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14 September 1801
French forced out of Egypt
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Three years after a 40,000-strong army led by Napoleon Bonaparte first
invaded Egypt, the French are forced to withdraw. Early successes, including
the seizure of Alexandria and Cairo, were undermined by naval defeat at
the hands of Britain's Admiral Horatio
Nelson at the battle of the Nile, at Aboukir Bay, and by outbreaks
of plague among the French forces. Britain's control of the sea made Napoleon's
Egyptian adventure a costly and ultimately futile adventure. The arrival
of British land forces in March 1801 stiffened local resistance –
Cairo fell in June and then Alexandria in August. Napoleon's armies will
not be back.
'Bonaparte's reception by the troops was nothing short of rapturous.
It was well worth seeing how he talked to the soldiers – how he questioned
them one after the other respecting their campaigns or their wounds, taking
particular interest in the men who had accompanied him to Egypt. I have
heard Madame Bonaparte say that her husband was in the constant habit
of poring over the list of what are called the "cadres of the army" at
night before he slept. He would go to sleep repeating the names of the
corps, and even those of some of the individuals who composed them; he
kept these names in a corner of his memory, and this habit came to his
aid when he wanted to recognise a soldier and to give him the pleasure
of a cheering word from his general ...
'Afterwards when his armies became so numerous and his battles so
deadly, he disdained to exercise this kind of fascination. Besides, death
had extinguished so many remembrances that in a few years it became difficult
for him to find any great number of the companies of his early exploits;
and when he addressed his soldiers before leading them into battle, it
was as a perpetually renewed posterity to which the preceding and destroyed
army had bequeathed its glory. But even this sombre style of encouragement
availed for a long time with a nation that believed itself to be fulfilling
its destiny while sending its sons year after year to die for Bonaparte.'
Memoirs of Madame de Rémusat
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