Bourcier was born in La Petite-Pierre near Phalsbourg, Alsace, a small town, in the Bas-Rhin district, north of Saverne and northwest of Strasbourg. The son of a former sergeant of the guard of King Stanislas Leszczynski, he proved himself a bright student in school, and was placed in a cavalry regiment. At the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, he was lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Cavalry. From this time, his prospects rose quickly. Appointed aide-de-campe to the Duke of Aiguillon, he later he transferred to the staff of General Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine. A general of brigade in 1793, he became Chief of Staff of the Army of the Rhine, and was raised the following year to the rank of major general. Bourcier commanded a division of cavalry under General Jean Victor Marie Moreau, who had taken an interest in his career, and he was appointed Inspector of Cavalry on 3 August 1797. When Jean Baptiste Jourdan formed the Army of the Danube, he appointed Bourcier as inspector of cavalry for both his force and the Army of Switzerland, under command of André Masséna. With command of a brigade, and as inspector of cavalry, Bourcier participated in the campaigns of the War of the Second Coalition in southwestern Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy. In Italy, he also commanded a column of cavalry that routed a group of rebels near Andrea. In the 1805 War of the Third Coalition, as commander of a division of dragoons, he participated in the Battle of Elchingen and later the Battle of Ulm. Six weeks later, at the Battle of Austerlitz, he made several brilliant and timely charges, including one observed by several parishioners of the town of Mönitz, who had climbed the church tower to watch the action. The French infantry had been surrounded by Austrian cavalry, which pursued them down the road. Bourcier approached from the other direction with three regiments of dragoons, having left the rest of his division behind to preserve his communication lines in Raigern. Seeing the infantry beleaguered by cavalry, he led his men in a charge, giving the infantry time to escape. His own dragoons were fired upon with cannon and grapeshot, killing or wounding several men and horses, but, as he wrote later, " would have done more harm had they been directed better, being within half range." After the French victory at the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt, Bourcier was placed in charge of the several thousands of horses confiscated from the Prussians. This influx of horses improved the capacity of the French cavalry, as Joachim Murats 11,000-strong cavalry reserve demonstrated later at the Battle of Eylau in February 1807. After the defeat of Prussia in 1807, Bourcier was sent to Spain to support the French efforts there, but he returned to the northern European theater in time for the Battle of Wagram in July 1809. He was also part of Napoleon's Russian campaign, but escaped the rigors of the retreat from Moscow, having been previously sent back to Berlin to reorganize the French cavalry. The First Restoration awarded him the Cross of St. Louis. He retired in 1816, but the following year he was recalled to the State Council and served as commissioner for the management of military supply depots.
