While fighting in the War of the Pyrenees Causse enjoyed rapid advancement, emerging as a general of brigade in December 1793.

Spanish losses were 160 killed and wounded, 22 colors, 91 artillery pieces, and 7,000 prisoners who were paroled after agreeing not to fight against France until exchanged.

[6] On the 13th around 2:00 PM, André Masséna probed the Austrian and Piedmontese positions which were fortified and supported by 18 pieces of artillery.

[7] The next day at 11:00 AM, Masséna began moving Jean-Baptiste Meynier's division forward in two columns to attack the 3,000 defenders.

On the left, Amédée Emmanuel Francois Laharpe took his division to the west bank of the Bormida di Spigno and unlimbered six guns to support the attack.

Laharpe formed his division into three columns and sent his men across the river north of Dego to attack the Austro-Piedmontese right flank.

When the Austrian wing commander Eugene-Guillaume Argenteau belatedly showed up with two battalions of reinforcements, the French simply brushed him aside.

[8] That evening the hungry French soldiers went completely beyond the control of their officers and dispersed in search of food and plunder.

When Laharpe's grumbling soldiers returned, the French had to attack Dego in a replay of the previous day's action.