Vernet02 ~ Bataille d'Heliopolis, livree le 29 Ventose an 8 (20 Mars 1800) ~ framed 20 x 24.5 inches ~
The Battle of Heliopolis. When Napoleon returned to France towards the end of 1799 he left Jean Baptiste Kleber in command of the French forces. Kleber, seeing no hope of bringing his army back to France and facing the British and Ottoman alliance, negotiated the convention of El-Arish on January 24, 1800 with British Admiral Stanley Smith, winning the right to an honorable evacuation of Egypt by the French army. There was a period of weeks in which the Mamelukes, the French and the Turks watched each other nervously around Cairo as the French prepared to evacuate. A rival British Admiral refused to ratify the terms of the treaty of El-Arish unless the French army were treated as prisoners of war. When Kleber was informed of this, he cancelled the orders previously given to the troops, and put the country in a state of defense. He marched his army of 10,000 French soldiers out of Cairo and attacked a Turkish and Mameluke force at the ancient sea side village of Heliopolis. They were simply no match and Kleber crushed them on March 20, 1800. Kleber would be assonated by a religious fanatic in June, 1800 and the French Army would continue it's difficult occupation of Egypt until September, 1801