson Bipartisanship in Time of Peril  
22 Harry L. Hopkins "Lord Root-of-the-Matter"  
23 William Stephenson The Spy in Rockefeller Center  
24 William J. Donovan American Spymaster  
25 Reinhard Heydrich Plots and Paranoia  
26 William F. Halsey The Navy's "Patton"  
27 Henri Petain The Man from Vichy  
28 Alan Brooke Churchill's "Marshall"  
29 Hideki Tojo A Time for Hara-Kiri state Shinto
30 J. Robert Oppenheimer "I Am Become Death..." Jewish
31 Wernher von Braun Father of the V-2 Lutheran
32 Leslie R. Groves Director of the Manhattan Project  
33 Omar Bradley The G.I.'s General  
34 Arthur Harris The 1,000-Plane Raider  
35 Thomas Kinkaid In the Spirit of John Paul Jones  
36 C.A.F. Sprague "Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable"  
37 Bernard Montgomery He Chased the Desert Fox  
38 Takeo Kurita A Sea Battle and an Election  
39 Erwin Rommel Destination: Suez?  
40 William Friedman Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Purple Code  
41 Henry H. Arnold Champion of Airpower  
42 Vasily Chuikov Hero of Stalingrad  
43 Hermann Goering From Air Ace to War Criminal  
44 Joseph Goebbels Propagandist to the End  
45 Masaharu Homma A Question of Responsibility  
46 Alfred Jodl Unconditional Surrender  
47 Konstantin Rokossovsky The Captive Hero  
48 Wilhelm Keitel The Man Who Obeyed Orders  
49 Emperor Hirohito The Last Word state Shinto
50 Benito Mussolini Hitler's Junior Partner Catholic
51 Charles De Gaulle Leader of Free France  
52 Joachim von Ribbentrop The Role of the Deal-Maker  
53 Vyacheslav M. Molotov Man of the Hammer  
54 Semyon Timoshenko Rebuilder of the Red Army  
55 William L. Shirer From Reporter to Historian  
56 Gerd von Rundstedt The Fuhrer's Bluntest General  
57 Friedrich von Paulus The Field Marshal and the Corporal  
58 Tomoyuki Yamashita The Tiger of Malaya state Shinto
59 Jean Darlan Behind the North African Landings  
60 Frank Knox From Rough Rider to Navy Boss  
61 Josip Broz (Tito) Guerrilla Warfare  
62 Maurice Gamelin How France Lost the War  
63 Robert Murphy A "Diplomat Among Warriors"  
64 Karl Doenitz Commander of the U-boats  
65 Heinrich Himmler The Fuhrer's Hit Man Catholic
66 Neville Chamberlain The Great Appeaser?  
67 Anthony McAuliffe Crisis at Bastogne  
68 Gustav Krupp/Alfred Krupp The Family Business  
69 Andrew Jackson Higgins Eureka!  
70 Edward R. Murrow "This...is London." Quaker
71 Ernie Pyle The Little Guy's War  
72 Bill Mauldin Up Front  
73 Breckinridge Long Silent Partner of the Holocaust?  
74 Pietro Badoglio Surrendering Italy  
75 Francisco Franco Prelude to a World War Catholic
76 Harold Alexander Ike's First Choice  
77 Albert Speer The Slave Master  
78 Eleanor Roosevelt/Madame Chiang The Feminine Mystique Episcopalian/?
79 Lavrenti Beria Scorched Earth and Non-Persons  
80 Galeazzo Ciano Mussolini's Heir Apparent  
81 Eduard Benes Humiliation at Munich  
82 Wladyslaw Sikorski Betrayal and Death  
83 Joseph W. Stilwell The Mission That Failed  
84 Jonathan Wainwright Last Message from Corregidor  
85 The Sullivan Brothers/The Four Chaplains On Brotherhood  
86 Charles Lindbergh The Isolationists' Poster Boy  
87 Chiang Kai-shek The Agony of China Methodist
88 Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski Leader of an Underground Army  
89 Claus von Stauffenberg The Plot That Failed  
90 Anne Frank Keeping a Diary Jewish
91 Adolf Eichmann "Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal"  
92 Robert Jackson Judgment at Nuremburg  
93 Henry Morgenthau A Plan for Germany  
94 Cordell Hull Architect of the United Nations  
95 George VI/Christian X/Leopold III Crowned Heads, Royal Symbols  
96 Haile Selassie The Plea That Failed Rastafarian deity
97 Mordecai Anielewicz He Fought Back  
98 Joseph P. Kennedy A Controversial Ambassador  
99 Paul Reynaud A Voice in the Wilderness  
100 Pope Pius XII The Sound of Silence Catholic
Webpage created 10 June 2005. Last modified 29 November 2005.
We are always striving to increase the accuracy and usefulness of our website. We are happy to hear from you. Please submit questions, suggestions, comments, corrections, etc. to: webmaster@adherents.com.