He joined the Epernay Volunteers and fought at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792, earning promotion to Chef de bataillon (major).

[6] Hardy's advance guard was reinforced with 172nd Line Infantry Demi-brigade, 1st Battalion of Sarthe, four companies of grenadiers, 20th Chasseurs à Cheval, one squadron of the 5th Dragoons and six field guns.

Led by the grenadiers and light infantry, Hardy's troops crossed the Silenrieux ravine and took position on the west side.

[7] The local Austrian commander Joseph Binder von Degenschild decided to counterattack on the 26th from Boussu, Walcourt and Florennes.

On 3 June 1794, during the retreat after the Battle of Gosselies, Hardy with two battalions of light infantry defended the river crossing at Monceau-sur-Sambre.

Under a crossfire of Austrian artillery, he and his troops held their ground until Alexandre-Antoine Hureau de Sénarmont and his engineers removed the last part of the pontoon bridge.

The units in his brigade were unspecified but the 11,240-strong division consisted of the 1st, 9th, 21st, 26th and 178th Line Infantry Demi-brigades, the 11th Chasseurs à Cheval and the 31st Gendarmes Battalion.

After recuperating at Philippeville, Hardy married the 20-year-old Calixte Hufty de Busnel, Sénarmont's sister-in-law, on 18 January 1797.

[17] His private letters beginning on 30 April 1797 are preserved in a book edited by his grandson, General Hardy de Périni.

[22] To support the Irish Rebellion of 1798 the French sent a naval expedition to Ireland that landed 1,099 soldiers under Jean Joseph Amable Humbert in August 1798.

The naval squadron led by Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart was intercepted in the Battle of Tory Island and almost all of its ships captured, Hardy and most of his men becoming prisoners.

During the summer, the French Directory planned to replace Masséna as leader of the Army of the Danube but later decided to confirm him as commander.

Unlike the usual French practice of having the soldiers live off the land, each division was trailed by a wagon train with seven days of food.

[27] Grenier's Left Wing consisted of three divisions,[28] the 1st under Claude Juste Alexandre Legrand, the 2nd led by Ney and the 3rd commanded by Hardy.

[29] Even though outnumbered in the theater, the Austrian army under Archduke John and Franz von Lauer launched an offensive.

The Austrian military system soon proved unable to meet expectations, yet the generals managed to bring superior forces to bear.

[30] On the morning of 1 December 1800, the Austrians surprised the divisions of Ney and Hardy in their camps to start the Battle of Ampfing.

Despite stubborn fighting, Ney's division was pushed back by the Austrian corps of Louis-Willibrod-Antoine Baillet de Latour.

Though some troops from Legrand's division blocked one of Riesch's units, his left flank was slowly forced back.

[32] Toussaint Louverture led a successful slave revolt that established control over Hispaniola with himself as governor general for life.

Though Louverture pledged loyalty to France, Napoleon Bonaparte sent Charles Leclerc with 20,000 soldiers to reconquer the island.

Before he left France he noted in a letter to his wife that Napoleon persuaded his sister Pauline Bonaparte to accompany her husband Leclerc on the expedition.

Leclerc organized his army with Charles Dugua as his chief of staff, Jean-François Joseph Debelle as commander of artillery and engineers, and infantry divisions under Hardy, Jean Boudet, Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Rochambeau and Edme Étienne Borne Desfourneaux.

[36] The divisions of Hardy and Desfourneaux disembarked on the west side of Cap-Français on 5 February after Louverture's general Henri Christophe refused to let them land in the port.

[36] In this first operation Hardy led the advance guard which drove off several hundred Haitian soldiers and captured six cannons.

Leclerc planned to have the divisions of Hardy, Desfourneaux and Rochambeau sweep south from Cap-Français while Boudet was to move north from Port-au-Prince.