| Naval History of Great Britain - Vol III |
| 1801 |
British and French Fleets - Mediterranean |
102 |
The loss sustained by the British in this last encounter was, on the part of the navy, one midshipman (Mr. Wright) and five seamen killed, and 19 seamen wounded; on the part of the marines, two lieutenants (Paul Hussey and John Linzee Spea), and 22 rank and file killed, one major (William Minto), one captain (Robert Torkington), two lieutenants (Richard Parry * and George Peebles), two sergeants, two drummers, 27 rank and file wounded ; and on the part of the army, six officers, six sergeants, one drummer, 143 rank and file, 21 horses killed, 66 officers, one quartermaster, 61 sergeants, seven drummers, 946 rank and file, five horses wounded, and one rank and file missing; grand total, 186 killed, 1135 wounded, and one missing.
On the 18th of March the castle of Aboukir, mounted with ten guns and two heavy mortars, and garrisoned, the French say, with 300 men under chef de bataillon Vinache, after a bombardment of two days, surrendered on honourable terms to a detachment of the army under Colonel Dalhousie. Whatever may have become of the rest of the garrison, the prisoners taken did not amount to more than 150 officers and men.
On the same day, in an affair of patroles between the cavalry of the two armies, the British sustained a loss of one quartermaster, seven rank and file, and 18 horses killed, one officer, six rank and file, and 12 horses wounded, and one quartermaster, 12 rank and file, and seven horses missing. On the same day, also, a Turkish squadron, of two 74s, four frigates and corvettes, and a few smaller vessels, anchored in Aboukir bay. It was likewise on the same day that Generals Friant and Lanusse despatched a vessel to France, with information of the actual state of the French army: and the commander was directed to look out on his passage for the squadron of M. Ganteaume whose intended arrival the Régénérée had announced, and to inform him of the position of the British fleet. This despatch-vessel appears to have arrived safe at Toulon; but, for the reasons elsewhere stated, she did not, in her way thither, meet M. Ganteaume.
Although it was on the 4th of March that General Menou had become officially apprized of the arrival of the British expedition in the bay of Aboukir, he did not, it appears, set out from the head-quarters at Cairo until the 11th, nor arrive at the camp under the eastern walls of Alexandria before the evening of the 18th. The reinforcement he brought with him augmented the French force at Alexandria, according to the Moniteur, to 14,000 men, exclusive of cavalry, artillery, and guides ; but the French historians say, to only 9730 men, including 1380 cavalry, with
* This gallant officer is the same mentioned in the cutting out of the Mundovi. His wounds might have entitled him to a pension, but the liberality of government was asleep on this occasion.
^ back to top ^ |