After serving in the Revolutionary Wars, he earned rapid promotion while fighting against Spain and soon found himself as a division commander under Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy.

Napoleon wrote of Augereau that he "has plenty of character, courage, firmness, activity; is inured to war; is well liked by the soldiery; is fortunate in his operations".

Augereau was born in Faubourg Saint-Marceau, Paris, as the son of a Parisian fruit seller (in some accounts, a servant).

The German Legion proved useless in battle because many of the soldiers switched sides, and the officers, including Augereau and François Marceau, found themselves in prison.

Augereau became a divisional commander and played a significant role at the Battle of Boulou from 29 April to 1 May, where his feint attacks lured the Spanish Army led by General Luis Firmín de la Unión into a false position.

After the Peace of Basel ended the War of the Pyrenees in July 1795, Augereau and his division were transferred to the Army of Italy.

The battle cost the Austrians about 1,000 casualties, while French losses were also heavy, including General Martial Beyrand who was killed.

Augereau's bold front allowed Bonaparte to dispose of Quasdanovich, then mass his main strength to beat Wurmser at Castiglione two days later.

[10] Shortly after Castiglione, Bonaparte tersely summed up Augereau's military qualities: "Much character, courage, steadiness, activity; is used to war, liked by the soldiers, lucky in his operations.

Nevertheless, owing to his final adhesion to Bonaparte's fortunes, Augereau received a Marshal's baton at the beginning of the First French Empire on 19 May 1804.

When Napoleon called off the invasion because of the growing threat from Austria and Russia, the camp became the VII Corps of the Grande Armée.

He fought in the battles of Konstanz and Bregenz, before tracking down and destroying General Franz Jellacic's Austrian division at Dornbirn in Vorarlberg on 13 November 1805.

[14] Adélaïde, the daughter of Gilles Bernard Bourlon de Chavange and wife Jeanne Françoise Launuy, had no children with Augereau and the ducal title became extinct upon his death.

It was Augereau's brother Jean-Pierre, serving under Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, who was taken prisoner by the Russian vanguard near Smolensk.

Before the Battle of Leipzig in October, Napoleon reproached him with not being the Augereau of Castiglione; to which he replied, "Give me back the old soldiers of Italy, and I will show you that I am.

After being re-restored to the throne in 1815 following Napoleon's defeat, King Louis XVIII deprived Augereau of his military title and pension.