end of March he was able to resume the march on Acre, even though he
left 300 plague cases behind.
The Fates were not smiling on the Syrian campaign, for the delays at
El Arish and Jaffa effectively precluded a successful conclusion. If
Napoleon had arrived at Acre any time before IS March, he could simply
have walked into the city. But meanwhile two things happened. On IS
March Sir Sidney Smith appeared off Acre in the Royal Navy ships Tigre
and Theseus, just in time to prevent Djezzar Pasha evacuating the town.
Smith had faced Napoleon at Toulon but, in an even more bizarre turn of
events, he brought with him the very same Phelipeaux, now an emigre
officer of engineers, who had once been Napoleon's classmate at the Paris
Military Academy. Smith at once landed some companies of British
troops, while Phelipeaux put Acre in a sound state of defence.
Even so Napoleon might still have prevailed had not British naval
power once more tilted the odds. His flotilla bearing most of his siege
guns was intercepted by the Royal Navy off Mount Carmel, with the
consequence that when the French assaulted Acre they came under fire
from their own artillery. With proper siege-guns Napoleon could have
blown Acre apart, but without them he was reduced to slow sapping and
mining or costly frontal assaults on prepared positions. Smith concen
trated his fire on the French trenches, making good use of the lighthouse
mole and being supported by broadsides from Theseus and Tigre. All the
time fresh supplies reached Acre, while in the French lines the sick list
continued to grow. Morale was not aided by the news that Djezzar Pasha
was paying a large bounty for every infidel head brought to him.
Operations went into temporary abeyance in the first week of April at
word of the approach of the Army of Damascus. Once contact was made
with the enemy, the French won all the early rounds. On 8 April an
outnumbered Junot was the victor in a cavalry skirmish near Nazareth,
while on I I April Kleber with I,soo men routed 6,ooo Turks in a more
substantial battle at Canaan. In yet another engagement the dashing
cavalry leader Joachim Murat crossed the Jordan to the north of Lake
Tiberia and defeated s,ooo Turks.
Emboldened by these easy successes, on I6 April Kleber with just
2,000 men attempted a surprise dawn attack on the entire zs,ooo-strong
Army of Damascus as it lay unsuspecting in its tents. Not surprisingly,
the attack failed and soon the French had their backs to the wall, in a
desperate position under Mount Tabor, with stocks of ammunition
running low. They formed square and prepared to sell their lives dearly.
Suddenly, at about 4 p.m. Napoleon appeared, having made a forced
march from Acre. A devastating barrage from his cannon and some well-
marcin
(Marcin)
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