 The campaigns in which the Army of the Rhine and Moselle participated also provided exception experience for a cadre of extraordinary young officers . In his five volume analysis of the Revolutionary Armies , Ramsey Weston Phipps emphasized the importance of experience under these conditions . His object was to show how the training received in the early years of the war varied not only with the theater in which they served but also with the character of the army to which they belonged . The experience of young officers under the tutelage of such experienced men as Pichegru , Moreau , Lazar Hoche , Lefebvre , Jourdan , and even the unfortunate Nicolas Luckner , Adam Philippe , comte de Custine , and Jean Nicolas Houchard ( all had been arrested and guillotined in 1794 ) . Participation in this army , particularly in the contrasting campaigns of 1795 , which was a disaster , and 1796 , which had mixed success , provided young officers – some , like Ney , only captains at the time – with valuable experience . Furthermore , they had been tested against first class enemy commanders : Wurmser , Clerfayt , Archduke Charles , Wartensleben , for example . 
