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The Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum, is both a marvel of architecture and engineering, as well as a powerful symbol of Ancient Rome’s might and brutality.
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History is packed with examples of generals, mercenaries and adventurers who disregarded orders and used their armies to carry out a personal agenda.
Militaries are usually known for their strict discipline and rigid command structure, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been officers who broke rank. History is packed with examples of generals, mercenaries and adventurers who disregarded orders and used their armies to carry out a personal agenda. Some were simply career soldiers with a political axe to grind, but others were cruel, power hungry and even downright mad. Below, meet six of history’s most fascinating rogue military leaders.
John C. Fremont
Abraham Lincoln may have freed the slaves in 1863, but the Civil War’s first Emancipation Proclamation actually came in August 1861 in the form of an unauthorized order from Union General John C. Fremont. A former frontier explorer nicknamed the “Pathfinder,” Fremont was a staunch abolitionist who had served as the anti-slavery Republican Party’s first presidential candidate. When he was given command of Union forces in Missouri, he immediately looked to strike a blow against Southern sympathizers. Without consulting his superiors, Fremont placed the entire state under martial law and issued an order freeing all slaves owned by citizens who backed the Confederacy.
The unprecedented decree made Fremont a hero of the abolitionist movement, but it also won him scores of political enemies, some of whom even spread rumors that he was planning to install himself as military dictator of an independent western state. President Lincoln, meanwhile, feared that prematurely freeing the slaves could cause Missouri to secede from the Union, and he requested that Fremont reverse his emancipation mandate. When the general refused, Lincoln removed him from his post and personally rescinded the order.
William Walker
A radical supporter of American “Manifest Destiny,” William Walker was the most daring of what were once known as “filibusters” or “freebooters”—bands of private citizens who carried out unauthorized military invasions of foreign lands. His illegal campaigns began in 1853, when he led a handful of would-be nation builders into the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. After capturing the city of La Paz, he proclaimed the region an independent country called the “Republic of Sonora” and established himself as president.
Walker’s upstart nation only lasted a few months before collapsing, but he soon took on an even more audacious expedition. In 1855, he led 57 men into Nicaragua, where they came to the aid of liberal revolutionaries in a bloody civil war. When the dust cleared, Walker had emerged victorious and even declared himself “presidente.” He would rule until May 1857, when an alliance of Central American countries besieged his army and forced him to surrender to the American Navy. Walker returned to the United States a populist hero, and later made three more attempts to reclaim his ill-gotten country. His infamous career finally came to an end in 1860, when he was captured and executed by a firing squad in Honduras.
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source:
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-military-renegades
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