Siege of Acre (1799)

Siege of Acre
Part of the French invasion of Egypt
The general outlook of Old Acre, seen here in a present-day view from above, has changed little since 1799
Date 20 March – 21 May 1799 Location Acre, Sidon Eyalet, Ottoman Empire Result Anglo-Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire  Great Britain	French Republic
Commanders and leaders
Jezzar Pasha Sidney Smith	Napoleon Bonaparte
Strength
30,000 men 12,000 reinforcement (7 May) 35,000 (Battle of Mount Tabor), HMS Theseus (1786), HMS Tigre	9,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	2,300 killed, 2,200 wounded or ill

30,000 men

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. It was one of Napoleon's few defeats.

Acre was a site of significant strategic importance due to its commanding position on the route between Egypt and Syria. Bonaparte wanted to capture it following his invasion of Egypt. He hoped to incite a Syrian rebellion against the Ottomans and threaten British rule in India. After the Siege of Jaffa the defenders of the citadel were even more fierce.

The French attempted to lay siege on 20 March using only their infantry. Napoleon believed the city would capitulate quickly to him. In correspondence with one of his subordinate officers he voiced his conviction that a mere two weeks would be necessary to capture the linchpin of his conquest of the Holy Land before marching on to Jerusalem.

However, the troops of the capable Jezzar Pasha, refusing to surrender, withstood the siege for one and a half months. Haim Farhi, al-Jazzar's Jewish adviser and right-hand man, played a key role in the city's defense, directly supervising the battle against the siege. After Napoleon's earlier conquest of Jaffa, rampaging French troops had savagely sacked the conquered city, and thousands of Albanian prisoners of war were massacred on the sea-shore, prior to the French move further northwards. These facts were well known to the townspeople and defending troops (many of them Albanians) in Acre, and the prospect is likely to have stiffened their resistance.

A Royal Navy flotilla under Commodore Sidney Smith helped to reinforce the Ottoman defences and supplied the city with additional cannon manned by sailors and marines. Smith used his command of the sea to capture the French siege artillery being sent by a flotilla of gunboats from Egypt and to bombard the coastal road from Jaffa. An artillery expert from the fleet, Antoine Le Picard de Phélippeaux, then redeployed against Napoleon's forces the artillery pieces which the British had intercepted.

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Wikipedia