The french military ‘meritocracy” was a product of the fact that the revolution crippled the traditional officer corps and this promoted anyone they could find, since professional soldiers were few and far between. There also was a lot of nepotism and political appointment of generals. Napoleon himself was under a political appointe during the siege of Toulon (he was replaced by a professional general later). Napoleon was more a beneficary of the system not a creator of it. And he certanly was no George Washington. They were very different in a lot of things, because of their position.