Jacques-Antoine-Hippolite, Count de, a well-known writer on tactics, was born at Montauban, on the 12th of November 1743. Before he had completed his fourteenth year, he accompanied to Germany his father, who acted as major-general to the army commanded by Marshal de Broglie; and he served, either as captain in the regiment of Auvergne, or as an employé in the staff, during the six campaigns of the war of 1756. He also displayed great zeal in raising and training the Corsican legion, of which he was appointed colonel-commandant in 1772. The year following he published his Essai Général de Tactique. But not wishing to abide, in his own country, the explosion which such a work was calculated to produce, he set out for Germany, which opened to him a vast field of instruction. He repaired to Prussia, and although a species of celebrity had preceded him, he had still considerable difficulties to encounter. Among these were certain prepossessions of Frederick, who judged severely the theoretical attainments and views of the young tactitian, and who besides was not by any means satisfied with Guibert's views of the Prussian system. With this view he addressed a letter, in explanation and in defence, to the Prussian monarch, who was so well pleased with the composition that he received the writer with particular distinction. Ever since the year 1772 Guibert had conceived the design of also entering on the career of literature; and, from year to year, after his return from Prussia, compositions of his, either in the shape of tragedies, or of panegyrics on the great men of France, procured him much reputation in the salons, where they were generally read by the author. He was, however, recalled to his original occupation, by the appointment of the Count de Saint-Germain to the department of war; and having been honoured with the confidence of that minister, he had the rare merit of not abandoning him in his disgrace. In 1776 he was made colonel-commandant of the regiment of Neustrie; in 1782, brigadier-general; in 1788, maréchal-de-camp, or major-general; and next inspector of infantry in the province of Artois. In 1787 he was appointed member and reporter of the council of administration in the department of war. But as Guibert, in the discharge of his functions, combined his own peculiar ideas with those which the deliberations of the council rendered common, the whole appeared to emanate from the reporter, whose proper duty it was merely to give expression to the views of the council; and it was consequently against him that all the complaints and accusations of the discontented were directed. We have already seen that no species of ambition was foreign to Guibert. Accordingly, in 1789, he aspired to become a member of the states-general of the kingdom, and thereby prepared for himself the bitterest mortification which he had ever yet experienced. His pretensions, both as a military man and a writer, had provoked censure, and even excited hostility. He was accused of having attempted to subject officers to imprisonment in irons; proposed to introduce the cane as an instrument for chastising the common soldiers; and recommended the detestable barbarity of hamstringing deserters. Guibert replied by a most formal denial of these imputations, but met with no credit; and in the assemblage of the bailiages of Bourges, the people went so far as to refuse him a hearing. Inconsolable at this injustice, Guibert retired from public life; and, after a short illness, died on the 6th of May 1790, in the forty-seventh year of his age.

His works are,—Essai Général de Tactique, already mentioned, Liège, 1773, in one vol. 4to, and two vols. 8vo; Eloge de Catinat, Edinburgh (Paris), 1775, in 8vo; Comptabilité de Bourbon, a tragedy; Les Morts des Gracques, a piece in three acts; Anne de Boulen, the best of his dramas; Eloge Historique de Michel de l'Hôpital, Chancelier de France, 1777; Défense du Système de Guerre Moderne, ou Réflexions complétées sur le Système de M. de Meralli-Durand, par l'auteur de l'Essai Général de Tactique, Nouvelle édition, 1779, in two vols. 8vo; Discours de réception à l'Académie, 1786; Eloge de la Nation London (Paris), 1787, in 8vo; Letter addressed to the National Assembly, in the name of the Abbé Royaal, Marseilles, 1789, in 4to; Traité de la Force Publique, Paris, 1790, in 8vo, the last production which he acknowledged; Journal d'un Voyage en Allemagne fait en 1773 par Guibert, Paris, 1803, in two vols. 8vo; Œuvres Militaires de Guibert, published by his widow, Paris, 1803, in five volumes 8vo; Voyages de Guibert dans diverses parties de la France et en Suisse, faits en 1775, 1778, 1784, et 1785, ouvrage posthume, Paris, 1806, in 8vo; A volume of Eloge, including that of Claire-Françoise de l'Espérance, Paris, 1806, in 8vo.

But of all the works of Guibert, that by which he is best known is his Essay on Tactics, so often quoted and referred to under the head Army.

(J. B.—E.)