The son of Louis Céleste de Talhouët-Bonamour (1761-1812), marquis de Talhouët, and his wife Élisabeth Baude de La Vieuville (1764-1814), Auguste de Talhouët first joined the army in 1804 in a light infantry regiment. He studied at the École spéciale militaire de Fontainebleau and graduated as a sous-lieutenant in the 15th Horse Chasseurs Regiment. He took part in the Prussian campaign, becoming Napoleon's ordnance officer in 1807, a captain in 1809 after the battle of Wagram, a baron of the Empire on 3 August 1810, chef d'escadron in 1811 and an officer of the Légion d'honneur on 29 September 1813 after the battle of Borodino, where he routed a Russian battalion (he had already been made a légionnaire of the Légion d'honneur on 11 July 1807). A few days after Borodino he was appointed colonel of the Mounted Grenadier regiment in the Imperial Guard. Seriously wounded on the retreat from Russia, he only survived thanks to one of his men dragging him to an ambulance.