Battle of Mount Tabor
| date | April 16, 1799 |
|---|---|
| place | Mount Tabor |
| output | French victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 8,000 men and 16 cannons |
about 35,000 men |
| losses | |
|
2 dead |
6,000 dead |
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The battle of Mount Tabor took place during the siege of Acre as part of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign . A French army under General Kléber defeated Ottoman troops under Abdullah Pasha al-Azm , who made Damascus coming to the relief of Acre intended.
course
When Napoleon learned that an Ottoman army had crossed the Jordan to come to the aid of the defenders of the besieged city of Acre, he ordered the 4,000-strong Kléber Division to oppose the enemy. On the night of April 15-16, 1799, Kléber attacked the Pasha's army. The attack failed, however, because the troops lost themselves in the darkness. At dawn, the Turkish troops, in turn, launched an attack. With a total of 35,000 men (25,000 cavalrymen and 10,000 infantrymen), they were overwhelmingly superior in numbers. In this situation, Kléber saw no other way out than to form a square with his infantry .
After a few hours, when the French were running out of ammunition and their defeat seemed inevitable, Napoleon and 4000 soldiers from Bon division attacked the Ottoman troops from behind from Mount Tabor , whereupon they were caught in a devastating crossfire. The Ottoman cavalry was decimated and the infantry began a disorderly retreat.
According to General Kléber, the French casualties amounted to two dead and 60 wounded. This information seems questionable, especially since Klébers 2000 men had to fight against a numerical superiority for hours. A French participant in the battle reported that the enemy had lost over 6,000 men, the French, however, barely 200. Napoleon later stated in his memoir that Kléber had 250 to 300 dead and wounded, his own strength three to four. For the historian Eric H. Cline, these figures for French losses are more understandable, even if they are still underestimated.
Although the inhabitants of Akon now had to give up their hope of outside help, they still withstood the siege, and Napoleon had to withdraw to Egypt in late May 1799, after the bubonic plague broke out in the French camp .
Individual evidence
- ^ Henry Laurens: L'Expédition d'Egypte (1798-1801) , 2014 partial online view
- ^ Robert Solé : Bonaparte à la conquête de l'Egypte . Online partial view
- ↑ Eric H. Cline: The Battles of Armageddon. Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age . Univ. of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2000, pp. 160 f.
Coordinates: 32 ° 41 ′ 12 " N , 35 ° 23 ′ 25" E