Founded by Louis XV and built by Ange-Jacques Gabriel facing the Champ-de-Mars, the École Militaire trained cadets for the king's service. Bonaparte entered in October 1784, coming from Brienne. There he rubbed shoulders with an aristocracy far richer than himself and is said to have written a memorandum criticising the school's luxury as ill-suited to forming soldiers.
He chose the artillery. That was no accident: it was the learned arm, entered by examination, where promotion depended less on birth than in the cavalry or infantry. Mathematics, ballistics and fortification counted for more there than quarters of nobility — for a poor Corsican cadet it was the only road really open.
Charles Bonaparte died at Montpellier in February 1785, leaving his family without resources. Napoleon then decided to sit the examination after a single year of study instead of the usual two or three. He passed on 28 September 1785, forty-second of fifty-eight — a mediocre ranking, obtained in half the time the others took. He was commissioned second lieutenant at sixteen.
The Champ-de-Mars, in front of the school, would become the great stage of the Revolution and then of the Empire: the Festival of the Federation in 1790, and on 5 December 1804, three days after the coronation, the solemn distribution of the eagles to the regiments. The building has remained military; it houses the War College today.
