The Egyptian Campaign of 1801, Part I
Having lost hope of invading the British Isles, in 1797 the French Directory made a bold attempt to cut off their enemy's East-Indian trade routes. The agent they chose was Napoleon Bonaparte, a brilliant young general, D.G. Chandler writes, already fascinated by the Eastern scene.
“You may depend upon it, there is a certain devil in this army that will carry it through thick and thin. It is the first fair trial between Englishmen and Frenchmen during the whole of this war, and at no former period of our history did John Bull ever hold his enemy cheaper.”
Thus wrote Colonel Paget of the 28th (the Gloucesters) as the storm-bound British Fleet prepared to disembark the British Army on the beaches of Aboukir Bay—March 7th, 1801. At long last Nemesis was about to overtake the French Army that had landed at the very same place four years earlier.
The French Directory had come regretfully to the decision, in 1797, that a direct invasion of the British Isles was beyond their resources. In place of this military undertaking, they had substituted a second plan to undermine British resistance by means of a threat to India and the vital East India trade through Asia Minor.
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