Are there arguments to suggest the best generals are a bit crazy?

Answer: American Civil War commander General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson believed pepper in his food would make his left leg ache. He thought that only by keeping one hand in the air could he stop himself from going ‘out of balance’. He sucked constantly on lemons, even in the midst of battle.

Bernard Montgomery, Britain’s most successful World War Two general, once invited US general Omar Bradley to lunch and only gave him an apple. Dwight Eisenhower said Montgomery was ‘a psychopath’.

The daughter of US five-star admiral Ernest King said her father was completely even tempered – ‘He was always angry’.

Admiral David Beaty was Britain’s most glamorous naval officer during World War One. Handsome, flamboyant and wealthy, Beaty regularly consulted fortune tellers – a Mrs Robinson, a Madam Dubois and a lady in Edinburgh named Josephine.

When President Abraham Lincoln received complaints about General Ulysses S Grant’s drinking, Lincoln replied, “I can’t spare this man. He fights. Which, to be a successful general, is, well, pretty much what you want.

Britain’s King George the third was told that his brilliant, victorious, general James Wolfe was ‘mad’. “Mad is he?” the king replied. “I wish he would bite some of my other generals!”

Source: Modern World Encyclopedia; General Historical Texts

Comments are closed.