Antoine-Henri Jomini

Antoine-Henri, baron Jomini (March 6, 1779–March 24, 1869), general in the French and afterwards in the Russian service, and one of the most celebrated writers on the art of war, was born at Payerne in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, where his father was syndic.

Post-war service and retirement

After several years of retirement and literary work, Jomini resumed his post in the Russian army and in about 1823 was made a full general. Thenceforward 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 opened in 1832 and still bears its original name of the Nicholas Academy. In 1828 he was employed in the field in the Russo-Turkish War, and at the siege of Varna he was given the grand cordon of the Alexander Order.

Related Topics:
1823 - Nicholas - Russo-Turkish War - Siege of Varna

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This was his last active service. In 1829 he settled at Brussels where he chiefly lived 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 on the conclusion of peace in 1856 and some years afterwards 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, and in 1859 he was asked by Napoleon III to furnish a plan of campaign in the Italian War. One of his last essays dealt with the war of 1866 and the influence of the breech-loading rifle, and he died at Passy only a year before the Franco-German War. Thus one of the earliest of the great military theorists lived to speculate on the tactics of the present day.

Related Topics:
Brussels - St Petersburg - Crimean War - 1859 - Napoleon III - Franco-German War

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~