 Phipps ' analysis is not singular , although his lengthy volumes address in detail the value of this " school for marshals . " In 1895 , Richard Phillipson Dunn @-@ Pattison had also singled out the French Revolutionary army as " the finest school the world has yet seen for an apprenticeship in the trade of arms . " The resurrection of the <unk> , the ancien regime civil dignity allowed Emperor Napoleon I to strengthen his newly created power by rewarding the most valuable of the generals who had served under his command during his campaigns in Italy and Egypt or soldiers who had held significant commands during the French Revolutionary Wars . Subsequently , other senior generals were promoted on six different occasions , mainly following major battlefield victories . 
