Antoine-Henri Jomini

Swiss-French general and military theorist. After a volunteer stint with the French army (1798 – 1800), he wrote his Treatise on Grand Military Operations, 5 vol. (1805). He was appointed staff colonel in 1805 by Napoleon I, who had read his book. He was created a baron after the Treaties of Tilsit (1807). He rose to the post of chief of staff, but unjust treatment by his superiors prompted him to resign (1813), and thereafter he fought for France's enemy, Russia. Of his numerous later works on military history and strategy, the best known are Principles of Strategy (1818) and Summary of the Art of War (1838). He was the first to fix divisions between strategy, tactics, and logistics, and his systematic attempt to define the principles of warfare made him a founder of modern military thought.

Jomini was a major general in the Napoleonic’s army and later in the Russian army of Alexander I, and one of the most celebrated writers on the Napoleonic art of war. He also organized the militia of the Helvetic Republic. He published a total of 27 books on modern warfare. His most significant of works was his 1838 Précis de l'art de la guerre (Summary of the Art of War). According to the historian John Shy, Jomini "deserves the dubious title of founder of modern strategy.” He suggested 4 fundamental rules for when in battle: one, move one’s forces to bear upon the enemy’s most important points and disrupt communications without placing one’s own force in a vulnerable position; two, instead of bringing one’s own forces to bear all the enemy’s force, concentrate on just one part of the enemy’s force; three, determine the decisive point of the battlefield and the enemy’s force to maneuver one’s forces against it; and four, when concentrating mass upon decisive points, do so quickly and in a well timed and coordinated maneuver. One of the key principles to Jominian thought was the idea of maintaining the initiative. If a general had control of his forces, he could force his opponent to react to his wishes achieving a strategic initiative.