the 27th Regiment. His regiment first served garrison duty in Strasbourg, but in December 1793, participated in the Battle of Wissembourg. In May 1794, Gazan became a battalion commander of the new 54th Demi-Brigade. On 4 July, he routed the Prussians in Kuppenheim by ordering his drummers to beat a charge, convincing the Prussians that they were outnumbered. He was promoted to brigade colonel on 11 July and led his troops to victory against the Prussians at Trippstadt. In 1796, he joined the Army of the Rhine, under the command of Jean Victor Moreau. This was his first campaign and he was promoted to brigadier general in recognition of his outstanding achievements at the Battle of Ettlingen. Gazan was wounded on 22 November 1796 and taken to hospital in Strasbourg for his recovery, where he met Marie Madeleine Reiss; after their marriage, she frequently accompanied him on his campaigns and they had several children. Swiss campaign On 4 April 1799, his superior and friend André Masséna transferred him to the Army of the Danube, at that time located in the northeastern Swiss plateau. There, he took command of a weak (under-manned) brigade at the small town of Winterthur, in northern Switzerland. On 26 May, Michel Ney, the newly appointed general of division, took command of the forward line protecting the main French force at Zürich. The following day, Friedrich, Baron von Hotze, arrived with close to 8,000 battle-hardened and experienced Austrian border troops, including the 12th Infantry Manfredini, a battalion of Hungarian grenadiers, and six squadrons of the Waldeck Dragoons. In the ensuing clash, Ney ordered Gazan's under-manned brigade to the center, where it was soon overwhelmed. In retreat, they safely crossed a bridge spanning a small river, the Töss, but the cavalry guarding the bridge was itself forced back. After stationing his batteries on a slight incline, to protect the retreat from the Austrians, the injured Ney handed command to Gazan, who organized and conducted the successful retreat. A few days later, at the First Battle of Zürich (4 June 1799), the Austrian force overpowered the French lines. As part of the V. Division of the Army of the Danube, Gazan again commanded the rear guard after Massena's force disengaged from Archduke Charles' army and withdrew across the Limmat river. Later that year, he faced a combined Austrian and Russian force at the Second Battle of Zürich (27 September).