Carnot also changed the French engineer arm from a staff organization to a combat arm when he, as the military expert on the Committee of Public Safety (he was a captain of engineers) 'influenced' the issuance of the decree of 23 October 1793 which authorized the transfer of the miner companies from the artillery to the engineers and 'ordered the formation of twelve battalions of sapeurs du genie.' These engineer troops were combat engineers. 'These sapeurs absorbed various provisional units of pionniers [labor troops] and ouvriers [artificers] that the field armies had improvised.' The next year 'two companies of aerostatiers (balloon troops) were added' to the engineer arm.
Carnot also was crucial in saving the excellent, world-class French engineer school. Mezieres had been 'denounced' by the Paris politicians and was closed early in 1794. What remained of it was moved to Metz where it was 'allowed' to continue instruction.
Interestingly, the British Army would not do the equivalent until 1813 in time to be employed at San Sebastien. The lack of trained engineer troops was one reason Wellington's sieges in Spain resulted in bloody assaults and the failure at Burgos in 1812. Further, British engineer officers had to learn siege techniques on the fly as they were not part of the curriculum at Woolwich. For further information on the British engineer arm and how British engineer officers learned from hard-won experience in Spain that they needed dedicated engineer troops, see Mark Thompson's excellent Wellington's Engineers: Military Engineering in the Peninsular War 1808-1814.
Ezekiel Baker. Without him there is no Baker Rifle, no 95th, no Richard Sharpe and therefore no Sean Bean to popularise our period. Disaster.
Lazare Carnot, introduced the fundamentals of the revolutionary army: conscription, organization, logistics, etc.