Henri Jules Bataille was the son of "Capitaine" (Captain) Georges Bataille and "Mademoiselle" Garnier. Georges Bataille enlisted in 1791 in the first battalion of Isère, then incorporated into the Army of the Alps. As a young corporal at the Battle of Rivoli on 14–15 January 1797, he and three comrades took 116 prisoners, and he received a sabre of honor for his feat of arms. From 1800 to 1815 he participated in all of Napoleon Bonaparte's campaigns from the Egyptian campaign of 1798–1801 to the Waterloo campaign of 1815. He died in 1823.