In Napoleon in Egypt, whether in The Conquest scenario or in the Campaign game, the French Player must seize Cairo in order to open up routes to southern and eastern Egypt. Of course, the Mamluks will be there to protect the city from the French troops. Historically, this battle took place on July 21, 1798. At the gates of Cairo, the ferocious Mamluk cavalry was overwhelmed by the infantry of the French Expeditionary Corps. In this article, we will take a more detailed look at the battle of the Pyramids, the most prestigious French victory of Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt.
Crossing the Desert
On July 2, 1798, Bonaparte lands his men in Marabout cove. At the head of 5,000 troops, he marches on Alexandria and takes the city. The landing being a done deal, Bonaparte now has 40,000 men at his disposal. Next stop: Cairo. The wisest, most sensible route is along Egypt’s sacred river, the Nile, a miraculous spot of greenery in the middle of this arid land. But it’s also the most predictable route, the one where he’ll be expected, and Bonaparte decides to bypass any possible defense mechanism by cutting directly across the desert, leaving only a flotilla to sail down the river from Rosetta to join the army at Ramanieh.
The Desaix division sets off in the vanguard, followed by the Reynier, Dugua, Bon and Vial divisions. A week of desert crossing, a week of incredible suffering under a blazing sun. Morale is low for the French troops: far from stepping into Eden, they find a poor, starving country. The temperature reaches 50°C and the thick Western uniforms are ill-suited to the stifling climate. Water is scarce, wells are piled up or filled with salt, and cisterns found along the way are empty or poisoned. Soldiers hurry and crush each other for a sip of water. Food, too, is in short supply, as the miserable villages they come across do not offer the necessary supplies, and with no mills or ovens the army is unable to make the most of the few fields of wheat encountered. Furirs are sent to buy food in the few villages they come across, but the hostile population has mostly fled.
In Damanhour, the furirs of the Reynier division are greeted with rifle fire, combat breaks out and the resistance fighters are put to the sword. Disappointed, exhausted, baffled by the mirages, suffering from ophthalmia, overwhelmed by the heat and deprivation, the men resort to suicide and staying behind… Around them, the Bedouins, unable to attack head-on, are waiting for a weakened element to break away from the group. The unfortunates who fall into their hands are beaten, slashed, raped, and turned to bloody corpses. The mood is one of revolt, as the veterans of the Army of the Rhine do not have the same respect for the general-in-chief as those of the Army of Italy. The generals themselves are doubtful and angry. Desaix tells Bonaparte bluntly: “If the army does not cross the desert with the speed of lightning, it will perish”. On the map, the route is only a hundred kilometers long, but conditions are so extreme that they soon decide to march at night.
Chebreiss, the Prelude
As soon as the soldiers catch sight of the Nile, the half-brigades disband and all throw themselves into the river, a field of watermelons consecrating the long-awaited moment. A few Mamluks are already approaching and are driven off with rifles. On July 10, Murad Bey sends a flotilla and 4,000 cavalry to meet the French, and the clash takes place at Chebreiss (Shubra Khit in English), where the divisional square formation is inaugurated: these squares are in fact rectangles, with six rows of infantrymen on the long sides, three rows on the short sides, canister-shot-loaded cannons at the corners, cavalry, civilians and baggage protected in the center.
The Mamluks are blindly overconfident in their renowned cavalry. They look with contempt on the invader and think they’ll trample them underfoot. The frenzied first charge, with its terrific howls, is indeed impressive. But the French infantrymen are mostly veterans of the Rhine or Italy campaigns and wait patiently for the order to fire the murderous salvo. The Mamluk attack is stopped dead in its tracks by the discipline of the French soldiers. They withdraw, leaving behind 300 horsemen, 400 to 500 infantrymen and 9 artillery pieces on the burning sand.
Bonaparte’s Famous Proclamation
The Beys are not worried by this defeat. They do not take the necessary measures to defend Cairo: their army could have dug in on the right bank and waited patiently for a landing that it could repel at any point thanks to the mobility of its cavalry. Instead, Murad Bey settles on the left bank, while Ibrahim Bey remains on the right, in case a French army lands there. After giving his troops a little rest, Bonaparte resumes his inexorable march towards Cairo, the army dragging itself across the burning sand dunes, still harassed by the Bedouins. On July 20, the pyramids appear on the horizon. Warned by spies of the isolation of Murad’s army on the left bank, the decision is made to attack. At 2 AM, the army sets off on the march, covering 24 km before making contact with the enemy in the early afternoon of July 21, 1798. This is when Bonaparte allegedly proclaims:
“Soldiers! You came to this country to save the inhabitants from barbarism, to bring civilization to the Orient and subtract this beautiful part of the world from the domination of England. From the top of those pyramids, forty centuries are contemplating you.”
Murad Bey, with his wives, wealth and slaves, is entrenched with 6,000 men in the village of Embabeh, on the banks of the Nile, where Ibrahim’s longboats and galleys sail. Mamluk cavalry and some 20,000 irregulars are stationed along the river. The latter, mere rabble armed with sticks and clubs, are of little military value, but are meant to visually intimidate with numbers. Bonaparte moves his divisions into a square and advances as far as the heights of Waraq-el-Hader (2 km from the enemy camp), with Mamluk cavalry retreating before him. The right wing, commanded by Desaix, reaches the village of Biktil. Reynier and Desaix position grenadiers, dismounted dragoons, line and light infantry and an artillery company there. Forming a curved line, the French divisions (Desaix, Reynier, Dugua, Vial and Bon) stretch from the pyramids to the Nile. Thus positioned, rest is ordered. Suddenly, multicolored dots appear on the horizon.
Preparations for Battle
The Mamluks, feeling threatened with encirclement by the advancing right wing, move into position. The French hastily rejoin their ranks and reform their squares. The first rank points their bayonets halfway up, the second and third ranks are ready to fire, while the last three stand in reserve. After an artillery salvo, the Mamluks launch their charge into an infernal tumult.
The French soldiers remain impassive, shoulder to shoulder. Despite a strong headwind, this half-human, half-animal torrent hurls itself furiously at the Reynier and Desaix divisions, howling wildly. Half a range away, the French officers give the order to fire, and the murderous salvo cuts down the front rank, which collapses amid the whinnying of horses and the cries of wounded Mamluks trampled by their compatriots. A second burst strikes the riders in a cloud of smoke. The charge, fired at from point-blank range, aborts a few paces from the French squares, and the riders turned tail, the most fanatical of them desperately impaling themselves on the bayonet wall. The surviving cavalrymen whirl around, enraged, so much so that Desaix and Reynier’s divisions are caught in a crossfire. Unluckily, the squares are not staggered enough, and the friendly fire claims around twenty victims. But in five minutes, 300 cavalrymen are killed, twice as many wounded, and some of the panicked Mamluks left the battle. The others turn to the village of Biktil, where they are repulsed by the French, entrenched on rooftops and in gardens. A few soldiers who were dispatched to fetch water from a nearby village rush to join the squares. A dragoon is overtaken by a Mamluk rider and an epic duel ensues, with the whole army holding its breath for a moment. Captain François recounts:
“A dragoon of the 15th regiment was attacked by a Mamluk; a fight ensued between them, in the center of the Desaix and Reynier divisions. The two generals stopped the fire on the side where the two opponents were fighting. The dragoon killed the Mamluk and returned to the square; he had taken his enemy’s weapon, a saber with a solid silver scabbard, his dagger and his pistol.”
A Victory that Forged Bonaparte’s Reputation
After twenty minutes of battle, the cavalry has disbanded, with a few riders taking refuge in a palm-fringed park to the west, where they are dislodged by tirailleurs. The others rejoin the camp, causing panic in Embabeh, where the Cairoites rush into boats to save their lives. Bonaparte, galloping from one square to the next, brings forward the Dugua division to interpose itself between the Mamluks and Embabeh, and orders Bon and Vial to seize the village. Forming a column, two detachments attack, taking advantage of a ditch that protects them from enemy artillery. Vial has the village bypassed to the west, while Bon sends Marmont and Rampon to the attack. The flankers who had gone in front are charged in turn, forming a square and driving back the Mamluks. The defenders have poor artillery and no time to reload before the French swoop down on them. Only around 1,500 Mamluks remain and they are either killed or thrown into the Nile. Before Ibrahim’s reinforcements can disembark, the rout is complete. Murad’s ship, filled with gunpowder, runs aground and is set on fire. Meanwhile, the Desaix division resumes its march towards the Gizeh plateau, pushing ahead the last of Murad Bey’s warriors.
In this memorable battle, which was to become a milestone in the Napoleonic epic, the French suffered 300 killed and wounded. The Mamluks suffered between 1,500 and 2,000 killed and wounded, and lost 20 cannons, 400 dromedaries and all the baggage in Murad’s camp. The wounded Murad fled to Upper Egypt, while Ibrahim Bey headed for Syria. The general-in-chief could now return to Cairo, deserted by its elite, and proclaim Egypt liberated. He had won the whole of Lower Egypt and regained the confidence of his army. Enriched by the spoils, bivouacked at last on the fertile banks of the Nile, the French savored their victory over this exotic enemy of incomparable bravery. In a clash of cultures, the infantry maneuvers were able to overcome the most violent charges. The Cairoites who had fled, plundered by the Bedouins and somewhat reassured by the victor’s behavior, gradually resigned themselves to returning to the Egyptian capital. Although most of the battle technically took place at Embabeh, Bonaparte rightly believed that for the sake of his personal glory, the battle should be linked to the pyramids, symbol of Pharaonic Egypt.
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Author: Pascal Toupy
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