But those were the days of rapid promotion.

In 1794, Kleber created him brigadier-general on the field of battle, where he had decided the fortunes of the day.

Becoming a general of division, he played a brilliant part at Fleurus and Juliers, forced Maestricht to capitulate, took Altdorf, and protected, against an army twice as numerous as his own, the retreat of Joubert.
In 1797 the Directory ordered him to take seventeen thousand men to Bonaparte.

These seventeen thousand men were his old soldiers, veterans of Kleber, Marceau and Hoche, soldiers of the Sambre-et-Meuse; and yet Bernadotte forgot all rivalry and seconded Bonaparte with all his might, taking part in the passage of the Tagliamento, capturing Gradiska, Trieste, Laybach, Idria, bringing back to the Directory, after the campaign, the flags of the enemy, and accepting, possibly with reluctance, an embassy to Vienna, while Bonaparte secured the command of the army of Egypt.
At Vienna, a riot, excited by the tri-color flag hoisted above the French embassy, for which the ambassador was unable to obtain redress, forced him to demand his passports.

On his return to Paris, the Directory appointed him Minister of War.