Siege of Acre ( 1799 ) The Siege of Acre ( ) of 1799 was an unsuccessful French siege of the Ottoman - defended , walled city of Acre ( now Akko in modern Israel ) and was the turning point of Napoleon ' s invasion of Egypt and Syria . Background . A site of significant strategic importance due to its commanding position on the route between Egypt and Syria , Bonaparte wanted to capture the key port of Acre following his invasion of Egypt . He hoped to incite a Syrian rebellion against the Ottomans and threaten British rule in India . However after the Siege of Jaffa the defenders of the citadel were even more fierce . The siege . The French attempted to lay siege on 20 March using only their infantry . Napoleon believed the city would capitulate quickly to him . In correspondence with one of his subordinate officers he voiced his conviction that a mere two weeks would be necessary to capture the linchpin of his conquest of the Holy Land before marching on to Jerusalem . However , the troops of the capable Jezzar Pasha , refusing to surrender , withstood the siege for one and a half months . Haim Farhi , al - Jazzar ' s Jewish adviser and right hand man , played a key role in the city ' s defense , directly supervising the battle against the siege . After Napoleon ' s earlier conquest of Jaffa , rampaging French troops had savagely sacked the conquered city , and thousands of Albanian prisoners of war were massacred on the sea - shore , prior to the French move further northwards . These facts were well known to the townspeople and defending troops ( many of them Albanians ) in Acre , and the prospect is likely to have stiffened their resistance . A Royal Navy flotilla under Commodore William Sidney Smith helped to reinforce the Ottoman defences and supplied the city with additional cannon manned by sailors and marines . Smith used his command of the sea to capture the French siege artillery being sent by ship from Egypt and to bombard the coastal road from Jaffa . An artillery expert from the fleet , Antoine DePhelipoux , then redeployed against Napoleon ' s forces the artillery pieces which the British had intercepted . Smith anchored HMS Tigre and Theseus so their broadsides could assist the defence . Repeated French assaults were driven back . On 16 April a Turkish relief force was fought off at the Mount Tabor . By early May , replacement French siege artillery had arrived overland and a breach was forced in the defences . At the culmination of the assault , the besieging forces managed to make a breach in the walls . However , after suffering many casualties to open this entry - point , Napoleon ' s soldiers found , on trying to penetrate the city , that Farhi and DePhelipoux had , in the meantime , built a second wall , several feet deeper within the city where al - Jazzar ' s garden was . Discovery of this new construction convinced Napoleon and his men that the probability of their taking the city was minimal . Moreover , after the assault was again repelled , Turkish reinforcements from Rhodes were able to land . Having underestimated the stubborn attitude of the defending forces combined with a British blockade of French supply harbours and harsh weather conditions , Napoleon ' s forces were left hungry , cold and damp . Plague had struck the French camp as a result of the desperate condition of the men , and had by now led to the deaths of about 2 , 000 soldiers . Throughout the siege , both Napoleon and Jezzar sought in vain the assistance of the Shihab leader , Bashir — ruler of much of present - day Lebanon . Bashir remained neutral . As things turned out , it was the French side which suffered most from the attitude of Bashir , whose intervention on their side might have turned the balance . Finally , the siege was raised . Napoleon Bonaparte retreated two months later on 21 May after a failed final assault on 10 May , and withdrew to Egypt . Significance . In 1805 , Napoleon asserted that if he had : been able to take Acre [ in 1799 ] , I would have put on a turban , I would have made my soldiers wear big Turkish trousers , and I would have exposed them to battle only in case of extreme necessity . I would have made them into a Sacred Battalion - - my Immortals . I would have finished the war against the Turks with Arabic , Greek , and Armenian troops . Instead of a battle in Moravia , I would have won a Battle of Issus , I would have made myself emperor of the East , and I would have returned to Paris by way of Constantinople . The allusions from Classical Antiquity included in the speech are to the Sacred Band of Thebes and the Persian Immortals — elite units of , respectively , the city state of Thebes and the Achaemenid Kings of Persia ; and to the Battle of Issus where Alexander the Great decisively defeated the latter . ( In fact , though Acre was not conquered , Napoleon ' s Imperial Guard did come to be informally called " The Immortals . " ) Some hold that a statement attributed to Napoleon during the war , according to which he promised to return the land to the Jews if he were to succeed in his conquest of Palestine , was meant to capture Farhi ’ s attention and betray his master by switching his support to the French . However , Napoleon never showed any particular interest in winning over the Jews of Palestine during his campaign there , though his account of the military campaign records that a rumour among Syrian Jews had it that after Napoleon took Acre , he would go to Jerusalem and restore Solomon ' s temple and decrees were passed in favour of Jews ( and Coptic Christians and women ) in French - controlled Egypt . Whatever Napoleon ' s actual intentions , these stories and rumors are considered to be among the earliest harbingers of what would become the Zionist Movement . Present - day memory . In present - day Acre , the hill on which Napoleon set his camp , south - east of the city walls of Acre , is still known as " Napoleon ' s Hill " ( גבעת נפוליון ) . Acre also has a Napoleon Bonaparte Street ( רחוב נפוליון בונפרטה ) , the only Israeli city with such a street name . Among the Arab population of the Old City of Acre , the knowledge of their forebears having successfully withstood the barrage of such a world - famous conqueror is a source of civic pride and local patriotism . In a folk tale current among Acre Arabs , Napoleon , upon lifting the siege of Acre , let a cannon shoot his hat into the city " so that at least part of him would enter into Acre " .