Napoleon's Egypt: Invading The Middle East - Reenactor.ru

164 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTGeneral Vial and his 13th Demi-Brigade in the casernes of the port. Gerbaudsaid the attackers had brought straw and other flammable material into the cityand laid them at the foundation of the French garrison. They captured thestrongbox of his treasury, but, unable to break it open, turned to pillaging thecity instead of methodically finishing their military conquest of it. Turk said thatthey were shouting, “Today is the day of war on these infidels and the Christianswho follow them! Today we will come to the defense of our religion and killthese accursed wretches!”The large Greek and Syrian Christian population of Damietta now alliedwith the French, staging a citizen resistance against the Bedouin and boatpeople. Turk wrote that, armed with muskets of their own, they sniped atTubar’s irregulars from the rooftops of their homes around the city square.Vial, besieged, made preparations throughout that night to depart, inspiringterror in the Christian locals that he was preparing to abandon them. Turkrecorded that they told him that they had heard the attackers saying that localChristians should be killed before the French, since they were supporting theEuropeans. Vial held off leaving. On 16 September the French remained intheir barracks, Gerbaud said, remarking, “The enemy is not budging.” Theyheard that Tubar was approaching from Manzala himself, joining togetherwith the headman of Shu’ara. Vial attempted to send a small boat, escorted bytwo longboats armed with cannon, to General Dugua. But they were stoppeden route and taken “by Bedouin” near Mit al-Khawli. The Egyptians slit thethroats of twenty of the escorts. Late that night twenty French sappers madeit into the city, and Vial had the hospital evacuated. On the seventeenth, Vialwas dissuaded from a plan to attack Shu’ara, since he only had four hundredmen and could not hope to leave behind a big enough garrison to ensure thesafety of the Greek population of the city. Andréossi managed to arrive withan escort of fifty men.On the morning of the eighteenth, French reinforcements finally arrivedfrom Dugua in Mansura, sending morale soaring, especially among the Christians.With an extra 250 men to protect Damietta, Vial and Andréossi werefreed to launch an offensive. In less than two hours, they obliged the Lakepeople and Bedouins to relinquish Damietta and to flee back across the lagoon.Tubar and his forces retired to the hamlet of Shu’ara, where they receivedreinforcements. Turk reported that the village of al-Izba heard rumorsthat the French had all been killed in Damietta and rose up against its ownsmall garrison of twenty-five French troops. They killed five who were in thevillage outside the fort, then attacked the garrison. After hours of hard fight-