In the middle of his social life, richly married, he took part in military campaigns accompanying the Emperor Napoleon III. He was seriously wounded in the arm on 24 June 1859 at Solferino. Lieutenant Colonel in October 1859, and then again Colonel on 26 October 1864, he is kept commanding the Cent Guards as a sign of imperial favor. He is made Baron of the empire in 1867, Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1869, receiving numerous foreign decorations thereafter. Despite being linked to the splendor of the empire, he suddenly falls prisoner of the emperor in Sedan. Verly is set to compulsory retirement by the republic in October 1870.