Description: ÒSeizing Alexandria on July 2 the French army began the march to CairoÉThere Bonaparte administered a smashing defeat to the Mamelukes, encouraging his soldiers by one of his thrilling phrases, ÔSoldiers, from the summit of these pyramids forty centuries look down upon you.Õ The Battle of the Pyramids, July 21, 1798, gave the French control of CairoÉHearing that the Sultan of Turkey had declared war on him, he [Bonaparte] resolved in January, 1799, to invade Syria, one of the SultanÕs provinces, wishing to restore or reaffirm the confidence of his soldiers by fresh victories and thinking, perhaps, of a march on India or on Constantinople, taking ÔEurope in the rear,Õ as he expressed itÉ[Bonaparte] seized the forts of Gaza and Jaffa, and destroyed a Turkish army at Mt. Tabor, near Nazareth, but [was] arrested at Acre, which [he] could not take by siege, because it was on the seacoast and was aided by the British fleetÉ — Hazen, 1917
Source: Charles Downer Hazen, The French Revolution and Napoleon (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1917) 257
Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman |
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