Ballasteros served against the First French Republic in the 1793 War of the Pyrenees. He was dismissed from his post for lack of service in 1804 until Prime Minister Godoy rehabilitated him and assigned him to customs in Asturias. On October 12, 1812, unwilling to accept a foreigner (Wellington) as supreme commander of the Spanish Army, Ballasteros mutinied and was imprisoned in Ceuta, on the North African coast.