Napoleon at Jaffa

 

Fun Fact:

After subjugating Egypt, Napoleon led his small army toward Syria in February of 1799. The army of 13,000 was divided into four divisions under Generals Kleber, Reynier, Bon, and Lannes. The latter would go eventually become a Marshal of the Epire and die in 1809 following the battle of Aspern-Essling in which he was struck by a cannonball and had a leg amputated. 

Bonaparte wanted to take the port of Acre, but the British navy, the formidable walls, the defenders' stout resistance, and the plague all worked to prevent Bonaparte's success. Before he got to Acre, he first overcame resistance at El Arish and Jaffa. The garrison at El Arish, which had surrendered and sworn not to take up arms against the French, went and joined the Jaffa garrison.

Bonaparte had lost two valuable weeks in the siege of El Arish, and had to get back to Egypt to contest an expended landing by Ottoman forces. He hoped to make up time with a quick conquest of Jaffa. Plague was already working on his army.

Near the walls of Jaffa, Napoleon had near brushes with death from an artillery shell and a sniper's bullet that went through his hat. He had an officer and trumpeter approach and enter the city with a letter advising the commander that the garrison and city would be protected if they surrendered, otherwise shelling would begin the next morning.

A short time later, the heads of the officer and trumpeter appeared on spears raised above the city gate, and the bodies were thrown from the walls. Things were not getting off to a promising start at Jaffa.

Bonaparte used the terrain and tree cover to push his artillery within 150 yards of the walls. The shelling began as promised on March 4, 1799. The Jaffa garrison made a series of attacks against the besiegers, but they were not sufficient to break the siege.

During the afternoon of March 7, the French stormed the walls. Although the castle was taken by 8 pm, house to house fighting continued until it became a massacre as the French killed everyone where any resistance was offered until it became a murderous frenzy mixed with robbery and plunder.

Resistance continued in fortified buildings and mosques. These finally offered to surrender in exchange for their lives, to which the French leaders on the scenes agreed. Many of these prisoners were sent away to other cities, and the Egyptians among them were released to Egypt.

Bonaparte lacked sufficient food for his own army and couldn't provide for the prisoners. He couldn't trust them to be released on oath as many of them had already violated the oath they had taken on their surrender and release at El Arish. The war council met and considered the problem, ruling out sending them all to Egypt under armed escort as the already weakened army could not spare the troops for such an escort. The war council released all noncombatants and ordered the execution of the garrison. Some 2,000 - 3,000 prisoners were marched into the desert, divided into small groups, and shot.

Meanwhile, the plague was spreading among the French. Four to five soldiers were dying each day from the disease. Morale was failing. Napoleon took a tour of the hospital, visiting the infected, shaking their hands, telling them what they had was not the plague. Many of them recovered, and some of the doctors who had abandoned the patients returned.

The walls of Acre, coupled with the other problems for Napoleon, resisted the French efforts, and Napoleon returned to Egypt. Eventually, he slipped away to France with some of his officers, leaving Kleber in charge. General Kleber was later killed by an assassin.

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If you're interested in Napoleonic or other warfare, check out the Wyrd Warfare Anthology featuring my story "Seventh Hussar and Aide to the Mage."

If noir rather than wyrd is your preferred literary cocktail, another story, "Calypso's Count" was also just accepted for publication in the Moggie Noir: Dames, Derringers, and Detectives Anthology. Look for it on May 2. I'll post that cover when it becomes available. In the meantime, you could read "Monica on my Mind" in Pinup Noir 2, 

or "A Stardust Memory" featured in Sultry Murder Jazz.

 

If you would rather have my full length noir novel Smoke, it's on sale now.

 Links to my books can be found across the top of this page - and descriptions and links to all my books and short story anthologies are here.

The Last Jet I Flew...and some thoughts looking toward a new year

Here we are. The new year stretches like an immense scroll of blank paper before us, clean and untouched, disappearing into the ether, awaiting the ink and smudges of our daily struggle. The past year stretches out behind us, bearing the print of our thoughts and actions, stained with spills, strikethroughs, blackouts, tears (and tears), rips, beautiful prose, memories (good and bad), pages upon which we would dwell fondly in our thoughts, and pages we would like to forget. Each day is really such spot upon the great scroll of life; we just give it special significance with the turn of the new year. 

The new year is full of promise; we will be better than we have been; we will improve. January begins pregnant with hope and resolution. Before February, most of the hope and all of the resolution expire, stillborn in the face of winter's grim and frigid reality, and our recognition that we would rather embrace our weaknesses than fearlessly forge them into strengths. 

We imagine this:

We discover that it's really going to be like this:

Like water, we choose the path of least resistance. Having followed that path so many times before, the way is worn and easy, with sides too steep and slick to easily overcome. But this year might just be different. Small goals are still goals. Gradual achievement by small increments builds eventually to lofty attainment. Of course, procrastination can be very satisfying in the short term. You decide.

The conclusion of the travelogue
The last jet I flew in was from San Francisco to Boise. I can't remember much about the flight. I think maybe I had the cranapple juice. We arrived at night, several hours later than the original itinerary had promised. My son picked us up. He drove us to my parents' house where we had left our car. We had a nice visit; we shared some of the high points of the trip before loading up and heading home. 

That drive was the last leg of the trip; it was the most difficult. We had risen before 7:00 a.m in France. That was 11:00 p.m. in Boise (of the day before). We arrived back home after midnight. We were awake for over 25 hours (or I was; I'm pretty sure my wife slept on the plane from France). That's not something that I haven't done before (or more plainly stated: I have stayed awake longer than that before). I don't know if it was the travel or what, but I was completely exhausted. So a good nap during the drive would have done me a world of good...except that I was the one driving. I think I did sleep for a millisecond during the drive; I'm pretty sure I had a dream during that minute foray into the twilight zone of consciousness. I've never understood how people can fall asleep while driving...now I understand.

What a great year!