 He died on 18 August 1870 at the military hospital in Metz, from wounds received at the Battle of Mars-la-Tour.Although comparatively little is known of his life, Ardant du Picq's small corpus of writings has earned him a place in the ranks of great military theorists.Before du Picq began his famous manuscripts, the French military relied heavily upon the writings of former Chief of Staff Baron Antoine-Henri Jomini when it came to warfare.