UPDATE:  Today is September 3, and was Oliver Cromwell's day of destiny as I stated before.

ORIGINAL COMMENT: Today is September 3, and for the superstitious, this date was Oliver Cromwell's day of destiny. Many important things happened in Oliver's life on this day. He won the battles of Dunbar and Worcester on this date, in different years, and he died on this date in 1658. He also was close to the end of the Siege of Drogheda on this date. The loyalists had a great story that someone saw Oliver in the woods after the Battle of Worcester, selling his soul to the devil, on September 3, 1651. The devil would only give him seven more years of life, so Oliver got screwed, I guess. I enclose an image of Oliver's Drogheda massacre.

The New Model Army was a significant military innovation, and Cromwell was an adept handler of cavalry, but he is a fair ways down the list of great military leaders.

His victories over the Royalists were aided by a particularly divisive and oft-times incompetent enemy.

his new model army was certainly an impressive achievement but as a military lead he was not great, many on this list made better soldiers than politicans oliver cromwell made a better politican than a soldier

Actually a pretty good field general, but an example of the bad things that happen when men let their religious beliefs justify evil actions..

He may have been nasty to the Irish, but unfortunately so were most Englishmen at that time. The Irish had started a bloody rebellion in 1641, and Cromwell thought he was avenging the Protestants who had been killed at that time. In terms of his military skills, Cromwell's rise was quite spectacular. He had no military experience until 1642 at the age of 43, yet over the next ten years he became the most famous and successful cavalry leader of the Parliamentary army, played a crucial role in major parliamentary victories, and conquered Ireland and Scotland. Whatever you may think of his policies, you can't doubt his talents on the battlefield.

But did he really plan the military strategy?

Who can say no to the Puritans? He was ok, but his son Dick was a weakling.

Based on anything I’ve read about this shameful guy (not much outside of an Irish History course in college) or seen (such as the movie with Richard Harris in the title role) Cromwell was basically just another hate filled idiot with a weapon and group of guys who, for a dangerous fleeting moment in time, admired him. He was quite the dreamer to think he could permanently overthrow the British monarchy in his day, not to mention he was also murderously evil when it came to his treatment of the Irish…like Britain and Ireland needed even MORE strife and unhappiness between them! Yes, I’d say, Cromwell joins the ranks of many of the other egomaniacal military leaders on this list – now just one of the many ugly “too much testosterone little human compassion” stains on human history.