Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert

In 1770 he published his Essai général de tactique in London, and this celebrated work appeared in numerous subsequent editions and in English, German and even Persian translations (extracts also in Liskenne and Sauvan, Bibl. historique et militaire, Paris, 1845). Of this work (for a detailed critique of which see Max Jahns, Gesch. d. Kriegswissenschaften, vol. iii. pp. 2058–2070 and references therein) it may be said that it was the best essay on war produced by a soldier during a period in which tactics were discussed even in the salon and military literature was more abundant than at any time up to 1871. Apart from technical questions, in which Guibert's enlightened conservatism stands in marked contrast to the doctrinaire progressiveness of Mesnil-Durand, Folard and others, the book is chiefly valued for its broad outlook on the state of Europe, especially of military Europe in the period 1763–1792. One quotation may be given as being a most remarkable prophecy of the impending revolution in the art of war, a revolution which the "advanced" tacticians themselves scarcely foresaw. "The standing armies, while a burden on the people, are inadequate for the achievement of great and decisive results in war, and meanwhile the mass of the people, untrained in arms, degenerates.... The hegemony over Europe will fall to that nation which... becomes possessed of manly virtues and creates a national army"—a prediction fulfilled almost to the letter within twenty years of Guibert's death. Other works of Guibert, besides those mentioned, are: Observations sur la constitution politique et militaire des armées de S. M. Prussienne (Amsterdam, 1778), Eloges of Marshal Catinat (1775), of Michel de l'Hôpital (1778), and of Frederick the Great (1787). Guibert was a member of the Académie française from 1786, and he also wrote a tragedy, Le Connétable de Bourbon (1775) and a journal of travels in France and Switzerland. His final work was De la force publique considérée par tous ses rapports (Paris: Didot l'aîné, 1790) in which he contradicted several of the postulates on militias and professional armies. Guibert's writing on the subject - pondering the advantages and disadvantages of militias/conscript armies and mercenaries/professional forces until this day cover most fundamental arguments on the subject. Guibert distinguished between "tactics" and "grand tactics" (which scholars today would refer to as grand strategy) in General Essay on Tactics.

• Jonathan Abel, Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert: Father of Napoleon's Grande Armée (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016) • Ethel Groffier, Le stratège des Lumières: Le comte de Guibert (1743-1790), Honoré Champion Éditeur, Paris (2005), 432 pages • Lucien Poirier, Les voix de la Stratégie (Paris: Fayard, 1985) • See Toulongeon, Eloge véridique de Guibert (Paris, 1790); Madame de Stäel, Eloge de Guibert; Bardin, Notice historique du général Guibert (Paris. I836); Flavian d'Aldeguier, Discours sur la vie et les écrits du comte de Guibert (Toulouse, 1855); Count Forestie, Biographie du comte de Guibert (Montauban, 1855); Count zur Lippe, "Friedrich der Grosse und Oberst Guibert" Militaer-Wochenblatt 9 and 10 (1873). • Beatrice Heuser: "Guibert (1744-1790): Prophet of Total War?", in Stig Förster & Roger Chickering (eds.): War in an Age of Revolution: The Wars of American Independence and French Revolution, 1775-1815 (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 49–67.