Although little is known of Ordener's youth, he was the son of commoners and joined the legion of the
Prince of Conde (cousin to the king) at the age of 18 (1776). He was assigned as a private of the
Boufflers Dragoons, part of this legion. In 1783, he was appointed to the quartermaster corps and in 1787, he was promoted to
warrant officer. In the early days of the
French Revolution, he adopted its principles with zeal and enthusiasm. Subsequently, Ordener took part in all the
French Revolutionary Wars. In the
War of the First Coalition, he served with distinction in the armies of the Moselle, the
Rhine, the
Danube and in northern Italy. He was promoted to lieutenant in the 10th Regiment
Chasseurs à Cheval (light horse) on 25 January 1792 and captain the following year. In 1796 he was promoted to
chef de brigade of the 10th Regiment. At the onset of the
War of the Second Coalition in 1799, when the armies of the Danube and Helvetia were formed, he was assigned to the Army of the Danube under command of
Jean Baptiste Jourdan. His 10th Regiment was part of
Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr's III. Division, and held the far left flank at the
Battle of Ostrach, 21 March 1799, in southwestern Germany. Although he was wounded on 14 August 1799 in Switzerland, he participated in the
Second Battle of Zurich in which his 10th
Chasseurs à Cheval routed a division of Russians, a decisive moment in the French victory.
Campaigns in Austria and Prussia In 1805, Ordener participated in the campaign against Austria as commander of a regiment of
horse grenadiers of the Imperial Guard. He executed this, upon order of Napoleon, with impetuosity; this was the charge that pushed the Russians onto the ice and during which, French sources maintain, 40,000 Russians drowned and another 30,000 were taken prisoner. Although this charge garnered for Ordener his promotion to general of division, Napoleon commented that Ordener was worn out. He followed this observation with the frequently quoted prediction, "I think we have no more than five or six years left of him." In the 1806 campaign against Prussia, Ordener commanded a division of the elite Imperial Guard cavalry. After this campaign, he became a senator and was appointed to first
equerry to the Empress Josephine. In this responsibility, he supervised the care of the empress's horses, and acted as her senior aid. Michel Ordener's daughter, Josephine-Eugenie Ordener, was one of
Josephine Bonaparte's
ladies-in-waiting. He also received the
Order of the Iron Crown.
François Joseph Lefebvre, Duke of Danzig, another of Napoleon's generals of plebeian origins and with whom Ordener had developed a long-standing friendship, gave the
eulogy: ==Family==