Battle of Abukir (1799) - Pre-battle and Campaign Issues

Pre-battle and Campaign Issues

The Ottoman army led by Britain, declared war on France. Two armies were to attack Egypt: one carried by the British fleet, the other concentrated in north Syria. As usual, Bonaparte chose to take the initiative in February and conquered Gaza, El Arish and Jaffa but failed before the town of Saint-Jean-d'Acre after two months of siege. This city was defended by its governor, Djezzar Pasha and his former fellow student of the Ecole Militaire in Paris, Antoine de Phélippeaux, an excellent gunner. In addition, the city was continually replenished with men, food, water and other necessities by the British Navy. The French army being decimated by the plague, Napoleon ended his dreams of conquest in the East. He dreamed of taking Constantinople and then invading India to help the local insurgency against the British. He also dreamed that once in Constantinople, he could returned with his army to France through Vienna.

On July 14, 1799, a British fleet of 60 ships landed with 16,000 men under the command of Mustapha Pasha, a veteran of the last Russo-Turkish war. They stormed the fortifications of the harbor and put 300 French troops under the command of Battalion Chief Godart, hors de combat. The peninsula changed hands and Turkish flags fluttered on the bastions of the city.

Proud of this success, Mustapha Pasha was in no hurry to march on Cairo and Murad Bey, who managed to escape and join him, said, "The French dreaded that you could not support the presence, I watch, and they are fleeing before me" and Murad replied, "Pasha, thank the Prophet that it suits the French to withdraw, because if they turned, you would disappear before them like dust before the north wind."