Battle of Mount Tabor (1799)

Battle of Mount Tabor
Part of the French Revolutionary Wars
Mount Tabor
Date 16 April 1799 Location Mount Tabor, Israel Result French victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire	French Republic
Commanders and leaders
Abdullah Pasha al-Azm	Jean Baptiste Kléber Napoleon Bonaparte
Strength
ca 35,000	4,000 (at the end, after Bonaparte's 2,500 men arrival)
Casualties and losses
6,000 killed 500 captured	300 killed 60 wounded

In the Battle of Mount Tabor, or Skirmish of Mount Tabor, French forces under Jean Baptiste Kléber opposed an Ottoman force led by Abdullah Pasha al-Azm of Damascus on 16 April 1799. Napoleon Bonaparte was besieging Acre, and Damascus sent its army to relieve the siege. Operating to the south of Acre in Palestine.

After the successes of other elements of Napoleon’s army, Kléber decided to surprise the main Ottoman concentration of about 35,000 men (25,000 cavalry – many of them Mamelukes, 10,000 infantry and the Pasha), which he had come across camped below Mount Tabor in the Plain of Esdraelon - South of Murat, with just a division of approximately 2,000 men in a night raid. He hoped this action would hold him in good stead with Napoleon. He must have believed that he had at least a few chances of victory, with his peers and himself being outnumbered and winning previous battles where the enemy knew of their presence. He decided upon a night attack on 15 April: he would circle the northern side of Mount Tabor and raid the Ottoman camp. With Kléber’s headquarters was General Verdier’s wife, Verdier commanding a brigade during the forthcoming battle. Kléber sent dispatches to Napoleon about the forthcoming action which would reach him around the time of the battle but not give him a chance to intervene beforehand. Once Napoleon received the dispatches, he decided to support and reinforce Kléber with a few thousand men that were based around Acre, but these were no where near enough, even with the 2,000 under Kléber, to defeat the Pasha’s main army in a set piece battle.

Kléber marched east from Nazareth, circling Mount Tabor, keeping west of the Jordan River. Unfortunately Kléber badly estimated how long it would take him to reach the Ottoman camp, and at the break of dawn (at around six o’clock) he was at the southern base of Mount Tabor. The Ottoman forces spotted Kléber's soldiers in the growing daylight, and Kléber realised that his best bet was to form an infantry square (in this case two squares were formed) to preserve as many men a possible. It would have been difficult for him to quickly move to any prominent position, although if had moved much closer to the river this would have helped his logistical position (with nearby/closer water) and tactical position (with the Ottomans struggling to attack through/from the water), despite that he would have reached musket range of the river's edge before the Ottoman forces reached him. Another option would have been to attempt to climb Mount Tabor as high as possible in his limited amount of time.

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Wikipedia