Marshal Marmont on Napoleon:

Simply an officer of artillery, up to the moment when he was placed at the head of armies, he had never commanded either a regiment, a brigade, a division, or an army corps. He had not been able to acquire that power of moving troops upon a given space which is developed by daily habit, ceaselessly varying the combinations.

Marmont's footnote:
Brigadier-general Chanez, former sergeant of the Gardes Françaises, commanding officer of Paris during the winter of 1795-1796, taught the manoeuvres to General Bonaparte, who was then general-in-chief of the army of the interior.

The Spirit of Military Institutions, Philadelphia, 1862, p. 49-50.
De l’esprit des institutions militaires, Paris, 1845, p. 26.