Genius?

This is coolbert:

Here with more on the character, the personality, the mentality, the temperament of General von Francois.

As taken from the book by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "August 1914" The Red Wheel. Concerning General von Francois:

"No natural gift brings nothing but joy. There is always some grief to go with it. But no one suffers more for his talent than a gifted [military] officer. The army serves a brilliant man enthusiastically - - once he has grasped his field marshal's baton. Before that, while he is only reaching for the baton, the army raps his fingers repeatedly. Discipline, on which the army is founded, is always hostile to a man of talent, and all that is pulsating in him and straining to break through must be contained, forced to conform and to submit. All those who are for the time being his superiors find such a self-will subordinate intolerable. As a a result, he is promoted more slowly than the mediocrities."

What a writer - - Alexander - - now passed just recently! The man had a way with the words as in the manner of the other greater Russian writers - - Tolstoy, Pushkin, etc.

General von Francois [a genius?] indeed was as odds with the entire ethos of the soldier?

The soldier [regardless of rank and in contrast to the warrior] is one who: 1. Works as part of team. 2. Fights according to a plan. 3. Comports himself willingly to discipline and to the obedience of orders.

Von Francois was habitually in the manner of seeing things in his own way, and wanting to do things in his own way, quite often in opposition to the demands and orders of higher headquarters.

Military men of such a mentality, Nelson, Sharon, von Francois are almost always too men of talent and quite often so eminently successful on the battlefield in a way few others are, however, ruffling a lot of feathers along the way.

coolbert.