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

48 NAPOLEON’S EGYPTEgypt were truly inherent in republican philosophy, then none of the committedRepublicans members of the expedition would have criticized it. As we justsaw, Bernoyer was clearly already becoming uncomfortable with its extent.The troops settled in at what was left of Rahmaniya to wait for the arrivalof two cannon-bearing launches, two half-galleys, and twenty transport shipsloaded with provisions and munitions. The 3rd Division arrived at last. In theafternoon of 12 July Bonaparte passed in review of his troops and gave aspeech warning them that their sufferings were not at an end, that there weremore deserts to traverse and battles to fight before they arrived at Cairo,“where we will have all the bread we want.” Moiret remembered him also inspiringthe men with the prospect of a quick return to France and then an assaulton England. Appeals to civilizational glory had given away to the mostbasic sort of motivation, the only one to which his army would have respondedat that point. Bernoyer said he thought at the time that it had hardlybeen necessary to come all the way to Africa to seek bread, if that was reallythe goal.Vigo-Roussillon, in his memoirs, plangently lamented the lack of foresightdisplayed by the commander in chief with regard to the simplest preparations,saying that the biscuits the army had brought down with them had spoiled.“After having endured all the horrors of thirst, we were dying of hunger in themidst of immense quantities of wheat.” 7 Egypt had no windmills or watermills,and the French had not brought along their small hand mills. They also lackedwood to bake with. He lambasted Bonaparte: “How damaged the army was bythis unpardonable lack of foresight!” He said that just providing the soldierswith canteens would have prevented immense amounts of suffering, and all thedeaths from dehydration and the suicides, on the march down. If, he said, distributingcanteens at Toulon would have tipped enemies of the fleet’s true destinationhe could have secretly loaded them on a ship and distributed them atAlexandria.Bonaparte boarded the scientists and some other noncombatants at Rahmaniyaon his ships. The low Nile at that time of year had limited the Frenchriver navy to smaller vessels, and they were shocked to find how shallow the fabledriver was in places. The commander in chief intended to have the navalforces he could deploy, and his troops on shore, keep within sight of one another.But strong Mediterranean winds blew the small ships toward Cairo muchfaster than the troops could move, separating the two branches of the military.The infantry now set out for Shubrakhit, on the evening of 12 July or in someinstances on the morning of the thirteenth. As they approached the town they