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Antoine-Henri Jomini

Antoine-Henri Jomini (French: [ʒɔmini]; 6 March 1779 – 22 March 1869)[1] was a Swiss military officer who served as a general in French and later in Russian service, and one of the most celebrated writers on the Napoleonic art of war. Jomini was largely self-taught in military strategy,[2] and his ideas are a staple at military academies, the United States Military Academy at West Point being a prominent example; his theories were thought to have affected many officers who later served in the American Civil War. He may have coined the term logistics in his Summary of the Art of War (1838).

Antoine-Henri Jomini

(1779-03-06)6 March 1779
Payerne, Switzerland

22 March 1869(1869-03-22) (aged 90)
Paris, France

Early life and business career[edit]

Jomini was born on 6 March 1779 in Payerne, Vaud, Switzerland, to Benjamin Jomini and Jeanne Marcuard.[1][3] The Jominis were an old Swiss family, and both his father and paternal grandfather served as mayor of Payerne.[4][5] 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.[5][1] As a result, Jomini entered a business school in Aarau at the age of 14.[5]


In April 1795, Jomini left school and went to work at the banking house of Monsieurs Preiswerk in Basel.[5] In 1796, he moved to Paris, where he worked first at the Mosselmann banking house and then as a stockbroker.[5][1] 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.[6]

Swiss Army[edit]

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.[4] He soon found a position in the new Swiss government as a secretary for the Minister of War with the rank of captain.[4] 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".[5]


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 operations militaires (Treatise on Major Military Operations).[5] Michel Ney, one of Napoleon's top generals, read the book in 1803 and subsidized its publication.[7] The book appeared in several volumes from 1804 to 1810[5] and was "quickly translated and widely discussed" throughout Europe.[8]

Jomini, Henri. Traité de grande tactique, ou, Relation de la guerre de sept ans, extraite de Tempelhof, commentée at comparée aux principales opérations de la derniére guerre; avec un recueil des maximes les plus important de l'art militaire, justifiées par ces différents évenéments. 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 Revolution (1806; new ed. 1819–1824), Paris and Brussels, 1806, 1824.

Jomini, Le Baron de. Vie Politique et Militaire de Napoleon recontèe par lui-meme au Tribunal de Cèsar d'Alexandre et de Frederic, 4 vol., Anselin, Paris, 1827

Military strategy

List of military theorists

"Antoine Henri Jomini." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 23. Gale, 2003. Reproduced in . Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009.

Biography Resource Center

. "Jomini and Clausewitz: Their Interaction." Paper presented to the 24th Meeting of the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe at Georgia State University, 26 February 1993. Proceedings of the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, XX (1992). Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University, 1994.

Bassford, Christopher

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Jomini, Antoine Henri, Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 495–496.

public domain

Hittle, J.D. (1958). "Introduction". Jomini and His Summary of the Art of War. Harrisburg, PA: Military Service Publishing Co.

. The American Civil War. New York: Knopf, 2009.

Keegan, John

Mertsalov, A.N. (2004). "Jomini versus Clausewitz". In Erickson, Mark; Erickson, Ljubica (eds.). Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 11–19.  0-297-84913-1..

ISBN

Shy, John (1986). ""Jomini"". In Paret, Peter (ed.). Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. Princeton: Princeton University Press.  0-691-02764-1.

ISBN

Notes


Bibliography


Further reading

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Antoine-Henri Jomini

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Antoine-Henri Jomini

(in English)

Notice of the Present Theory of War, and of Its Utility

(in French)

Monographie du général Jomini

The Influence of Clausewitz on Jomini's Le Précis de l'Art de la Guerre

"Jomini at the Time of the Helvetic Republic (1798–1801)"