His father was Pierre Adrien de Maud'huy, Battalion Chief in the Napoleon III Imperial Guard and his mother Thérèse Joséphine Olry. "Lorrain from Moselle", he was haunted by the idea of driving the Germans out from Lorraine since the 1871 defeat. He was then 14. Louis de Maud'huy became an infantry officer graduating from Saint-Cyr, General Staff Course graduated, chasseur à pied until becoming colonel and assuming command of the 35th infantry regiment in Belfort in 1907. On 10 July 1913, he was Brigadier general in charge of the 80th Infantry Brigade. An Infantry Division Officer in 1914, he was placed in charge, after the Battle of the Frontiers, of the 18th Corps with which he fought in the First Battle of the Marne on the 5th Army left wing.