of advancement in his profession, as high military rank and honour were no longer the sole preserve of noblemen. He was a man of great energy and resourcefulness, with exceptional qualities of leadership. He started his military career as a regimental trooper and rose up the ranks on his merits, before becoming a senior officer in the elite Régiment de chasseurs à cheval. Daumesnil was seriously wounded on 19 August 1794. When he had recovered, he joined his regiment in Italy, was promoted, with the rank of brigadier, to the guides of General Bonaparte, and became a "maréchal-des-logis" on 28 October 1797. While serving in Egypt, in Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, Daumesnil threw himself on a bomb that had landed at Napoleon's feet; the bomb failed to explode, but the incident endeared him to Napoleon. In his early days in the guides, he was notorious for misconduct outside the field of battle. One day in Cairo, he was arrested and sentenced to death with two other guides for rebellion in the countryside after a fight with line officers. Bonaparte promised him his life if he would ask for pardon, but the offer did not apply to the other two guides and Daumesnil refused. The next day, driven to the place of execution with his companions, the offer was made again, and he refused again. "[…] But, as he set out to join the other two condemned men, he was held back. The salvo laid flat his companions, under his eyes, and they led him back to his cell. Bonaparte had decided to save him." As a member of the Legion of Honor he fought in the wars of Austria (1804), Prussia (1806) and Poland (1807). He also fought on the battlefields of Jena, Eylau and Friedland. He followed the Emperor to Spain in 1808. In the uprising of 2 May in Madrid, it was he who, at the head of the horse troops of the Imperial Guard, commanded the main charge of the French cavalry against the inhabitants of Madrid in the main street of Alcalá. He had two horses killed under him by enemy fire during the engagement. Daumesnil joined the German army in 1809, took part in the battle of Eckmühl and was promoted to the rank of colonel-major on 15 June. He was created Baron of the Empire and was wounded in the left leg on the battlefield