It's 2 a.m. on a.m. on March morning in 1847 during the Mexican-American War.

Under a canvas canopy, somewhere in the countryside, a U.S. Army captain sleeps fitfully.

Around him in their own tents, his troops snore and breathe and mutter in their dreams.

Out on the camp's perimeter, the night watch whispers to each other.

There's all the normal sounds of night.

Crickets, cicadas, frogs, and owl hoots in the trees.

And then there's that hissing.

Under the captain's cot.

He bolts upright, dives into the night, a split second before a 12-pound artillery shell detonates,

shredding his tent with shrapnel. Enemy attack? Hardly. In fact, one of his own men had planted

the explosive with intention to harm, if not kill. How awful do you have to be at leading men for one of your own to try and murder you?

And how does such a dreadful officer live to lead another day, only to be finally named General?

Music General. Hey, it's American History Hit. Thanks for listening. I'm Don Wildman.

Across the span of America's wars in which so many citizen soldiers have courageously fought and died,

the leaders of those wars, the generals, are so often brilliant at executing strategy,

supply, and even political maneuvers. Today's episode isn't about them. Instead, it's about

the blunderers, the overreachers, the outmatched and outsmarted,

the disastrous decision-makers who put their forces and their nation into harm's way,

with what proved to be, well, general ineptitude.

Who were America's worst generals?

Today, we look at a few outstanding examples of those who, if history

is our guide, had no business calling the shots, and we'll proudly do it with a returning voice

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