Promoted to general officer in July 1793 he was appointed chief of staff to the Army of the Pyrenees.

In October 1793 he assumed command of that army despite being outranked by ten other generals.

A major Spanish attack on the Sans Culottes Camp was repulsed in February 1794.

In July and August his army captured the Baztan Valley and San Sebastián.

In 1799 while he led the Army of the Rhine, he was beaten at Mannheim but he successfully lured the Austrians away from Switzerland.