Antoine-Henri Jomini

• Name — Antoine-Henri Jomini • Born — 6 March 1779 • Birthplace — Payerne, Switzerland • Died — 22 March 1869 • Place of death — Paris, France • Allegiance — * Helvetic Republic (1798–1801) • First French Empire (1805–1813) • Russian Empire (1813–1829) • Branch — * French Imperial Army • Russian Imperial Army • Battles — * Napoleonic Wars • Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) • Awards — Baron of the Empire

Jomini was born on 6 March 1779 in Payerne, Vaud, Switzerland, to Benjamin Jomini and Jeanne Marcuard. The Jominis were an old Swiss family, and both his father and paternal grandfather served as mayor of Payerne. In his youth, Jomini "was fascinated by soldiers and the art of war," and hoped to join the military, but his parents pushed him towards a career in business. As a result, Jomini entered a business school in Aarau at the age of 14. In April 1795, Jomini left school and went to work at the banking house of Monsieurs Preiswerk in Basel. In 1796, he moved to Paris, where he worked first at the Mosselmann banking house and then as a stockbroker. After a short time in banking, however, "Jomini convinced himself that the tedious life of a banker was not to be compared with the life afforded in the French Army" and decided to become a military officer as soon as he found an opportunity.

In 1798, at time of the establishment of the Helvetic Republic, Jomini was an eager revolutionary and an associate of Frédéric-César de La Harpe. He soon found a position in the new Swiss government as a secretary for the Minister of War with the rank of captain. In 1799, after being promoted to the rank of major, Jomini took responsibility for reorganizing the operations of the ministry. In that capacity, he standardized many procedures, and used his position "to experiment with organizational systems and strategies". After the Peace of Lunéville in 1801, Jomini returned to Paris, where he worked for a military equipment manufacturer. He found the job uninteresting and spent most of his time preparing his first book on military theory: Traité des grandes opérations militaires (Treatise on Major Military Operations). Michel Ney, one of Napoleon's top generals, read the book in 1803 and subsidized its publication. The book appeared in several volumes from 1804 to 1810 and was "quickly translated and widely discussed" throughout Europe.

• Illustration — Jomini in 1811 Jomini served in the 1805 campaign by serving on Ney's staff. Jomini fought with Ney at the Battle of Ulm and in December of that year, he was offered a commission as a colonel in the French Army. In 1806, Jomini published his views as to the conduct of the impending war with Prussia. That, along with his knowledge of Frederick the Great's campaigns, which Jomini had described in the Traité, led Napoleon to attach him to his own headquarters. Jomini was present with Napoleon at the Battle of Jena and at the Battle of Eylau, where he won the cross of the Legion of Honour. After the Peace of Tilsit, Jomini was made chief of the staff to Ney and as well as a baron. In the Spanish campaign of 1808, his advice was often of the highest value to the marshal, but Jomini quarreled with his chief, and he was left almost at the mercy of his numerous enemies, especially Louis Alexandre Berthier, the emperor's chief of staff.

Overtures had been made to him, as early as 1807, to enter the Russian service, but Napoleon, hearing of his intention to leave the French army, compelled him to remain in the service with the rank of general of brigade. For some years thereafter, Jomini held both a French and a Russian commission, with the consent of both sovereigns. However, when war between France and Russia broke out, he was in a difficult position, which he dealt with by taking a noncombat command on the line of communication. Jomini was thus engaged when the retreat from Moscow and the uprising of Prussia transferred the seat of war to central Germany. He promptly rejoined Ney and took part in the Battle of Lützen. As chief of the staff of Ney's group of corps, he rendered distinguished services before and at the Battle of Bautzen. For this he was recommended for the rank of general of division. Berthier, however, not only erased Jomini's name from the list but also put him under arrest and censured him in army orders for failing to supply certain staff reports that had been called for. How far Jomini was responsible for certain misunderstandings that prevented the attainment of all the results hoped for from Ney's attack at Bautzen is unknown. However, the pretext for censure was in Jomini's own view trivial and baseless, and during the armistice Jomini did as he had intended to do in 1809–1810 and went into the Russian service. That move was seen as tantamount to deserting to the enemy, and was regarded as such by many in the French army and by some of his new comrades. This was despite Jomini's holding for years a dormant commission in the Russian army, and that he had declined to take part in the invasion of Russia in 1812. More importantly, a point that Napoleon commented upon, was that he was a Swiss citizen, not a Frenchman. His Swiss patriotism was indeed strong, and he withdrew from the Allied Army in 1814 when he found that he could not prevent the Allies' violation of Swiss neutrality. Apart from love of his own country, the desire to study, to teach and to practice the art of war were his ruling motives. At the critical moment of the battle of Eylau, he had exclaimed, "If I were the Russian commander for two hours!" On joining the allies, he received the rank of lieutenant-general and the appointment of aide-de-camp from the tsar and rendered important assistance during the German campaign: an accusation that he had betrayed the numbers, positions and intentions of the French to the enemy was later acknowledged by Napoleon to be without foundation. As a Swiss patriot and as a French officer, he declined to take part in the passage of the Rhine at Basel and the subsequent invasion of France. In 1815, he was with Tsar Alexander in Paris and attempted to save the life of his old commander Ney. The defense of Ney almost cost Jomini his position in the Russian service. He succeeded, however, in overcoming the resistance of his enemies and took part in the Congress of Vienna.

• Illustration — Jomini in 1859, by Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre After several years of retirement and literary work, Jomini resumed his post in the Russian army, and in about 1823, he was made a full general. Until his retirement in 1829 he was principally employed in the military education of the Tsarevich Nicholas (afterwards Emperor) and in the organization of the Russian staff college, which was established in 1832 and bore its original name of the Nicholas Academy up to the October Revolution of 1917. In 1828 he was employed in the field in the Russo-Turkish War, and at the Siege of Varna he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Alexander Order. That was his last active service. In 1829, he settled in Brussels, which served as his main place of residence for the next thirty years. In 1853, after trying without success to bring about a political understanding between France and Russia, Jomini was called to St Petersburg to act as a military adviser to the Tsar during the Crimean War. He returned to Brussels upon the conclusion of peace in 1856. Later, he settled at Passy near Paris. He was busily employed up to the end of his life in writing treatises, pamphlets and open letters on subjects of military art and history. In 1859, he was asked by Napoleon III to furnish a plan of campaign for the Franco-Austrian War. One of his last essays dealt with the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the influence of the breech-loading rifle. He died at Passy only a year before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.

• Jomini, Henri. Traité de grande tactique, ou, Relation de la guerre de sept ans, extraite de Tempelhof, commentée et comparée aux principales opérations de la dernière guerre; avec un recueil des maximes les plus importantes de l'art militaire, justifiées par ces différents événements. Paris: Giguet et Michaud, 1805. In English translation as: Jomini, Antoine-Henri, trans. Col. S.B. Holabird, U.S.A. Treatise on Grand Military Operations: or A Critical and Military History of the Wars of Frederick the Great as Contrasted with the Modern System, 2 vols. New York: D. van Nostrand, 1865. • Jomini, Le Baron de. Précis de l'Art de la Guerre: Des Principales Combinaisons de la Stratégie, de la Grande Tactique et de la Politique Militaire. Brussels: Meline, Cans et Copagnie, 1838. In English translation as: Jomini, Baron de, trans. Major O.F. Winship and Lieut. E.E. McLean [USA]. The Art of War. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1854; Jomini, Baron de, trans. Capt. G.H. Mendell and Lieut. W.P. Craighill [USA]. The Art of War. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1862; reprinted, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971; reprinted, with a new introduction by Charles Messenger, London: Greenhill Books, 1992. • Jomini, Le Baron de. Histoire critique et militaire des campagnes de la Révolution (1806; new ed. 1819–1824), Paris and Brussels, 1806, 1824. • Jomini, Le Baron de. Vie Politique et Militaire de Napoléon recontée par lui-même au Tribunal de César d'Alexandre et de Frédéric, 4 vol., Anselin, Paris, 1827