He took command of the VI Corps of the Grande armée during the Russian campaign, where he obtained his marshal's baton for his victory at the First Battle of Polotsk.

A talented commander, Gouvion Saint-Cyr's cold and taciturn character earned him the nickname "The Owl" (le Hibou) from his soldiers.

[4] Gouvion Saint-Cyr temporarily succeeded Lazare Hoche, who had died at the head of the Army of the Rhine and Moselle, until Charles-Pierre Augereau formally took over command.

[4] Gouvion Saint-Cyr, who refused to congratulate the Directory after the Coup of 18 Fructidor Year V (4 September 1797), then replaced André Masséna as commander of the Army of Rome from 26 March until 25 July 1798.

[4] Gouvion Saint-Cyr was the commander of the right wing during the defeat at the Battle of Novi, during which commander-in chief Barthélémy Catherine Joubert was killed.

[4] Unwilling to engage in politics, Gouvion Saint-Cyr refused to allow his soldiers to swear an oath to the new Consulate government, following the Coup of 18 Brumaire.

Recalled to Paris in August 1802, he was sent to Italy on 14 May 1803, as lieutenant general of the corps of observation of Naples under the command of Joachim Murat.

During the War of the Third Coalition, as commander the left wing of Masséna's army, he defeated and captured the émigré Louis Victor Meriadec de Rohan-Guéméné at the Battle of Castelfranco Veneto on 29 November 1805.

[6] He was then in command of the camp of Boulogne from December 1806 to August 1808, a secondary role while his future marshal colleagues covered themselves with glory in the War of the Fourth Coalition.

[5] Having refused to carry out Berthier's order to simultaneously besiege Girona, Tarragona and Tortosa, he was replaced by Augereau and left his post before the latter's arrival.

It was just before the victory at Polotsk on the banks of the Daugava river, however, that Marshal Nicolas Oudinot was wounded, and thus the II Corps was added to Gouvion Saint-Cyr's sphere of command.

On 18 October, Gouvion Saint-Cyr again faced Wittgenstein at the Second Battle of Polotsk, but had to retreat after two days of particularly bloody fighting, in which the marshal himself received a severe bullet wound to the foot.

[5] During the German campaign of 1813, he commanded the XI Corps of Berlin in February but, suffering from typhus, he returned to France for treatment.

[5] At the time, Napoleon commented, "The Allies have violated the rights of man, not in order to deprive me of 20,000 to 25,000 soldiers, but to make Saint Cyr prisoner.

On the king's return, Gouvion Saint-Cyr was appointed Minister of War in the Talleyrand ministry, serving from 8 July to 25 September 1815.

[3] Marshal Saint-Cyr is mentioned in Joseph Conrad's short story "The Duel" (as well as Ridley Scott's film adaptation The Duellists) as the commander of Armand d'Hubert after the second and final restoration of Louis XVIII as King of France.