He left his father's laboratory at the age of 21 to join the military camp of Boulogne, where Napoleon was assembling his "Grande Armée".

[1][3] On 9 February 1805, he was assigned with the rank of lieutenant to the 108th Regiment of Line Infantry, which was commanded by Colonel Joseph Higonet, his older brother.

His heroic conduct was rewarded on 22 June 1809 by his assignment to the 1st Infantry Grenadier Regiment from the prestigious Imperial Guard.

On 1 March 1814, just before the abdication of Emperor Napoleon I, Marshal Davout elevated him to the rank of colonel, considering him as "one of the most brilliant officers in the army.

[1][3] After Napoleon's second abdication, Philippe Higonet rallied to Louis XVIII, who appointed him to form and command the Legion of Cantal on 19 August 1815.

[2] The command of the 9th Line Infantry Regiment was then entrusted to Colonel Philippe Higonet, with whom he participated in 1823 in the expedition of Spain.

On 11 August 1823, he was promoted to Maréchal de camp (Brigadier General) in recognition of his acts of bravery during the Siege of Pamplona.

[4] Higonet stayed for a few months in Patras and he established there several health commissions for the freed but suffering Greek population, and even managed, in December 1828, to contain an outbreak of plague which was developing in the mountainous villages of Kalavryta and Vrachni.

[5] He finally left the Greek soil after four months of mission in the Peloponnese, on 9 January 1829, after having completely liberated Greece from the occupier.

After the French Revolution of 1848, he came out of his retirement and tried to be re-elected for a mandate of representative of the people at the National Legislative Assembly of the Second Republic, but this time without success.