Siege of Acre (1799)
| date | March 20, 1799 to May 21, 1799 |
|---|---|
| place | Acre |
| output | Victory of the Ottomans and British |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | approx. 13,000 |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
2,300 dead, 2,200 wounded or sick |
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The siege of Acre from March 20 to May 21, 1799 was the unsuccessful attempt by the French under Napoleon Bonaparte to conquer the Ottoman city fortress Acre . The failure of Napoleon at Acre was the turning point of his Egyptian expedition .
prehistory
In July 1798 the French army occupied all of Egypt. However, on 1/2. August 1798 the French fleet was completely destroyed by the British under Admiral Nelson in the sea battle near Abukir , so that the routes to France were interrupted. At the end of 1798, under British pressure, the Ottoman Empire declared war on France.
In February 1799 Napoleon led a campaign to Syria with 14,000 men to defend the conquest of Egypt against a forming Turkish army. After initial successes in al-Arish , Gaza , Hebron and Jaffa , he reached the strategically important port city with its citadel on March 19 .
course
A British fleet under William Sidney Smith had meanwhile arrived at Acre. Smith succeeded in capturing the French ships near Haifa that were trying to bring the French siege artillery by sea. He then reinforced the Ottoman defenders of Akkon with guns and men and supplied them with ammunition and food.
So the French began the siege of Acre on March 20, alone with their infantry . Napoleon expected the city to capitulate quickly.
Smith's fleet anchored off Acre to provide additional cover for the defenders. Repeated assaults by the French infantry under the command of General Deriot were repulsed. An approaching Ottoman relief army under Jezzar Ahmet Pasha was routed on April 16 in the battle of Mount Tabor by the clearly outnumbered French. French siege artillery arrived by land at the beginning of May, and a breach was quickly made ; however, the defenders withstood the subsequent assault by the French, and Ottoman reinforcements from Rhodes were landed.
The tenacity of the defenders, the British blockade of sea supplies and the harsh weather put Napoleon's troops in a threatening position. As a result of the poor conditions, the bubonic plague broke out in the French camp and left many people dead. After a last failed assault, Napoleon canceled the siege on May 21st and withdrew towards Jaffa.
consequences
Napoleon finally had to retreat to Egypt, where he defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Abukir on July 25, 1799 . Since the situation in Europe turned dramatically against him, Napoleon secretly returned to France on August 22, 1799 and left the command in Egypt to General Kléber .
literature
- Henry Laurens: L'expédition d'Égypte . Colin, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-200-37183-7 .
- Michel legacy: Avec Bonaparte en orient. Témoignages 1798–1799 . Giovanangeli, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-7587-0082-1 .
- Franz Josef Adolf Schneidawind: History of the French expedition to Egypt and Syria in the years 1798 to 1801 . Ritter Verlag, Zweibrücken 1831.