Siege of Acre
20 March – 21 May 1799
The Siege of Acre of 1799 was an unsuccessful French siege of the Ottoman-defended, walled city of Acre (now Akko in modern Israel) and was the turning point of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and Syria.
Advancing from Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to capture the key port of Acre, but his plans received a terrible setback when his siege artillery was lost to a Royal Navy flotilla under Commodore Sir William Sidney Smith.
Smith reached Acre just four days before Napoleon. Smith immediately volunteered 800 marines to fight along the wall and to man artillery (including the French artillery). The siege carried on from 20 March – 21 May 1799 and saw eight assaults fail. Although the French launched a number of attacks, they were always hampered by their lack of artillery which made it extremely difficult to create any sizeable breach in the city walls. Finally a breach was created, and Napoleon sent his men swarming through. However, because Napoleon had attacked the same point on the wall every time, Smith and Ahmed were forewarned. Without the French knowing, they had constructed a secondary wall inside the city, so that when the French charged through the breech they found themselves boxed in on all sides. Still, the French fighters poured through the breach and looked as though they might yet succeed. At this moment, Sidney Smith led a relief force of sailors from his ship and joined the fray.
The naval link proved the decisive factor in the siege and the regularly resupplied city watched as the plague swept through the French camp.
One last assault on 10 May was again repulsed and Bonaparte gave up and began a horrific march back to Egypt on May 20. More than 2000 French troops died of disease on the journey.
In 1805, Napoleon asserted that if he had:
“…been able to take Acre [in 1799], I would have put on a turban, I would have made my soldiers wear big Turkish trousers, and I would have exposed them to battle only in case of extreme necessity. I would have made them into a Sacred Battalion–my Immortals. I would have finished the war against the Turks with Arabic, Greek, and Armenian troops. Instead of a battle in Moravia, I would have won a Battle of Issus, I would have made myself emperor of the East, and I would have returned to Paris by way of Constantinople.”
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Well thanks! There will be more content coming to support the Historical Time line and I’ll be adding more of my thoughts on the posts as well. Fascinating subject!