Fighting under Napoleon Bonaparte, he was killed while leading his brigade to attack Cosseria Castle at the Battle of Millesimo.

[4] On 1 June, Banel was confirmed as commander of the 7th Battalion of the Aude Volunteers in the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees.

[5] This was where the division led by Jacques Gilles Henri Goguet was positioned at the start of the Battle of Peyrestortes on 17 September, which was a French victory.

[1] In the Battle of Villelongue on the night of 18 December 1793, the French overran a camp defended by Portuguese troops.

At first, the two main attack columns were repulsed, but Colonels Banel and Jean Joseph Guieu led their soldiers to successfully capture an important redoubt.

[2] An order of battle for 17 November 1794 showed that Banel commanded a 2,174-man brigade in Charles-Pierre Augereau's division.

[11] The Battle of the Black Mountain on 17–20 November proved to be a major French victory in which Augereau's division made the main assault.

[16] On the morning of the first day, Banel's brigade seized Toirano and attacked an Austrian strongpoint called the Chartreuse.

In January 1796, Augereau was able to remedy the situation and he asked his army commander Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer to write to brigade commanders Banel and Claude Perrin Victor to commend them for their soldiers' good discipline and appearance.

The French encountered a thin line held by the Austrian force led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Giovanni Marchese di Provera, including the Belgiojoso Infantry Regiment Nr.

A 569-man battalion of Sardinian grenadiers led by Colonel Filippo Del Caretto suddenly appeared and rushed to occupy Cosseria Castle, a medieval ruin.

In the Battle of Millesimo, the French quickly drove off the rest of the Austrian covering force and surrounded the castle.