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Famous U.S. Generals

Can you name these famous military generals and admirals from American history?
The non U.S. version can be found here
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: March 22, 2020
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First submittedDecember 12, 2010
Times taken36,402
Average score55.0%
Rating4.16
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Description
General
Revolutionary War
Top American commander
George Washington
Revolutionary War
French nobleman who fought for the Americans
Marquis de Lafayette
Revolutionary War
General who betrayed the Americans to fight for the British
Benedict Arnold
Civil War
Top Union commander at the end of the Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant
Civil War
Confederate commander of the Army of Northern Virginia
Robert E. Lee
Civil War
Union general who marched to the sea, burning
Atlanta along the way
William Tecumseh
Sherman
Civil War
Confederate general known as "Stonewall"
Thomas Jackson
Civil War
Ineffective commander of the Army of Potomac who was fired by
Lincoln and then ran against him in the 1864 election
George B. McClellan
Civil War
Confederate general who led a futile charge at Gettysburg
George Pickett
Civil War
Brilliant Confederate cavalry commander whose legacy was
stained by serving as Grand Wizard of the KKK
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Indian Wars
Formerly a general, this Lieutenant Colonel had a "last stand"
at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
George Armstrong
Custer
WWI
Top U.S. commander of WWI. His frontal assaults
led to unnecessarily high U.S. casualties.
John J. Pershing
WWII
Known as "Old Blood and Guts", this Third Army commander
drove his forces deep into Germany
George S. Patton
WWII
Supreme Allied commander in Europe
Dwight D. Eisenhower
WWII
Admiral who commanded the Pacific Fleet
Chester Nimitz
WWII and Korea
Pacific Theater general who was made de-facto
ruler of Japan after the war
Douglas MacArthur
WWII and Korea
Known as "The G.I.'s general", he fought in Normandy and was
later the top U.S. commander in the Korean War
Omar Bradley
WWII, Korea,
Vietnam
This Air Force general oversaw the strategic bombing of Japan and
also wanted to bomb North Vietnam back to the "Stone Age"
Curtis LeMay
Vietnam
Top U.S. general in Vietnam from 1964 - 1968
William Westmoreland
Gulf War
Top Gulf War general, known as "Stormin' Norman"
Norman Schwarzkopf
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47 Comments
Nobody
+2
Level 15
May 9, 2012
I could've sworn I tried benedict. Oh well.
kalbahamut
+10
Level 81
May 12, 2014
Usually quizzes do not accept first names. Did you also try Arnold?
sillie
+2
Level 76
Mar 22, 2020
Two first names. I also remembered him as Arnold Benedict. And usually just type a surname. Fail.
Ozchris
+2
Level 33
Jan 14, 2013
Darn... who knew I knew so much about war n stuff?!?
Quizmaster
+4
Level ∞
Mar 22, 2020
I've changed this quiz to be only U.S. generals, and added another quiz for non-U.S. ones.
Freestatebear
+4
Level 85
Mar 22, 2020
No love for George C. Marshall??
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Mar 23, 2020
Would have made a good inclusion. Oh well...
loganite
+1
Level 90
Mar 25, 2020
Colin Powell, Fighting Joe Hooker, James Mattis...may be enough for a (challenging) part 2!
Teegthebeeg
+1
Level 54
Mar 23, 2020
oh dear, how many times - every quiz on this! Eisenhower was NOT the Allied Supreme Commander in Europe because there was no such position. He was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. There were always two Allied Supreme Commanders in Europe, responsible for different theaters.
jmellor13
+10
Level 67
May 20, 2020
Who is the other one then? I'm reading an Eisenhower biography right now, and it's clear that he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in the early 50's, and that he was the only one. I just reread Time's issue commemorating the 75th-anniversary of Pearl Harbor, which also refers to Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during the war. I just tried googling it too, and I'm only coming up with Eisenhower.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
May 20, 2020
I assume that he's talking about Bernard Montgomery? But, as others pointed out above, this objection is wrong.
Hectorselector
+1
Level 60
Feb 16, 2024
Alexander was Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean theater, which included the campaign in Italy.

Montgomery was the overall Allied ground commander during the early stages of Overlord but not a Supreme Commander.

Algernon
+1
Level 73
Mar 28, 2020
Interesting. I missed a lot of them. Some I should have got, some I recognised but didn’t remember and a lot of the civil war ones I had never heard of.
bburroughs
+2
Level 61
May 20, 2020
Are you from the USA? If so everyone has studied Lee, Jackson, Grant and Sherman at some point in school. People might not know Pickett or McClellan, but almost every American knows at least Grant, Jackson and Lee.
cosenza
+1
Level 67
May 20, 2020
where's matthew perry?
kalbahamut
+7
Level 81
May 20, 2020
Have you checked Central Perk?
kenpo17
+1
Level 66
May 20, 2020
I made a quiz like this a couple years ago, forgetting that there already was one.
kevlarkev
+5
Level 63
May 20, 2020
Shout out to QM for entering so many alternate spelling of Schwarzkopf
amm14
+1
Level 66
May 21, 2020
Got it with "Shtumpkopf," meant roughly to convey that my kopf/head was shtumped trying to think of his name!
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
May 20, 2020
Only missed Pershing and Westmoreland.
ander217
+2
Level 74
May 20, 2020
Those were easy for me because Pershing was born in my state, and I grew up with the Vietnam War. I had trouble with Lemay and McClellan.
kalbahamut
+2
Level 81
May 20, 2020
I remember LeMay from the excellent documentary Fog of War.
HighFidelity
+19
Level 57
May 20, 2020
"Brilliant Confederate cavalry commander whose legacy was

stained by serving as Grand Wizard of the KKK"

Is his legacy not stained by being a Confederate?

kinjapan
+10
Level 72
May 21, 2020
This. Traitor who led an armed insurrection against his country so he could continue to enslave his fellow man also did other bad stuff. It is actually a little weird to me that any confederate general is included in a list of American generals as if they were all part of the same team.
cledun2
+2
Level 91
Feb 10, 2022
They were all American generals before the Civil war
Froststar101
+5
Level 73
Jun 9, 2023
No, Forrest was not a general before the Civil War and never served in the U.S. military at all.
Hectorselector
+1
Level 60
Feb 16, 2024
Wouldn't the description "Traitor who led an armed insurrection against his country so he could continue to enslave his fellow man" also apply to Washington?
PynchonsOverbite
+1
Level 92
Feb 16, 2024
The difference being, though, that the country Washington led an insurrection against wasn't the U.S.
ruftytufty
+1
Level 79
Feb 17, 2024
So it only counts as treason if it's against the US? Okay...

There were two rebellions in America led by slave owners spouting about liberty. One succeeded. One failed.

PynchonsOverbite
+1
Level 92
Feb 17, 2024
The American colonists weren't British citizens. They were subjects of the British Crown. We don't call members of the Algerian National Liberation Front traitors, because they weren't. Neither were the American colonists.

Nathan Bedford Forrest, et al., were U.S. citizens and went to war against their own country for the purpose of preserving the institution of slavery. They were traitors, and their cause was (to put it mildly) unjust.

Hectorselector
+1
Level 60
Feb 20, 2024
The American colonists were subjects of the British Crown who didn't want to be, so they rebelled.

The Confederates were US citizens who didn't want to be, so they rebelled.

Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason? For if it prosper none dare call it treason.

Quizmaster
+7
Level ∞
Dec 16, 2023
I think a little charity is called for. People like to imagine that, had they been born in the South, they would have taken a bold stand for justice in truth. But the vast majority didn't. The vast majority believed in and fought for the cause of the South.

There's no reason to expect that you (whoever is reading this) would be any different. Who knows, maybe you're that 1% outlier? Maybe you are just that special and uniquely virtuous. But the odds are that you are not.

Judging people by modern standards is ultimately pointless and uncharitable.

Hdny42
+4
Level 64
Feb 16, 2024
Charity is not deserved for Nathan Bedford Forrest. Was he a naturally brilliant Cavalry commander? Absolutely. Probably the best of the war (the best Union cavalry commander was probably Phil Sheridan).

However, after his massacre of Fort Pillow - when surrendering Black Union soldiers were slaughtered for the crime of being Black against all known rules of war - he does not deserve defense. Even many other Confederates like the great Patrick Cleburne were disgusted by Forrest.

kinjapan
+2
Level 72
Feb 16, 2024
I think you are right. However, the inclusion of the commentary "whose legacy was stained by" kind of invites the above critiques.
11level360
+1
Level 51
May 20, 2020
How people miss Mcclelan?
RobNobody
+2
Level 78
Feb 16, 2024
Probably because they don't know him? Unless you have greater than average knowledge of the American Civil War you probably aren't familiar with the generals outside of Grant and Lee, and maybe Sherman and Pickett from their March and Charge, respectively.
Hectorselector
+1
Level 60
Feb 21, 2024
No love for their tank and fence?
texdave
+1
Level 56
May 20, 2020
The comment about Pershing is a bit misleading. When the United States entered the war in 1917 the Western Front trench lines stretched from the North Sea to Switzerland. Pershing might not have been a miracle worker, but clearly his offensives of neccesity would involve a lot of frontal assaults.
Hdny42
+2
Level 64
Feb 16, 2024
No, Pershing deserves some hate. He naturally looked down on the British and especially the French, so when they told him (after 3+-years of experience when he arrived) that they’d learned to their horror the failures of head-on frontal attacks, he simply thought they were cowards.

It’s true people only really learn from experience and Pershing and the Americans needed to gain some, however his immediate hostility and slowness to take the other Allies seriously DID cost more casualties than would have been lost had he found the wisdom in the British and French views on the war that they’d gained from the atrocities of 1914-17.

grantdon
+1
Level 74
Feb 17, 2024
Sounds like Pershing would have done well to have consulted Australian general John Monash, who was the first to coordinate artillery, planes, tanks and infantry, and was hailed by many as the best general of WWI
2ndOfficerCHL
+5
Level 57
May 21, 2020
To be fair to Nathan Bedford Forrest, his views changed later in life. He quit the KKK and began speaking out in favor of racial equality, for which he caught a lot of criticism from other Southerners.
howard38
+5
Level 61
May 22, 2020
His reputation would likely be better today had he also owned up to the racism he was known for. He never owned up to any responsibility for the Fort Pillow Massacre & even denied he had ever been a member of the KKK.
Froststar101
+2
Level 73
Oct 12, 2020
Matthew Ridgway also fought in Normandy and was later the commander of all U.N. forces in Korea.
Hdny42
+1
Level 64
Feb 16, 2024
I tried to enter Ridgway!
Murphster45
+2
Level 91
Feb 22, 2022
No love for Scott, Meade, Marshall, heck I'd even take a Hooker or Paul Jones!
PatoPotato
+1
Level 55
Feb 17, 2024
I'm surprised Stormin Normin is more guessed the NB Forrest and Pickett.
Thorvald
+1
Level 71
Feb 26, 2024
I guess that Kazimierz Pulaski, the father of US cavalry, would be a nice addition (provided that US citizenship is not required (or maybe posthumous honorary one given by the Congress would be sufficient?))
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