Guibert's general essay on tactics / / translated and annotated by Jonathan Abel.

• Superior document: History of warfare ; Volume 137
• VerfasserIn: Guibert, Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de, 1743-1790,
• TeilnehmendeR: Abel, Jonathan, 1985-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: History of warfare ; Volume 137.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

"'The God of War' is near to revealing himself, because we have heard his prophet." So wrote Jean Colin, naming Napoleon the God of War and Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert, as his prophet. Guibert was the foremost philosopher of the Military Enlightenment, dedicating his career to systematizing warfare in a single document. The result was his magnum opus, the General Essay on Tactics , which helped to lay the foundation for the success of French armies during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It is presented here in English for the first time since the 1780s, with extensive annotation and contextualization.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgments -- Diagrams -- Tables and Figures -- On the Translation and Sourcing -- Introduction / Jonathan Abel -- To My Patrie -- Preliminary Discourse -- Plan of a Work Entitled "France, Political and Military" -- Introduction -- Education of Troops -- Avant-propos -- Chapter I Army Marches -- Chapter II Opening of Marches -- Chapter III On the Disposition of March Orders -- Chapter IV Disposition of Troops in March Orders -- Chapter V Disposition of the Artillery in March Orders -- Chapter VI On the Disposition of Baggage in Marches -- Chapter VII On Orders of Battle -- Chapter VIII Parallel Order -- Chapter IX Oblique Order -- Chapter X Formation of Armies; [the] Necessity of Assembling Camps Destined to Be Schools of Grand Tactics in Peacetime -- Chapter XI Project of a Camp of Instruction; Composition and Division of the Army That One Proposes to Assemble There -- Chapter XII Maneuvers That Must Be Executed in the Camp of Instruction -- Chapter XIII Application of the Preceding Maneuvers to Terrain and to Circumstances -- Chapter XIV Application of the Tactics Exposed Above to Defensive Orders of Battle. [The] Necessity of Making This Application Known to the Troops and to the General Officers -- Chapter XV Continuation of Objectives That Must Be Put into Practice in the Camp of Instruction -- Chapter XVI Rapport between the Science of Fortifications and Tactics, and with War in General -- Chapter XVII Rapport between Knowledge of Terrain and Tactics -- Chapter XVIII Rapport between the Science of Subsistence and War, and Particularly with Campaign War. Examination of the Manner by Which We Make Our Armies Subsist -- Conclusion -- Appendix A The French Army in the Eighteenth Century -- Appendix B Glossary of Terms -- Bibliography -- Index.