I am aware, but to rocket up to sergeant-major from ground zero in 12 months?
With all the responsibilities that come with that rank, the guy would have been hopelessly out of his depth, unable to drill a company properly, at a time when drill had tactical significance.

Still, they require a lot of kowledge, but those promoted to these posts were selected from amongst all the men in the company, because they were the best fitting for the job: they knew to read, write and calculate, and were intelligent enough to learn their tasks quickly.

But also an ordinary caporal or sergent with a good grasp can learn his special tasks quickly, The sergent just goes on learnig and doesn't stop after he has reached the caporal's level. The soldiers' and peloton's schools of the drill regulation are wonderful examples of didactic literature, they explain everything and only very rarely leave an open question in minor details. The daily duties of an NCO aren't complicated either, you can learn them by doing.

In my eyes, the real problem when all the units of volunteers were created, was to find intelligent instructors, not to find a sufficent number of intelligent men to fill the ranks of NCOs with.

Below a link to an example of one of the simplified systems of a battalion's internal organisation, which developed during the Wars of the Revolution. It is not complete in all the details, and in parts a bit weird, but gives an overview of the essential tasks.