In 1800 the British army's reputation was in tatters, having experienced nothing but failure in wars across the world for forty years; at home, a divided cabinet had to face the problem of Egypt, which had been occupied by Napoleon's Army of the Orient since 1798. The momentous task of ejecting France from Egypt fell to an ill-equipped and disparate band of soldiers led by Sir Ralph Abercromby, an elderly general with a dubious military record. Yet, against all the odds, Abercromby's force decisively defeated the veteran French army at Alexandria on 21 March 1801, bringing Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign to a definitive and crushing end. In this richly detailed account, Piers Mackesy vividly brings to life the events of the battle and the characters involved, revealing how Abercromby's carefully planned and brilliantly executed strategy, and the discipline of the soldiers he had welded into cohesion, restored the honour of the British army, averted disaster for the Empire and set the standard by which all future battles would be fought.
List of maps and tables vii
Introduction ix
Preface xiii
Part I Forging an army
1 'Sir Ralph is not a Courtier' 3
2 A Look at John Turk 13
3 The Forging of the Blade 27
4 Rehearsing Invasion 38
5 The Eve of Battle 50
Part II Beach-head
6 Assault Landing 67
7 'We shall all Fare Alike' 78
8 'A Cool Intrepidity': The Mandara Battle 86
9 'We must Make the Attempt' 98
10 Surprised in Darkness 108
11 The Battle in the Dawn 119
12 The Price of Victory 131
Part III Breakout
13 'Ungracious Manners and a Violent Temper' 145
14 'Much more at Ease in his Command' 151
15 The Thrust on the Nile 162
16 The Verge of Mutiny 172
17 Onward to Cairo 183
Part IV Honour redeemed
18 Forty Centuries Look Down 195
19 The Final Manoeuvre 205
20 The Fall of Alexandria 216
21 The Achievement 225
22 'Abercromby's Soldiers' 234
Later titles of the British regiments 242
Notes 244
Guide to citations 268
Index 274
Overview
In 1800 the British army's reputation was in tatters, having experienced nothing but failure in wars across the world for forty years; at home, a divided cabinet had to face the problem of Egypt, which had been occupied by Napoleon's Army of the Orient since 1798. The momentous task of ejecting France from Egypt fell to an ill-equipped and disparate band of soldiers led by Sir Ralph Abercromby, an elderly general with a dubious military record. Yet, against all the odds, Abercromby's force decisively defeated the...