SAINT-JEAN-D'ACRE - MOUNT TABOR - MARCH-MAY 1799

Having conquered Egypt, Bonaparte was compelled to launch a new campaign to forestall the imminent advance of an Ottoman army from Syria. After a long march across the desert and several formal sieges, his army — weakened by plague, exhaustion, and privation — encamped beneath the walls of Saint-Jean-d'Acre, held by the Turks of Pasha Ahmed al-Jazzar and their British allies. For 62 days, the belligerents fought with extraordinary tenacity for control of the city. The French faced constant sorties and relentless bombardment from the besieged garrison, while launching several desperate assaults against impregnable fortifications. When two enemy relief armies approached to break the encirclement, Bonaparte could send only a single division to meet them. In an unequal engagement, the French nonetheless routed the enemy at the Battle of Mount Tabor. But the echoes of an Egypt in full insurrection, the absence of heavy artillery, and mounting casualties forced Bonaparte to lift the siege of Saint-Jean-d'Acre on 20 May 1799 and withdraw to the banks of the Nile. Drawing on the Journal du siège and numerous archival documents, this work reconstructs day by day the little-known history of this painful defeat for Bonaparte.