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

230 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTBonaparte held that the best defense is a good offense, and he began preparingto take the battle to the enemy. First, he needed to finish securing Egypt. TheFrench, despite garrisoning Sharqiya province, had not yet taken the key Red Seaport of Suez, which was important to the coffee trade and also formed a weakpoint in French defenses, since enemy troops could be landed there. Suez was oneof two great Red Sea ports for Egypt, the other being Qusayr in the south, butBonaparte was finding it difficult to prevail in Upper Egypt because of MuradBey’s continued challenge there. In contrast, Suez lay relatively nearby and hecould grasp it. A move into the Red Sea would challenge Ottoman control over itas well as block an important British maritime route. The Ottomans allowed theBritish to bring some commodities from India across the Indian Ocean, throughthe Arabian Sea, and up the Red Sea to Suez, then to transport them by caravan toAlexandria. At the least, he could deprive the British of that shortcut, which wasparticularly suited to lightweight luxury goods and to emergency dispatches.Bonaparte dispatched General Bon to establish control of Suez in early November.Capt. Eugène de Beauharnais, made commander of the vanguard, rememberedthe expedition as risky, involving a relatively small force that had to march,thirsty, due east across the desert. 16 On hearing of Bon’s approach, the Suez cityelders sent out a delegation to declare their submission to the French. On themorning of 9 November, Beauharnais entered Suez at the head of a vanguard unitwithout having to fire a shot. They found there four disarmed naval vessels, sixskiffs, and nine merchant ships to whom he offered protection. The Frenchtroops settled into the sturdier mansions in an attempt to protect themselves fromenemies within the city and without, though the port itself had become a ghosttown. Al-Jabarti remarked that the principal inhabitants of Suez had fled, takingwith them their women and maritime workers, and that the French then plunderedthe town.In mid-December, the day before he left to tour Suez, Bonaparte had Bourriennewrite out a long letter giving detailed and precise orders for the supplyingof Qatiya, a forward staging ground in the middle of shifting sand dunes forhis planned invasion of Syria. He instructed that Qatiya be provisioned fromDamietta. 17 Bonaparte had urgently desired his army to secure the northeasternDelta and the port of Damietta in part because he had already decided to attackSyria and needed this eastern region for logistical support.The next day, on 24 December, Bonaparte himself set out with an expeditionaryforce to Suez. He followed the route the pilgrimage caravans plied ontheir way to the Muslim holy land, taking with him not only French soldiers andtroops but an Egyptian entourage as well. His Egyptian companions included