Alexandria (Aboukir)

British and Ottoman victory over French forces in Egypt on 21 March 1801. Following the breakdown of Franco‐British negotiations for the evacuation of Egypt, French forces defeated an Ottoman army at Heliopolis on 20 March 1800, quickly re‐establishing their control of the country. The French commander Jean‐Baptiste Kléber was assassinated on 14 June, and was succeeded by Abd Allah Jacques Menou, a former French nobleman who had converted to Islam.

Some 5,000 British troops under Sir Ralph Abercromby landed at Aboukir 8 March 1801 to support an Ottoman advance from Syria, in the face of determined French resistance. Before dawn on 21 March, French cavalry and infantry launched a fierce attack on the combined British‐Ottoman army. After heavy fighting, in which Abercromby was mortally wounded, the French were driven back into Alexandria. Menou surrendered in September, bringing French occupation of Egypt to an end.