May 1799
The breach
In early May seven siege guns that Perrée has landed at Jaffa reach the camp overland, and the French batter a breach in the wall. On 8 May they storm it, take the outer works and plant the tricolour on the rampart. Behind the breach, however, Farhi and Phélippeaux have built a second wall inside the city, and the attackers are driven back. Ottoman reinforcements from Rhodes land in the harbour after the assault.
The defence of the breach at Acre, 8 May 1799, aquatint by Thomas Sutherland, 1815Wikimedia Commons, Thomas Sutherland, Public domain (Thomas Sutherland - Defence of the breach at St Jean dAcre May 8th 1799 1815.jpg)
A last assault, on 9 or 10 May by different accounts, is repelled as well. Plague has broken out in the French camp and has killed about 2,000 soldiers. On 20 May, after 63 days, Bonaparte lifts the siege. It has cost the French about 4,000 to 4,500 men and the defenders about 2,000.
Sources
- David G. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966).
- Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt (2008).
- Steven Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life (2005).
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