Napoleon fused nobility and bourgeoisie into a unified officer corps loyal to him

Evidence

Napoleon was successful in bringing together members of the old nobility and the new, rising bourgeoisie and in making a more-or-less homogenous officer corps that was loyal to his person. “The corps of officers was to be a melting-pot in which people who belonged to the ‘two Frances,’ so to speak, would be reconciled. Sitting together in the military schools and, even more, fighting at the front against the enemy, they would learn to respect one another.” More importantly, they would try to sell the idea of nationalism, as it were, to their soldiers, convincing them that in giving up their lives in defense of the Emperor, they would in fact be defending the nation as represented in him. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1366