Tuesday Tally: Be All That You Can Be Edition

The top Armies in American History:

The Army of the Mexican War: In the north, this army marched into parched, desolate country and defeated Mexican forces on their home turf. Zachary Taylor  was a fine, solid sort. On the coast, Winfield Scott marched his troops deep into hostile territory, lived off the land and took their capitol.

The Army of Northern Virginia: While it had suffered devastating losses at the brigade and regimental commander lever, the ANV was filled with tough, grizzled vets accustomed to hard living. Robert E. Lee was a master of maneuver, understood that he had to always hold the initiative, and did so being being almost impossibly aggressive.

The Army of the West: Sherman's mirror image veterans, tough, Midwestern used to hard living. They had come through some ferocious battles: Shiloh, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, etc...and could live off the land. They actually seemed to enjoy the March to the Sea. General Sherman was a brilliant tactician,out-maneuvering the CSA in the Atlanta campaign.

The Army of Desert Storm: General Schwarzkopf was the US Army's culmination of maneuver and air-land battle doctrine. He led the best trained, equipped and motivated troops in U.S. military history.

And the worst:

The Continental Army: Lost more than it won. Badly supplied, had a habit of melting away in the winter time and usually filled with the dregs of Colonial society.

The American Expeditionary Force: Faulty training, 'open warfare' doctrine got a lot of men killed, organized in massive, hard to maneuver, harder to supply 28,000 man divisions. Pershing was wrong about almost everything.

The army of the Korean War, 1950: under-trained and equipped and living the high life in Japan.

The 1970's Army: Suffering tremendous morale problems after Vietnam, wracked by drugs and racial issues, using equipment that dated back to the 1950s. Couldn't have stopped the Soviets. The army of Harold Ramis and Bill Murray.

Honorable Mention:

The National Army 1898-1902: 75,000 men recruited specifically to fight  the Philippine Insurgency. Led by officers with vast experience fighting Indians and administering conquered territory, both Indian and Confederate. Armed with the highly accurate Krag Rifle.