The son of a cooper from Saarlouis, Ney worked as a civil servant until 1787 when he enlisted in a cavalry regiment, right before the outbreak of French Revolution.

Distinguishing himself as a cavalry officer in the War of the First Coalition, he quickly rose through the ranks and, by the Battle of Hohenlinden (1800), he had been promoted to divisional general.

Ney commanded the French rearguard during the disastrous invasion of Russia, for which he was lauded "the bravest of the brave" by the emperor.

After Napoleon's defeat by the Sixth Coalition in 1814, Ney pressured the emperor to abdicate and pledged his allegiance to the restored Bourbon monarchy.

He rejoined Napoleon during the Hundred Days but met defeat at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), after which he was charged with treason by the restored monarchy and executed by firing squad.

He was the second son of Pierre Ney (1738–1826), a master cooper and veteran of the Seven Years' War, and his wife Marguerite Greiveldinger.

[3] He was educated at the Collège des Augustins in Sarrelouis until 1782, when he began working as a clerk in a local notary's office, and in 1784 was employed in mines and forges.

[2] Under the Bourbon monarchy, entry to the officer corps of the French Army was restricted to those with four quarterings of nobility (i.e., two generations of aristocratic birth).

As an officer he participated in the Battle of Neerwinden in 1793 and was wounded at the Siege of Mainz, also in 1793. in June 1794, he was transferred to Army of Sambre-et-Meuse.

On 17 April 1797, during the Battle of Neuwied, Ney led a cavalry charge against Austrian lancers trying to seize French cannons.

During the mêlée, Ney was thrown from his horse and captured in the vicinity of the municipality of Dierdorf; on 8 May he was exchanged for an Austrian general.

[5] Following the capture of Mannheim, Ney was promoted to général de division on 28 March 1799 and was given brief command over the Army of the Rhine from 25 September to 23 October.

In 1810, Ney joined Marshal André Masséna in the invasion of Portugal, where he captured Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, and saw further action on the River Côa, and a defeat at the Bussaco.

The French army followed the retreating allies to the Lines of Torres Vedras, a scorched earth trap prepared by Wellington in absolute secrecy.

After losing 21,000 men of 61,000 in several months of hunger, Masséna and Ney were forced to retreat due to lack of food and supplies, see also attrition warfare against Napoleon.

During the retreat from Moscow, Ney commanded the rearguard (and was known as "the last Frenchman on Russian soil" when he passed the Niemen on 14 December).

[10] The terrible defeat of the III Corps was thorough enough to induce the chivalrous Miloradovich to extend another honorable surrender to Ney.

[12] Ney escaped passing around the Russian at Mankovo, following the brook Losvinka for two hours, about 13 km north.

[15] The river, 110 m wide and of a depth that could reach up to 2 m, was only frozen for a couple of days, leaving it fragile, and the ice broke in several places.

[21] When Paris fell and the Bourbons reclaimed the throne, Ney, who had pressured Napoleon to accept his first abdication and exile, was promoted, lauded, and made a Peer of France by the newly enthroned King Louis XVIII.

Although Ney had pledged his allegiance to the restored monarchy, the Bourbon court looked down on him because he was a commoner by birth.

"[22] On 14 March, on the main square in Lons-le-Saulnier (Jura) Ney joined Napoleon with a small army of 6,000 men.

During the battle, he had five horses killed under him,[29] and at the end of the day, Ney led one of the last infantry charges, shouting to his men: "Come and see how a marshal of France meets his death!

The King's government then appointed Marshal Jourdan as president and when it finally convened on 9 November 1815, the court-martial comprised the marshals Jourdan, Masséna, Augereau, and Mortier, and the generals Gazan de La Peyriere (instead of Maison who refused), Claparède and Villatte.

Other witnesses failed to corroborate Bourmont's claim that Ney had been wearing an Imperial eagle decoration.

[33] On 4 December, when the Peers were called to give their verdict, 137 voted for the death penalty and 17 for deportation; five abstained.

[36][37] they had four sons:[citation needed] It is questionable if Ida Saint-Elme, 'Courtisane de la Grande Armée', was a lover of Michel Ney.

[43] Peter Stewart Ney's body was exhumed twice, in 1887 and 1936,[citation needed] but both times no conclusive proof emerged.

A new investigation was made in 2022, and while third exhumation found no usable remains, DNA was extracted from a flute that had belonged to Peter Stewart Ney.