Blessed with military talent and courage, he rapidly rose to general officer rank during the French Revolutionary Wars.

In 1805, Loison led a division in Napoleon's Grande Armée during the Ulm campaign and served in the War of the Fourth Coalition in 1806 and 1807.

Élie managed to rally his men but[3] Johann Andreas Benjowski's Austrians[4] launched an assault in a heavy fog at dawn.

[3] French historian Charles Mullié noted that while Loison was a talented soldier who exhibited extreme bravery, he also had a dark side.

Notorious for the sacking and destruction of the Orval Abbey in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and other acts, Loison was arrested by agents of the government.

When royalist sympathizers tried to overthrow the Directory on 13 Vendémiaire (5 October 1795) and Napoleon Bonaparte dispersed them with his cannon, Loison supported his colleague.

[11] In independent command of his brigade, he received a drubbing at the hands of Franz Xaver Saint-Julien's numerically superior Austrian division at the valley called Urseren on 29 May.

Quickly recovering, he led his division in Guillaume Philibert Duhesme's corps in driving back Josef Philipp Vukassovich's command.

Austrian general Johann Sigismund Riesch held Elchingen with a force numbering 8,000 soldiers, including 14 battalions, 11 squadrons, and 12 guns.

After the engineers repaired the bridge, three French battalions from Loison's division rushed across and hurled themselves at Riesch's defenses, supported by ten guns.

[19] The remnants of Riesch's wrecked corps fled back to Ulm after sustaining losses of 6,000 men killed, wounded, or captured.

[17] After destroying the Austrian army of Karl Mack von Leiberich, Emperor Napoleon directed the VI Corps south to prevent Archduke Charles from crossing from Italy to the Danube valley.

Together with Auguste Marmont's II Corps at Leoben, Ney's position dissuaded Archduke Charles from attempting to push northward.

[23] Napoleon planned for Mortier and his brother King Louis Bonaparte of Holland to wipe out the small state of Hesse-Kassel because he knew its ruler was hostile to France.

[29] Ordered by Napoleon to send troops to Almeida, Portugal and open communications with Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières, Junot sent Loison with a brigade on this mission.

Believing he was the reviled Loison, the mob was about to murder their prisoner when Foy held up both hands, proving he was not Maneta and was spared.

Leite was joined by Colonel Moretti Spanish troops, one-half battalions of regular foot soldiers and the Maria Luisa Hussar Regiment.

[29] Arthur Wellesley landed with a British army at Figueira da Foz near the end of July and pressed south.

[41] During Marshal Nicolas Soult's second invasion of Portugal, Loison was detached to the east to make contact with Pierre Belon Lapisse's command in the west of Spain.

[42] The Portuguese force, which consisted of two battalions of the 12th Line Infantry Regiment and militia, lost 1,600 casualties plus ten guns and five colors.

[45] In January 1810, Loison led the enormous 3rd Division numbering 12,250 men in 19 battalions in Marshal Michel Ney's VI Corps.

[50] When the VI Corps advanced into Portugal after its victory, it encountered Robert Craufurd's Light Division near the small Portuguese fortress of Almeida.

Seizing his chance, Ney hurled Loison's division at the British and Portuguese light infantry in the Battle of the Côa on 24 July 1810.

[54] During Marshal Masséna's third invasion of Portugal, Loison's division led the unsuccessful VI Corps attack at the Battle of Bussaco.

But when Loison's columns neared the crest of Bussaco Ridge, they were ambushed by the Light Division and chased off the heights with heavy losses.

[55][56] After being held up at the Lines of Torres Vedras all winter the French were compelled to retreat in March 1811 and Ney's corps formed the rear guard.

[60] On 22 March, when the army had nearly reached a safe position, Ney flatly refused to obey Masséna's orders and was dismissed.

[62] During the battle he supervised 17,406 troops in three divisions led by Jean Gabriel Marchand, Julien Augustin Joseph Mermet, and Ferey.

[64] Soon after the battle Marshal Auguste Marmont replaced Masséna and did away with the corps organization, leaving Junot, Marchand, Mermet, and other generals without employment.

[65] In 1812, Loison was sent with a reserve division of 10,000 newly drafted German and Italian boys to help extricate the remnants of the Grand Army in its retreat from Russia.