Charles Jean Jacques Joseph Ardant du Picq (19 October 1819 – 15 August 1870) was a French colonel and military theorist of the mid-nineteenth century whose writings, as they were later interpreted by other theorists, had a great effect on French military theory and doctrine. October 19 is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Colonel (IPA: or ) is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with the corresponding ranks existing in nearly every country in the world. ...

Life and Career

Ardant du Picq was born at Perigueux in the Dordogne on 19 October 1819. On 1 October 1844, upon graduation from the Ecole de St. Cyr, he was commissioned a sublieutenant in the 67th . As a captain, he saw action in the French expedition to Varna (April-June 1853) during the Crimean War, but he fell ill and was shipped home. Upon recovery, he rejoined his regiment in front of Sevastopol (September). Périgueux is a commune of France, préfecture (capital) of the Dordogne département. ... Dordogne is a département in central France named after the Dordogne River. ... Varna (Bulgarian: Варна) is the third largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 351,552 (as at January 10, 2006). ... Combatants United Kingdom France Ottoman Empire Kingdom of Sardinia Russian Empire Casualties 17,500 British 90,000 French 35,000 Turkish 2,050 Sardinian killed, wounded and died of disease 256,000 killed, wounded and died of disease The Crimean War lasted from 1854 until 1 April 1856 and was... now. ...

Transferred to the 9th Chasseurs a Pied battalion December 1854, he was captured during the storming of the central bastion of Sevastopol in September 1855. He was released in December 1855 and returned to active duty. As a major with the 16th Chasseur Battalion, Ardant du Picq served in Syria from August 1860 to June 1861 during the French intervention to restore order during Maronite-Druze secretarian violence. 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Like virtually all his peers, he also saw extensive service in Algeria (1864-66), and in February 1869 was appointed colonel of the 10th Line Infantry Regiment. He was in France at the outbreak of war with Prussia on 15 July 1870 and took command of his regiment. He was killed leading his troops at the Battle of Borny, near Metz, on 15 August 1870. Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 Prussia (German: ; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Lithuanian: ; Polish: ; Old Prussian: Prūsa) was, most recently, a historic state originating in East Prussia, an area which for centuries had substantial influence on German and European history. ... For other uses of Metz, see Metz (disambiguation) City motto: Si paix dedans, paix dehors (French: If peace inside, peace outside) City proper (commune) Région Lorraine Département Moselle (57) Mayor Jean-Marie Rausch Area 41. ...

Military Theorist and Author

Ardant du Picq's fame rests more with his writings than his martial exploits. By the time of his death, he had already published Combat antique (ancient battle), which was later expanded from his manuscripts into the classic Etudes sur les combat: Combat antique et moderne (see external links below), often referred to by its common English title as Battle Studies. This work was published in part in 1880; the complete text did not appear until 1902. Although comparatively little is known of his life, his small corpus of writings has earned him a place in the ranks of great military analysts. His principal interest was in the moral and psychological aspects of battle; as he himself wrote of the battlefields of his day: "The soldier is unknown often to his closest companions. He loses them in the disorienting smoke and confusion of a battle which he is fighting, so to speak, on his own. Cohesion is no longer ensured by mutual observation." Nor did Ardant du Picq neglect the decisive importance of modern firepower, noting that it was necessary for the attacker to "employ fire up till the last possible moment; otherwise, given modern rates of fire, no attack will reach its objective." Despite these words, much of his work was later used to help justify the unfortunate doctrine of the offensive a l'outrance, put forward principally by Colonel Grandmaison.

Assessment

In sum, Ardant du Picq was a talented analyst and, had he lived, would have gained a fine reputation as a military historian. His analyses stressed the vital importance, especially in contemporary warfare, of discipline and unit cohesion. With Carl von Clausewitz, he was one of the first military analysts to pay particular attention to psychological and behavorial factors in combat. A young Clausewitz Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (June 1, 1780 – November 16, 1831) was a Prussian general and influential military theorist. ...

References

• Creveld, Martin van. The Art of War: War and Military Thought. London: Cassell, 2000. ISBN 0304352640

External links

• Battle Studies, Ardant du Picq's book about soldiers reaction during battle. Free version on Project Gutenberg, translation by John N. Greely and Robert C. Cotton.