Yet you notice in the movie and I'm sure in real life the majority of the butt kicking he did was to infantry units. I think he could have handled the Marines.

Top commanders are General George Patton Jr., Juilus Ceaser, Chuchill was okay, and Alexander the Great

James Ewell Brown Stuart ( CSA) and Robert E. Lee (CSA)
The strange thing about my selection is that I'm not from the South

Patton

Sherman!
Cause he was no B.S. He wouldn't even serve until Lincoln "Got serious" about the war! And he showed what serious meant.
When I found out I live 10 miles from Sherman's grave, I ducked out of work and went to see it the next day

Ah but Metz was not to nice patton and his 3rd army........but back to the topic.

Erich Von Manstein the man that came up with plan of invasion of France in 1940.

im sry i done have any favorite commanders but i love my AI and my SAI, and my cadet BC, XO, and CSM... actually, i love the whole cadet staff, except the S-2.. oh and my raider commander snow (nickname)

Well alot of people in the south don't really like Sherman cause of what he did.. But he didnt hold back so thats what made him remembered. My favorite commander is easily Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Overall: William the Bastard A.K.A. William the Conqueror (You asked for the favourite)

Finnish: Woldemar Hägglund

US Civil War: J.B.Hood (Again, you asked for the favourite.)

WWII: Rommel

Just to balance the US domination of this thread. I have never been able to stand Patton, and less so beacause my last Adjutant thought him the best thing since sliced bread.

My favorite commander from way back is an obscure guy called Gen Sir Garnet Wolsely from the 18th Centuray. Led a group known as the Wolsely Ring who lobied for the professionalisation of the BritishArmy, and who was perhaps the first proponant of manouvre warfare, as shown in Canada.

However, most successful commander has to have been, with no shadow of a doubt, a guy called Field Marshall the Viscount Lord Slim, who commanded Allied troops in Burma in World War Two. He not only managed to blend together an Army of more nations than had ever been assembled before, but managed to take that Army from defeat through further defeat, then rebuild them to beat an enemy previously thought to be invincible, and push them out of the most terrible terrain fought through in WW2.

I recommend the books, 'Defeat into Victory' by Slim himself, and perhaps above all oiver military books, 'Quartered Safe Out Here' by George MacDonald Fraser. A rare Gem of a book.