prevented the attainment of all the results hoped for from Ney's attack
(see BAUTZEN) there is no means of knowing. But the pretext for censure
was trivial and baseless, and during the armistice Jomini did as he had
intended to do in 1809-10, and went into the Russian service. As things
then were, this was tantamount to deserting to the enemy, and so it was
regarded by Napoleon and by the French army, and by not a few of his new
comrades. It must be observed, in Jomini's defence, that he had for
years held a dormant commission in the Russian army, that he had
declined to take part in the invasion of Russia in 1812, and that he was
a Swiss and not a Frenchman. His patriotism was indeed unquestioned, and
he withdrew from the Allied Army in 1814 when he found that he could not
prevent the violation of Swiss neutrality. Apart from love of his own
country, the desire to study, to teach and to practise the art of war
was his ruling motive. At the critical moment of the battle of Eylau he
exclaimed, "If I were the Russian commander for two hours!" On joining
the allies he received the rank of lieutenant-general and the
appointment of aide-de-camp from the tsar, and rendered important
assistance during the German campaign, though the charge that he
betrayed the numbers, positions and intentions of the French to the
enemy was later acknowledged by Napoleon to be without foundation. He
declined as a Swiss patriot and as a French officer to take part in the
passage of the Rhine at Basel and the subsequent invasion of France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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