In 1794 he was present at the Siege of Bastia as a lieutenant in the infantry and later served as an aide-de-camp to Jean Pierre Maurice de Rochon.

In the summer of 1792 he also served as aide to Antoine Guillaume Delmas in the Army of the North (France), distinguishing himself during the Flanders Campaign during the War of the First Coalition.

He was promoted to brigadier general in 1796 and would command brigades of light infantry throughout most of the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars under Napoleon Bonaparte.

He acted as provincial administrator of Damietta and Mansoura before joining the ultimately unsuccessful Siege of Acre (1799) and seeing action at Mount Tabor.

[1] After Napoleon suffered a decisive defeat in his 1812 invasion of Russia, Vial once again held military command during the War of the Sixth Coalition the following year.