conscripts of course tend to be poorer quality than pros, but I thought the french infantry were second only to the brits, and in personal initiative, motivation and close combat were second to none.

there might be some big holes in my history knowledge, but I thought the levee en masse were the whole idea of the revolutionary french army, the idea of every able-bodied man being a candidate for being drafted thus increasing manpower, not the idea of poorly training and armin everyone in a hurry and sending them out as cannon fodder.

ie as far as I understand all non-elite/non-specialist french inf were levee en masse, but no poorer troops because of that.