[2] Against his parents' wishes, Salme ran off and enlisted in the Tribois company of the Noailles Dragoon Regiment on 16 April 1784.

[3] In the spring of 1793 the 1st Vosges was in Jean Nicolas Houchard's 1st Brigade of Joseph Victorin Nevinger's Left Wing near Bingen am Rhein.

[2] On 7 October 1793 Salme was named lieutenant colonel of the 15th Vosges Battalion, a unit of raw and undisciplined conscripts.

[5] During the subsequent Battle of Haguenau, Salme seized Bettenhoffen from the Austrians on 1 December and fought at Berstheim, winning commendation from army commander Jean-Charles Pichegru.

[2] For the operations covering the Siege of Ypres Salme's brigade formed part of Éloi Laurent Despeaux's division.

When Jean Victor Marie Moreau's troops invested Ypres on 1 June, the divisions of Despeaux on the right, Joseph Souham in the center and Pierre Antoine Michaud on the left provided the screening force.

On 10 June the three screening divisions drove off a Coalition corps under François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt from Roeselare (Roulers) after a stiff battle.

The next brigade in line, Jacques MacDonald's of Souham's division resisted Clerfayt's attacks at Hooglede for six hours.

At that time, Jan de Winter's brigade arrived to support MacDonald's left and Salme's rallied soldiers moved forward on his right.

[2] When Michel Ney was captured on 21 April, Salme succeeded to command of the Hussar Division, but an armistice ended the fighting two days later.

Because of his well-known friendship with the traitor, Salme was denounced by Hoche as "Pichegru's vile spy" and dismissed from the army.

After over a year of forced retirement, he secured a post with the Army of Egypt on 9 November 1798 due to the intervention of Kléber.

However, the Neapolitan army quickly unraveled and the French recaptured Rome on 15 December[12] and seized Naples itself on 23 January 1799.

[15] At 8:00 am on 17 June 1799, MacDonald opened the Battle of Trebbia by sending 18,700 soldiers from the divisions of Claude Perrin Victor, Jean-Baptiste Dominique Rusca and Jean Henri Dombrowski plus Salme's Advance Guard into action.

Late in the day, Salme's Advance Guard covered the retreat of the three French divisions behind the Tidone River.

[17] When the Army of Naples retreated on 20 June it left behind wounded generals Salme, Rusca and Jean-Baptiste Olivier.

[2] The expedition commander Charles Leclerc immediately organized a sweep to round up Haitian forces led by Toussaint Louverture.

Much of Haiti was brought under French control but large Haitian forces escaped and Hardy's division returned to Cap-Français.

[19] Leclerc promoted Salme general of division on 15 May 1802 and immediately set him back to France for reasons which remain unclear.

The possibilities are that he was sick, that he was harshly critical of restoring slavery in Hispaniola, that he was dealing in the black market and, finally, that he had become the lover of Pauline Bonaparte, Leclerc's wife.

[21] On 14 September, the Spanish under Henry O'Donnell wiped out one of MacDonald's brigades in a successful raid at the Battle of La Bisbal well to the north.

[22] Emperor Napoleon directed Suchet to capture the port city of Tarragona and promised that general that he would find his marshal's baton inside its walls.

These were grouped into infantry divisions under Jean Isidore Harispe, Bernard-Georges-François Frère and Pierre-Joseph Habert and 1,400 cavalry led by André Joseph Boussart.

Harispe and Frère marched from Lleida (Lérida) while Habert moved from Tortosa along the coast with the siege train.

Leading the inland column, Salme's advanced guard pushed the Spanish outposts behind the Francolí River on 3 May.

Suchet arranged his divisions with Habert on the right at the coast, Frère in the center straddling the Francolí and Harispe on the left.

[27] On 13 May the French captured two small fortifications in front of Fort Olivo and beat back a three-battalion counterattack by the Spanish the next day.

Because the main attack from the west was delayed, Suchet decided to concentrate a vigorous effort against Fort Olivo beginning on 23 May.

[28] On the night of 27 May, as French soldiers dragged four 24-pound cannons into battery, they were blasted by Spanish fire which caused numerous casualties.

[29] Salme was buried under a nearby aqueduct, the Pont de les Ferreres, and his embalmed heart was placed in the Tower of the Scipios along the road to Barcelona.