KL&BER, JEAN-BAPTISTS. 



KLEUKR, JEAN-BAPTISTE. 



father, who was a domettic in tlie bouMhold (of tho Cardinal da 

 Itohau, to the profaaion of an architect, and was tent to Pant at an 

 early ag* to complete hi* studies, While there circumstances enabled 

 him to render some important services to two young Bavarian*, who, 

 having iuterocted themselves in hU behalf, induced him to accompany 

 them to Munich, ami through their influence he entered the military 

 college of that city. 1 1 is rapid progrea* in acquiring the science of war 

 gained him tho patronage of General Kaunitz, son of the celebrated 

 Auatrian minister of that name, by whom, at the completion of hi* 

 oollega career, he wa* appointed to a sub-lieutenancy in an Austrian 

 regiment He served seven yean in that corps, which ho left in 

 ITS', in order to return to hi* native country. He there resumed his 

 former profession, and obtained the situation of inspector of public 

 buildings at 1'ofurt in Upper Alsace. 



The breaking out of the French Revolution opened to him a more 

 brilliant career. Ho had taken a prominent part in a revolt at Befort 

 in 1791, and had enabled the republicans of that town, by putting 

 himself at their head, successfully to resist tho regiment of Royal 

 l.uui*. which had been called to suppress it To screen himself from 

 the consequences of this action he enlisted as a private soldier in the 

 grenadier company of the battalion of volunteers which had been 

 raided in the department of the Upper Rhine. By his bravery and 

 talent* be soon attained the rank of adjutant-major, in which capacity 

 he acted for some time under General Custine, and when Custiue was 

 afterwards brought to trial, he had the courage to present himself 

 before his sanguinary judges, and give testimony in his favour. At 

 the siege of Mayence in 1793 he displayed considerable courage and 

 judgment: hid services were rewarded by the rank of adjutant- 

 gencr.il, and shortly afterwards he became brigadier-general. From 

 thence he was ordered to La Vendee to oppose the insurgent royalists ; 

 he led there the soldiers of the garrison of Mayence, on whose courage 

 and devotion he could reckon. At the celebrated combat of Tourfou 

 (September 19, 1793), while charging the enemy at the head of the 

 advanced guard of his regiment, he fell with several'wounds, and his 

 life was only preserved by the prompt assistance of his soldiers. The 

 ngenta of the National Convention construed into a crime his humane 

 interference in stopping the cruelties which were exercised towards 

 tho prisoners and the unoffending inhabitants of the country. How- 

 ever he was only removed to a command in the Army of the North, 

 and afterwards in that of the Sambra and Mouse, when he rose to the 

 rank of a general of division. 



At the battle of Fleurus (June 26, 1794) he commanded the left 

 wing of the French army, and by his skilful manoeuvres greatly con- 

 tributed to the victory. He then marched against Mous, which he 

 retook from the Austrian*, and having forced the passage of the Roer, 

 he drove the enemy back to the right bank of the Rhine. Returning 

 towards Maastricht, he took that strong fortress, after a siege of 

 twenty-eight days. 



In 1795 he directed the postage across the Rhine of the army of 

 the Sambra and Meuse, and, when compelled to retire before superior 

 forces, he effected a retreat in which his cool intrepidity and skilful 

 dispositions were alike remarkable. In the year following he partook 

 of the glory which attended the success of Ueueral Jourdau's ope- 

 rations at the opening of the campaign ; and he afterwards refused 

 the command of Picliegru's army, when that general was disgraced 

 for holding treasonable communications with the enemy. [PICHEGRU.] 



Discontented with the manner in which the Directory managtd 

 the military affairs, KliSber retired to Paris, where he spent the 

 greater part of the year 1797, aud occupied himself with writing 

 his memoirs. When however Bonaparte was appointed to the chief 

 command of the army for Egypt, he made it a special request to 

 the Directory to be allowed to take Klc'ber as one of his generals of 

 division. At the siege of Alexandria, on the first landing of the 

 French forces, Klebcr was wounded in the head while gallantly 

 climbing the ramparts, but he did not retire from the conflict till he 

 bad received a second aud a severer wound. When the city was taken 

 be was appointed to the command of it, and of the whole province 

 of which it was the bead-quarters. He afterwards joined his division 

 and touk part in the expedition to Syria; he there distinguished 

 himself by the capture of the forts of El Ariah and Gaza, and was 

 at the taking of Jaffa. He was also at the memorable siege of St 

 John of Acre, where be rendered himself conspicuous by his undaunted 

 bravery, and shared every danger with the common soldiers. He was 

 however withdrawn from the siege by order of Bonaparte, who desired 

 him to march with his division to reinforce the troops stationed at 

 Nazareth under the command of General Junot, and to repel the 

 Urge army composed of the remnant* of the Mamelukes under 

 Ibrahim Bey, the Janissaries of Aleppo and Damascus, and numerous 

 hordes of irregular cavalry, who were advancing to the support of 

 their besieged countrymen at Acre. There he won the battle of 

 Mount Thaboi (April 17th, 1799), which terminated after a desperate 

 content, in which be sustained for six hours the impetuous attacks 

 of a greatly superior force, in the total defeat of the Turkish troops. 

 The siege of Acre however was renewed in vain, every assault against 

 it proved unsuccessful, and " British valour, combined with Asiatic 

 enthusiasm," was finally triumphant. 



The French on their return to Egypt obtained at Aboukir another 

 signal victory over tho Turks; and the day after thi* decisive battle 



Bonaparte returned to Alexandria, where he learnt the capture of 

 Corfu by the Russians and Turk*, and tho close blockade of Malta by 

 the same powers. These circumstances, combined with the loss of his 

 fleet at the battle of the Nile, determined him upon leaving Egypt 

 On the 22nd of August 1799 he secretly embarked, accompanied by 

 several of his generals, hi* secretary Bourrienne, with Berthollet and 

 Monge, who had joined tha expedition for the furtherance of science. 

 Before leaving he signified his resolution to Klc'ber in a letter, by 

 which he appointed him hi* successor in the chief command of the 

 Egyptian army, and authorised him to conclude a convention for the 

 evacuation of the country in the event of no succour arriving from 

 Franco during the following spring, and if the mortality from the 

 plague among his soldiers should amount to fifteen hundred men. 



Tha sudden departure of Bonaparte spread anxiety aud distrust 

 throughout the camp ; the reputation of his successor however, who 

 enjoyed the highest confidence of the army, tended greatly to dissipate 

 their fears. But the talents of Kleber did nut at first appear to be 

 equal to the difficult circumstances in which he was placed. He not 

 only permitted himself to be swayed by feelings of indignation at what 

 he deemed the abandonment of tho army by its former chief, but he 

 committed the fault, which in his position became a crime, of openly 

 declaring his opinions to his dissatisfied colleagues in command; he 

 thus cau-ed the seeds of discontent and desire of home, which had 

 been previously sown among the troops, to ripen to a maturity which 

 soon threatened the ruin of the expedition. A letter addressed by him 

 to the Directory contains many erroneous and exaggerated statements 

 which had been furnished by Foussiclgue the army administrator, 

 and presents a most gloomy picture of tho state of affairs in Kcj'i-t. 

 A copy of it is iu the ' Memoirs ' dictated by Napoleon at St. Helena 

 to the Count de Moutholon, and is rendered the more valuable on 

 account of the copious comments which accompany it, and which, 

 though written iu no friendly spirit, are for the most part borne out 

 by contemporary testimony. In this letter Kleber complains that his 

 army is reduced to one-half; that it is destitute of the necessary 

 stores and munitions, and that the greatest discontent prevails. He 

 further asserts that the Mamelukes were dispersed but not destroyed, 

 and that the Grand Vizier was marching from Acre at the head of 

 thirty thousand men. Two copies of this letter were sent, one of 

 which fell into the hands of the English, aud was the immediate cau.-e 

 of the expedition under Sir Ralph Abercromby, by which the French 

 were compelled to abandon Egypt. 



Kleber, under the influence of these despondent feelings, addressed 

 proposals of accommodation to the Grand Vizier; though at the tame 

 time he made vigorous preparations to repel the Turkish army. An 

 unexpected reverse moreover increased the necessity of a negoci iti-.ii. 

 The Grand Vizier with upwards of forty thousand men had crossed 

 the desert, and, assisted by some British officers, had captured the 

 fort of El Arish, justly deemed one of the keys of E,ypt. General 

 Dessaix was, against his will and contrary to his judgment, appointed 

 negotiator on the part of the French, and, after many debates and 

 frequent delays, a convention was signed at El Arish on the 28th of 

 January 1800, by which it was agreed that the whole of Kluber's army 

 should return to Europe, with its arms aud baggage, either on board 

 their own vessels or some furnished by the Turks ; that all the 

 fortresses of Egypt, with the exception of Alexandria, Rosetta, and 

 Aboukir, should be surrendered within forty-five days from the time 

 that the convention was ratified ; and finally, that the vizier should 

 pay a sum equivalent to about 120,0001. during the time that the 

 evacuation was taking place. The English admiral, Sir Sidney Smith, 

 though not vested with full authority from his government to conclude 

 .-iich a convention, had entered willingly into it, aud was honourably 

 preparing to see it carried into effect. Three mouths however before 

 these events the British government had despatched orders to Lord 

 Keith, who had the command of the Mediterranean fleet, to refuse his 

 consent to any treaty in which it was not stipulated that the Fjviieh 

 army should be considered prisoners of war; and a letter from this 

 admiral reached General Kleber, warning him of his intention to 

 detain any vessel returning to Europe by virtue of a capitulation. 



The French commander made a noble use of the opportunity which 

 was now presented to him of retrieving his military character. Danger 

 revived his energies and roused his courage. He immediately ordered 

 the evacuation of the strongholds to be stopped, and prepared to 

 resume hostilities. In one of those animating proclamations so com- 

 mon iu modern French warfare, he indignantly declared to his soldiers 

 that victory was the only answer to such insolence, and bade them be 

 ready to fight. This appeal to their courage was received by the shouts 

 of the army. On the uight of the 19th of March 1800, Kleber formed 

 his army, which was 12,000 strong, into four squares, with the artillery 

 at the angles and tho cavalry between the intervals; the two squares 

 on the left were commanded by General Regnicr, and those on the 

 right by General Friaut ; tho whole army was drawn up on the plain 

 fronting the ruins of Hcliopoli*. Before them was the Ottoman army, 

 amouutiug to upwards of lorty thousand men ; in their rear was Cairo 

 with its three hundred thousand inhabitants, waiting only the signal 

 of success to join the standard of their faith. The formation of the 

 French had taken place by moonlight ; perfect order and deep silence 

 prevailed throughout the ranks, and every soldier felt that the fate of 

 Klc'ber and of Egypt hung oil tho issue of the contest. A largo body 



