Born a Corsican in 1765, Cervoni enlisted in the French army as a private in the Royal Corsican Regiment in 1783. His father forced him to quit the military in 1786 to study law. In 1792 Cervoni rejoined the army as a
sous-lieutenant in a cavalry unit. He served as aide to General
Raphaël de Casabianca. He distinguished himself at the
Siege of Toulon in 1793. During the siege he was wounded twice and promoted to
chef de battalion and later
chef de brigade. At this time he may have been associated with Representative of the People
Antoine Christophe Saliceti, a fellow Corsican. He was also a friend of the
Bonaparte family. Promoted to
general of brigade on 14 January 1794, he was posted to the
Army of Italy. Under the command of
André Masséna, he fought at the
Battle of Loano in November 1795. In the spring of 1796,
Napoleon Bonaparte took command of the army of Italy. At the beginning of the
Montenotte Campaign on 10 April, Cervoni's 3,500-man brigade was attacked by 10,000 Austrians led by
Johann Beaulieu at Voltri (now a suburb of
Genoa). Cervoni "conducted a masterly withdrawal to the west, eluding the trap." Bonaparte quickly counterattacked, compelled the
Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont to make peace, and forced the Austrians to retreat. During the pursuit of the Austrian army, Cervoni helped rally the troops at the
Battle of Lodi. Later, he fought at the
Siege of Mantua and the battles of
Lonato,
Castiglione,
Arcola, and
Rivoli. ==Empire==