Siege of Alexandria (1801)

For other sieges and battles, see Battle of Alexandria (disambiguation).

Siege of Alexandria
Part of the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria during the War of the Second Coalition
French fortified heights to the eastern side of Alexandria
Date 17 August – 2 September 1801 Location Alexandria, Egypt, Ottoman Empire 31°12′16″N 29°52′48″E Result British victory Capitulation of Alexandria End of the Egypt–Syria campaign
Belligerents
France	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Jacques-François Menou	John Hely-Hutchinson Sidney Smith
Strength
13,000	20,000
Casualties and losses
10,000 captured 2,000 to disease 9 warships captured	Low
class=notpageimage| Location within Mediterranean

War of the Second Coalition:
Egypt and Syria

800km
500miles

6

5

Jaffa

4

Cairo

3

Alexandria

2

Malta

1

  

  current battle

  Napoleon in command till 23 August 1799

The siege of Alexandria (17 August – 2 September 1801) was fought during the French Revolutionary Wars between French and British forces. It was the last action of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801). The French had occupied Alexandria, a major fortified harbour city on the Nile Delta in northern Egypt, since 2 July 1798, and the garrison there surrendered on 2 September 1801.

Background

Further information: Siege of Cairo

The battle between the British and French at Canope on 21 March 1801 resulted in a French repulse. The French under Menou, disheartened by this failure, retired to Alexandria. With Abercromby's death, John Hely-Hutchinson succeeded as commander of the British force in August. He now intended to lay siege to Alexandria and bottle Menou up.

Hutchinson left Coote with 6,000 men and then sent part of the reserve with Baron Charles de Hompesch to capture Rosetta. He then advanced to Cairo, which he reached, after a few skirmishes, in mid June. Joined by a sizable Turkish force Hutchinson invested Cairo and on 27 June the 13,000-strong French garrison under General Augustin Daniel Belliard, out-manned and out-gunned, surrendered. General John Moore then escorted them to the coast via Rosetta.

Siege

Hutchinson, with Cairo out of the way, now began the final reduction of Alexandria. He had thirty five battalions in total. While the reserve feinted to the east, Coote, with the Guards and two other brigades, landed on 16 August to its west where fierce opposition was encountered by the garrison of Fort Marabout, which the 54th Regiment of Foot eventually stormed. Both sides mounted combined assaults but the French soldiers, unable to break out and with food shortages and disease taking their toll, became increasingly disillusioned with the campaign. Menou knew he had no hope and on 26 August asked for terms; on 26 August he proposed formal terms of capitulation. The terms as amended by British commanders and put into effect are known as the Capitulation of Alexandria.

Aftermath

By 2 September total of 10,000 French surrendered under terms which allowed them to keep their personal weapons and baggage, and to return to France on British ships. However, all French ships and cannons at Alexandria were surrendered to the British.

Of the warships captured in the harbour, the French frigates Égyptienne (50) and Régénérée (40), and the ex-Venetian frigate Léoben (26) went to Britain, while the French frigate Justice (44), the ex-Venetian ship of the line Causse (64) and frigate Mantoue (26), and the ex-Turkish corvettes Halil Bey, Momgo Balerie and Salâbetnümâ went to the Turks, under Capitan Pacha (sic).

Historians relate that the French garrison, feeling abandoned by an uncaring Republic, gradually abandoned the high standards of conduct and service characteristic of the French Revolutionary Army. Many soldiers refused to renew their oath to the Republic, or did so half-heartedly. In his memoirs, the surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon's Grand Army, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, remembers how the consumption of the meat of young Arab horses helped the French to curb an epidemic of scurvy. He would so start the 19th-century tradition of horse meat consumption in France.

The Rosetta Stone

After the surrender, a dispute arose over the fate of French archaeological and scientific discoveries in Egypt. One of the key artifacts was the Rosetta Stone which had been discovered in mid-July 1799 by French scientists of the Institut d'Égypte. Menou refused to hand them over, claiming they belonged to the institute. How exactly the stone came into British hands is disputed. Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, who escorted the stone to Britain, claimed later that he had personally seized it from Menou and carried it away on a gun carriage. Turner brought the stone to Britain aboard Egyptienne, landing in February 1802. On 11 March it was presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London. Later it was taken to the British Museum, where it remains to this day. Inscriptions painted in white on the artifact state "Captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801" on the left side and "Presented by King George III" on the right.

Order of battle

Siege of Alexandria Order of Battle
Force	Brigade	Unit	Size	Ref.
Western Force  Major-General Eyre Coote	Brigade of Guards  Major-General Lord Cavan	Coldstream Guards	552
		Third Guards	590
	1st Brigade  Major-General George Ludlow	25th Regiment of Foot	526
		1st Battalion, 27th Regiment of Foot	538
		2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment of Foot	465
		44th Regiment of Foot	334
	2nd Brigade  Major-General Edward Finch	2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot	352
		26th Regiment of Foot	438
		1st Battalion, 54th Regiment of Foot	381
		2nd Battalion, 54th Regiment of Foot	384
Eastern Force  Lieutenant-General John Hely-Hutchinson	3rd (Foreign) Brigade  Brigadier-General John Stuart	Stuart's (Minorca) Regiment	690
		De Roll's Regiment	383
		Dillon's Regiment	393
		Watteville's Regiment	572
	4th Brigade  Brigadier-General John Hope	8th Regiment of Foot	285
		18th Regiment of Foot	293
		79th Regiment of Foot	434
		90th Regiment of Foot	437
	5th Brigade  Brigadier-General John Doyle	30th Regiment of Foot	269
		50th Regiment of Foot	337
		89th Regiment of Foot	311
		92nd Regiment of Foot	414
	6th Brigade  Brigadier-General John Blake	1st Battalion, 20th Regiment of Foot	604
		2nd Battalion, 20th Regiment of Foot	484
		24th Regiment of Foot	438
		Ancient Irish Fencibles	420
	Reserve  Major-General John Moore   Brigadier-General Hildebrand Oakes	2nd Regiment of Foot	327
		28th Regiment of Foot	338
		42nd Regiment of Foot	490
		58th Regiment of Foot	238
		40th Regiment of Foot flank companies	146
		23rd Regiment of Foot	343
		Hompesch's Hussars	397
		Chasseurs Britanniques	595
		Corsican Rangers	60
	Cavalry	26th Light Dragoons
Rosetta Force	Cavalry	11th Light Dragoons
		12th Light Dragoons
		22nd Light Dragoons
	Infantry	13th Regiment of Foot

See also

• French Campaign in Egypt and Syria

References

• Barthorp, Michael. Napoleon's Egyptian Campaigns 1798-1801, Osprey Publishing, 1992.
• Downs, Jonathan. Discovery at Rosetta. Skyhorse Publishing, 2008 ISBN 978-1-60239-271-7
• Lynne, John A. "Toward an Army of Honor: The Moral Evolution of the French Army, 1789-1815." French Historical Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1. (Spring, 1989)
• Mackesy, Piers (2010). British Victory in Egypt. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84885-472-7.
• Smith, D. The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book. Greenhill Books, 1998.
• Wilson, Robert Thomas. History of the British expedition to Egypt. 4th ed. London: Military Library, 1803 Text at Google Books

External links

• Media related to Siege of Alexandria 1801 at Wikimedia Commons