[1][2][3] Son of a notary, he studied at the seminary of Aire-sur-l'Adour and left it in 1793 to go, with the corps of the National Guards of Bayonne, to the banks of the Bidasoa to keep the positions that the troop of line could not occupy at the borders.

Having been wounded in Calabria under the orders of General Masséna, he was finally appointed Battalion Commander in 1807, and eighteen months later, Colonel on the battlefield of Wagram (5–6 July 1809).

During the campaign of Russia in 1812, he became chief of the general staff of Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, who noticed his conduct at the Battle of Borodino on 7 September.

Became Brigadier General on 3 June 1813, he locked himself up with a strong detachment in Torgau on the Elbe, where an epidemic fever consumed 25,000 men.

Marshal Maison, under the command of whom he served, and himself, left the Greek soil after 8 months of mission, on 22 May 1829, after having completely liberated Greece from the occupier.

[1][2] Under the July Monarchy, entrusted with the command of the division of Ajaccio, Durrieu received the title of General Inspector of Infantry in 1833.