Siege of Acre

20 March – 21 May 1799, Acre, Ottoman Syria

British and Ottoman victory; Bonaparte gave up the siege

After conquering Egypt, Bonaparte marched into Syria and laid siege to Acre, the fortress of Djezzar Pasha. Commodore Sir Sidney Smith arrived in time with Tigre and Theseus. His ships caught the French flotilla carrying Bonaparte's heavy siege guns from Egypt, captured most of it, and landed the guns to strengthen the defences, where the French royalist engineer Phélippeaux, Bonaparte's old classmate, turned them against the besiegers. Anchored close inshore, Tigre and Theseus fired into the French trenches, and Smith's seamen and marines helped beat off repeated assaults on the breach. After two months and a last failed assault, Bonaparte gave up and marched back to Egypt. He said later that Smith had made him miss his destiny.